Chapter 12 Chapter Four: The Truth of Consciousness’s Self-Determinacy

Each of the preceding and preceding modes of certainty has its truth for consciousness to be something other than consciousness itself.But the concept of this truth disappears in the process of our experience and realization of it.Insofar as the object is immediately in itself—whether this object is a concrete thing of sensuous certainty, being-perception, or a force of the understanding— Rather it is shown as not really being, and this in-itself proves itself only as a way of being for something else; Said, the first immediate idea sublates itself in the process of experiencing it, knowing it; and this certainty disappears itself in truth.But now what did not occur at the previous stages, now we have arrived at a certainty which is identical with its truth; for certainty itself is its own object, and Consciousness itself is truth.Undoubtedly there is also something else in it; for consciousness distinguishes something which is at the same time indistinguishable from it.If we call the movement of knowledge the concept, and the knowledge which is the static unity or self the object, we shall see that the object corresponds to the concept, not only with respect to us, but with respect to knowledge itself.Or, to put it another way, if we call the object in itself the concept, and that which is opposed to the subject or exists for an other, then it is clear that being in itself and being for something else are are identical; for that which is in itself is consciousness; and consciousness is likewise that for which an other (i.e., something in itself) exists; and only for consciousness is the object in itself and the object for other Being is the same; the ego is the content of this relation and is the over-relationship itself; the ego is the ego itself in opposition to and subsumes an other which is also seen by the ego as nothing but itself.

Arriving at self-awareness and we are now in the kingdom of truth itself.We shall see how the shape of self-consciousness first emerged.If we examine this new form of knowledge, that is, knowledge of ourselves, in relation to the previous kind of knowledge, that is, knowledge of an other, then it can be said that the knowledge of the other has disappeared, but this At the same time, the various links of this kind of knowledge are still preserved, and the loss is that they are only potentially present here.The mere existence of the signified stage, the individuality of the perceptional stage and its opposite universality, and the empty inner world of the object of the understanding are no longer regarded as essences, but only as moments of self-consciousness, which is That is to say, as abstract or differentiated things, these things are at the same time non-existent or undifferentiated and simply disappearing things for consciousness itself.From this it appears that only the essential moment itself, the simple independent permanence of consciousness, has lost its existence.But in fact, self-consciousness is reflected from the existence of the sensuous and perceptual world, and, in essence, returns from the other.As self-consciousness it is movement; but since it only distinguishes itself from itself, this difference to self-consciousness as an other is immediately sublated; there is no difference, self-consciousness is only "I am I" The static tautology of ; for difference is not self-consciousness if it also does not have the modality of being for self-consciousness.For self-consciousness, therefore, the other is also taken as a being, or as a moment of difference.But the unity of self-consciousness itself with this differential moment is also for it a second differential moment.Insofar as it has the first moment, self-consciousness is consciousness, and the whole range of the sensible world is kept as its object, but at the same time only as a connection to the second moment, the unity of consciousness with itself.Therefore, the perceptual world is persistent for self-consciousness, but it is only a phenomenon or different from self-consciousness, and has no existence and things in itself.But this antithesis of this phenomenon of self-consciousness to truth has only truth, that is, the unity of self-consciousness and itself, as its essence.Self-consciousness must be essentially this unity, that is to say, self-consciousness is desire in general.Consciousness, as self-consciousness, has here a double object: one is the immediate object of sensation and perception, which from the point of view of self-consciousness bears the mark of a negative character, and the other is consciousness itself, which is A true essence consists first of all only in having a first object opposed to it.Self-consciousness is shown here as a movement in which its opposition to its object is sublated and its identity or unity with itself is established.

But the object which is negated to self-consciousness returns to itself, or to us, on its part, just as consciousness, on the other hand, returns to itself. Through this return to itself, the object becomes life.Nor does that which is perceived by self-consciousness as being different from itself, in so far as it is posited to be, not only have sensuous certainty and forms of perception in it, but it also returns to itself. Existence, and the object of that immediate desire is life.For the true nature or general result of the relation of the understanding to the inner nature of things is the distinction of the indistinguishable, that is, the unity of the different.

This unity, as we have seen, is likewise the self's repulsion of itself; and the concept is thus split into the opposition of self-consciousness and life: the former is the unity for which the infinite unity of differences exists; The other is only this [infinite] unity itself, so that this unity does not exist for itself at the same time.So as much independence as consciousness has, so much is its object itself.A self-consciousness that exists absolutely for itself immediately endows its object with a negative character, or, if self-consciousness is primarily desire, it experiences the independence of its object.

The determination of life, as we have derived it from the concept or general conclusions of life when we entered this stage, has already fully demonstrated its nature and needs no further development.The development process of life includes the following links.Its essence is the infinity that sublates all differences, the pure self-rotating movement, the self-rest of the infinity as absolutely restless, the independence itself in which the different moments of the movement dissolve their differences, is The simple essence of time, which in this self-identity has the solid shape of space.But these differences also retain their differences in this simple universal medium, because this universal fluidity has a negative nature only because it is the sublation of differences.But if it has no persistence, it cannot sublate those differences.This fluidity, as self-equal independence, is itself the subsistence or substance of the different moments, in which they are thus different articulations and parts with being-for-itself.Here, their existence is no longer the existence of abstract meaning, and their individual links, their pure essence, do not have the meaning of abstract universality; on the contrary, their existence is the simple flowing entities.However, the mutual difference of these joints as a difference does not generally contain any other determination, but only the infinite links or the determination of the pure movement itself.

These independent articulations are each for itself; but this being-for-itself is equally immediately their return to unity and the splitting of unity into two independent shapes.This unity is split in two, because it is the absolutely negative or infinite unity; and because it is substantive, difference has independence only in it.This independence of each form seems to be a specific thing for others, because they are separated, and because the sublation of this duality can only be realized through other things.But this sublation is still equally within itself; for that fluidity is the substance of the separate forms; but this substance is infinite; therefore the forms, in their persistence, contain division. Or the sublation of their being-for-itself.

If we make a more precise distinction between the links involved here, we can see that in the first stage we obtain the persistence of the individual forms, or the suppression of the quality of the differences themselves, that is, the inability of the forms. Freedom, the overcoming of non-persistence.But the second stage is that persistence of the various forms is overcome under the infinity of difference.In the first stage, the remaining form: the infinite substance as being-for-itself or in its determination, comes out against the universal substance, which it denies its fluidity and its unity with. and insists that it does not dissolve itself in this universal substance, but seeks to maintain itself by detaching itself from its inorganic nature and by consuming it.Life silently unfolds and forms its various links in this universal flowing medium, and it is through this process that it becomes the movement of these many links or forms or transitions to life as a process.This simple universal fluidity is the thing-in-itself, and the differentiated forms are the thing-in-itself.But this mobility itself will become other-being through this difference, because it is now for that difference, which itself is a thing for itself, and thus infinite movement (the static medium is consumed by this infinite movement),—that is, life as a living process. — But this process of inversion is thus the inversion itself (of things); what is consumed is the essence, individuality, which sacrifices the universal to preserve itself and acquires a The feeling of unity in itself, by this means it dissolves its antagonism to its other, and is itself only through its other.The unity that individuality achieves with itself is precisely the fluidity or universal dissolution of differences.

But, on the contrary, the sublation of the substantiveness of the individual is the creation of the persistence of the individual.For since the essence of the particular form, the universal life, and that which exists for itself is itself simple substance, when the individual form sublates the simple substance which establishes the other in itself or sublates its essence When , this means that it splits that simple substantiality, and this split of undifferentiated fluidity is the establishment of individuality.This simple substantiality of life is thus the splitting of itself into forms and at the same time the dissolution of these remaining differences; and the dissolution of the splitting process is likewise a process of splitting or dismemberment.In this way, the two aspects of the whole movement that are distinguished, the forms and the process of life that are still juxtaposed to each other in an independent universal medium, become one.The latter—the process of life—is certainly a process of sublating individual forms, but it is also a process of forming individual forms; the former is certainly a process of distinguishing individual forms, but it is also a process of sublating individual forms.The fluid, continuous element itself is only an abstraction of essence, in other words, it is real only as a form; when it differentiates itself, it is the splitting or dissolution of those differentiated moments.This whole circular course constitutes life, which is neither, as originally expressed, the immediate continuity and solidity of its essence, nor separate forms which persist and exist for themselves, Nor is it the pure process of these separate forms, much less the simple union of these moments.Life develops itself, dissolves its development, and in this movement simply maintains its wholeness.

Since we proceed from the first immediate unity, through the moments of formation and motion to the unity of these two moments, and then return to the first simple substance, this returned unity is different from the first of unity.This second unity, as opposed to the immediate one, or as an already expressed being, is a universal unity which contains within it all these moments as sublated elements.It is a simple species, and this species does not exist independently as such a simple species in the movement of life itself; rather, in this result, life points to something other than itself, that is, to consciousness, For conscious life exists as this unity or class.

But this other life (to which the species itself exists, which itself is the species, i.e., self-consciousness), exists at first only as this simple essence, and has pure self as object; in its experience (This experience is what we are now considering.) This abstract object will be richer for it, and will have a kind of development, as we see in life. The simple ego is the species or simple universal, for which no distinction exists, but because it is the negated essence of the independent moments formed; self-consciousness can only be achieved by sublating its other (the other). For it is shown to be an independent life) to be sure of its own existence; self-consciousness is desire.The conviction of the other's non-existence, which affirms its non-existence itself is the truth of the other, annihilates the independently existing object and thus gives itself the certainty which, as a real certainty, has already been objectively realized for it.

But in this satisfaction of self-consciousness it experiences the independence of its object.Desire and the certainty of oneself which is achieved by the satisfaction of desires are conditioned by the existence of the object, since certainty of oneself is achieved by sublating the other; in order to sublate the other, there must be the existence of the other.Therefore self-consciousness cannot sublate the object through its negative relation to it; rather, it produces the object and desire again from this relation.The object of desire is in fact different from self-consciousness, the essence of desire; through this experience self-consciousness realizes this truth.But at the same time, self-consciousness is still absolutely for-itself, and it can obtain absolute being-for-itself only by sublating the object, and its satisfaction must be based on the sublation of the object, because this is the truth.Owing to the independence of the object, self-consciousness can be satisfied only when the object itself negates itself; the object must negate itself, because it is potentially negative, and it must serve as a negative for the other. and exist.Since the object itself is negative, it is at the same time independent, so it is consciousness. As far as the object of desire is concerned, negation either comes from an opposite, that is, from desire, or it is in a specific form opposed to another unrelated form, or it is from the inorganic universal nature of life. form to deny life.But this universal independent nature, in which negation is absolute, is the species itself or the species as self-consciousness.Self-consciousness finds its satisfaction only in an other self-consciousness. The concept of self-consciousness is first completed in these three moments: (a) The pure and undifferentiated self is its first and immediate object. (b) But this immediacy is itself absolute indirectness, and it exists only by sublating the self-subsisting object, in other words, it is desire.The satisfaction of desire is indeed the return of self-consciousness to itself, or the conviction of self-consciousness that it has become [objective] truth. (c) But its assured truth is actually a double reflection or doubled self-consciousness.Consciousness possesses an object which itself presupposes its opposite or difference as non-existent, and thus is itself independent.This difference can only be a living form. It is true that in the process of life itself, its independent self-existence must be sublated, but it and its difference are no longer the same; and the object of self-consciousness It is also independent in this own negativity; it is thus itself a species, a universal fluidity or continuity in its own uniqueness of independent existence; it is a living self-consciousness. The issue here is one ego versus one ego.In this way it is real self-consciousness; for here for the first time self-consciousness becomes the unity of itself and its other; the self which was the object of its concept is now in fact no object (i.e. is not its opposite phenomenon]; but the object of desire is independent only because it is universal and indelible.Since a self-consciousness is an object, it is both a self and an object. ——Speaking of which, the concept of spirit has appeared before us.What consciousness has to grasp further is the experience of what spirit is, that absolute entity which, in the full freedom and independence of its opposites, that is, in the distinct and independently existing self-consciousness , exist as their unity: I am we, and we are me.It is in self-consciousness, that is to say, in the concept of spirit, that consciousness first finds its turning point, at which point it emerges from the colorful illusions of the sensual world beyond and from the empty space of the supersensible beyond. Step out of the dark night into the broad daylight of the spirit of the present world.