Chapter 19 (a) Observations on Nature III.view nature as an organic whole

1.Organization of inorganic substances: specific gravity, cohesion, number When examining organic matter, only the form is examined externally, and the internal aspects of the form are only examined internally. This method of investigation is in fact no longer an investigation of organic matter.For the two aspects which should have a mutual relation are only assumed to be independent of each other, so that the self-reflection which constitutes the essence of organic matter is sublated.What we have to do here is rather to apply the tried-and-true comparison of inner and outer to inorganic matter; No longer has its objective presentation as in organic matter.

Therefore, this inner-external relationship should also be examined in its own field. First, the inner aspect of the image of an organic substance, which in the case of an inorganic substance is simple individuality: specific gravity.As a simple existence, specific gravity can be observed like its unique definiteness and number, or more specifically, it can be found through observation and comparison, so it seems to constitute an aspect of the law. And shape, color, hardness, tenacity, and countless other qualities will together constitute the outer aspect of law, as the inner regularity, the outer expression of number, so that the two aspects can be mirror images of each other.

But since negativity is understood here not as process or movement, but as static unity or simple being-for-itself, this negativity appears rather as that by which things rebel against movement and by which And keeps itself to itself, indifferent to the process of movement.But since this single being-for-itself is a static thing indifferent to other beings-for-itself, proportion then becomes a property that exists simultaneously with other properties; All necessary relations or all regularities also cease to exist. —As such a single immanence, the specific gravity has no difference in itself, or it has only non-essential differences; because its pure unity cancels all essential differences.Therefore, this non-essential difference, that is, quantity or magnitude, must establish its reflection or other in the other, that is, in the multiplicity of other attributes, in order to be thus a difference.If this multiplicity is itself determined in its synthesis as the unity of opposites, or cohesion, and thus this cohesion becomes being-for-itself in others, as specific gravity is pure being-for-itself, then, first, this Cohesion is different from the previous one, which is pure and established in the concept, and the method of establishing the law will therefore be the one already mentioned in the previous discussion of the relationship between receptivity and excitability. Method. —Secondly, in this case, the concept of this cohesion as being-for-itself in something else is only an abstraction of the opposite aspect, which has no existence in itself.For being-for-itself in something else is the process in which the inorganic substance expresses its being-for-itself as a self-preservation by which it does not become a part of the process. product.But this is precisely against the nature of inorganic matter, which has no purpose or universality in its nature.Its process is rather only its being-for-itself, the definite act by which its proportion sublates itself.And the specific act in which its cohesion achieves its real concept and the specific magnitude or quantity of its proportion are two completely separate concepts.If we consider the idea of ​​quantity without regard to the kind of action altogether, we may perhaps think of, for example, the determination that, as a higher being-in-itself, the greater proportion refuses to participate in the process more than the lesser proportion.But on the contrary, freedom for itself can relate to all things only in lightness and maintain itself in the multiplicity of things.An extension with only an intension and no relation is an abstraction without content, since the extension constitutes the existence (or actual existence) of the intension.But the self-preservation of the inorganic matter in its relationship, as mentioned above, is not the nature of self-preservation, because the inorganic matter itself has no principle of motion, or the existence of the inorganic matter is not an absolute negativity and concept.

Conversely, if this aspect of inorganic matter is not regarded as a process of [motion] but as a fixed and unchanging existence, then this aspect is what is commonly called cohesion.Cohesion is a single perceptual quality, and its counterpart is a loose link, which is dispersed into many independent qualities or attributes, and belongs to cohesion like proportion; Coherent attributes combine to form cohesive counterparts.But here, as elsewhere, number is the only determination, which, far from expressing the mutual relation and transition of these attributes, expresses precisely the absence of any necessary relation at all, which, according to its nature, it It represents the elimination of all stipulations, because the stipulations it represents are non-essential stipulations.It may be said, therefore, that a series of bodies differing from each other by a numerical difference in their specific gravity, and another series of bodies differing by a difference in their properties, are by no means mutually exclusive. In parallel, even if only one or two of them are selected in order to simplify things, the situation does not change.Because in fact, what constitutes the other side of this parallel can only be the attributes of this whole bundle.In order to arrange the whole bunch neatly and connect them into a single whole, the observing consciousness can readily obtain the stipulations of these attributes in varying quantities, but this is on the one hand, and on the other hand, their differences also manifest qualitative difference.Now, in this mass, that which should be called affirmative or negative and which sublates each other—generally refers to the densely combined inner composition and outer development of the formula,—

It belongs to the concept; and the concept is excluded by just the same way by which it is regarded as a mere being through properties.In this existence, no attribute has the negation of other attributes: each attribute exists as well as other attributes, and it does not indicate its position in the internal composition of the whole in any other way. ——In a series arranged according to parallel differences (let us imagine that the relationship is that both aspects increase at the same time or only one side increases while the other decreases), the important expression is only this aggregate, that is, one aspect of the constitutional law ends with The last simple expression of the whole as opposed to specific gravity.But this side, so far as it exists, is nothing more than the individual property already mentioned; , and many other disparate attributes, including proportions, each of which is equally entitled, or equally completely disenfranchised, to be elected representative of the whole other side, each Each only represents its essence, in German terms, merely presents the essence, not the thing itself.The former attempt, therefore, to discover series of bodies whose two aspects proceed in parallel, and to express the nature of the bodies according to a law which includes both, must be regarded as an inappropriate The idea of ​​knowing its own task and the means of attaining it.

2.Organization of organic matter: genus, species, unity, individual Earlier we have immediately transferred or applied the relationship between the internal and external aspects of the organic form presented to the observing consciousness to the scope of inorganic matter.We can now explain in some detail the reason for this, and thus see another form of this relation.In organic matter there is nothing at all that seems to permit such a comparison of internal and external relations as in inorganic matter.The interior of inorganic matter is a simple interior, which appears to the perception as an existing attribute, so its determinateness is essentially quantity or size. As an existing attribute, it is different from the external or many other Perceptual properties are independent of each other.But the being-for-itself of organic matter does not thus appear opposite to its exterior, but contains within itself the principle of the other or the other.If we define being-for-itself as the self-relation that simply preserves itself unchanged (einf ache sic her halt ende Beziehungaufsichselbst), then its other or opposite is simply negativity, and the unity of organic matter is self-preservation The unity of unchanging self-relationship and simple negativity.This unity, so far as it is a unity, is the interior of the organic, which is therefore universal in itself, or it is therefore the genus.The species has freedom with respect to its reality, and the specific gravity has freedom with respect to the form, but the two freedoms are different.The freedom of specific gravity to form is an existing freedom, or in other words, it stands on one side as a special attribute.But because it is freedom that exists, it is also only a determination that belongs essentially to this form, in other words, it is a determination of this form as essence and therefore a determinate essence.But the freedom of the species is a universal freedom which has nothing to do with this form or its reality.Hence the determinate property of the inorganic substance's being-for-itself is ascribed to the inorganic substance only to its existence, while to the organic substance it is attributed to its being-for-itself.Therefore, although determination in inorganic matter is at the same time only a property, it still has the status of essence, because it is opposed to the actual being as being-for-other as a simple negation, and this simple negation A thing is, after all, a number in its final individual determination.But organic matter is an individuality, which is itself pure negativity, and thus has eliminated from itself the fixed numerical determination, which belongs to indifferent existence.Therefore, as long as the organic matter contains in itself the indifferent moments of existence and thus number, number can only be regarded as an accidental thing in it and not as the essence of its life.

But now, although we have shown that pure negativity, that is, the principle of process, is not inferior to organic matter, and have shown that organic matter does not regard pure negativity as a determination in its essence, but that individuality itself is inherently universal. But this pure individuality is not itself developed and actual in organic matter, because its moments always seem abstract or universal.On the contrary, this developed moment appears outside the universality that regresses into immanence; and what lies between the actual or form, that is, the individuality that develops itself, and the organic universal or generic is the determined Universality, this regulated universality is the species.The being attained by the negativity of the universal or the generic is only the fully developed movement of a process prevailing in the different parts of the organic form of being.If the genus in itself, simplicity as rest, already has different parts, if its simple negativity is therefore itself at the same time movement, that prevailing universality which is both simple and immediately in itself. The movement between those parts, which are the links which are here realized to be, then the organic species is consciousness.But even so, the simple determination, as the determination of the species, appears in the generic in a thoughtless manner; the concrete reality begins with the generic, in other words, in the concrete reality What appears is not the category itself, that is to say, not thought at all.This genus, as the actual organic, is represented only by an agent.But this representative, here the number, seems to indicate the transition from the generic to the individual form, and presents to observation the two aspects of necessity, sometimes as simple determinations, sometimes as It appears as a fully developed complex and diverse form, but this representative, this number, in fact indicates rather the independence and independent freedom between the universal and the individual; Subject to insubstantial quantitative differences, individuality itself, as a living thing, shows itself to be independent of this quantitative difference.The real universality, according to its determined situation, is only the inner essence here; as the determinate universality of the species, it is the universality of the form, facing the universality of the form, the real universality is on the side of individuality; in this way individuality becomes a living individuality, and by virtue of its inner nature it exalts itself regardless of its determination as a species.But this living individuality is not at the same time a universal individuality, that is to say, the universal individuality in which the universality is likewise externally realized, and the universal individuality is subordinate to the organic living individuality. beyond the individual.But this universal individual, in so far as it is directly an individual in the image of nature, is not consciousness itself; if it were consciousness, its actual existence, as an individual organic living It's out.

3.life, contingent reason We thus see a syllogism, one of which is the universal life as universal or genus, and the other of which is universal life as particular or universal individual; What is synthesized: the former participates in the middle term as a determinate universality or as a species, the latter participates in the middle term as a unique or individual individuality. —And since the whole of this inference is of organic form, it likewise contains what is distinguished as inorganic. Now, since the simple essence of life in general as a genus develops conceptual differences from itself and must express these differences as a series of simple determinates, this series is a system of unrelated differences. , or a series of numbers.If the organic in the form of its individuality was confronted before with this insubstantial difference which neither expresses nor contains organic qualities, if, in terms of its whole concrete existence, which develops out of its many attributes, Considering that it must be admitted that the same is the case with inorganic substances, it is now the universal individual that must be considered, which is not only completely free of genus differentiation, but is also a power over genus.The genus either differentiates itself into species according to the universal determination of number, or it differentiates according to the individual determinations of its actual existence, such as shape, color, etc.But while it goes about its business quietly, it is subjected to violence from the universal entity, the side of the earth.The universal individual, as universal negativity, establishes the differences that are inherent in the earth—which are different in nature from the nature of the generic differences in terms of the substance to which they belong—and The process of systematizing these differences prevails over the genus, so that this business of the genus is so restricted that it can carry on its business only within those powerful elements, and by the force of the elements Its systematizing work is interrupted and incomplete everywhere.

Because of the above, in organic actual existence all that can be observed is reason as life in general, and life in general, in the process of differentiation, does not actually contain rational arrangement and organization, and is not an entity in its divisions. The morphological system built in itself. —If the middle term in the syllogism of the organic form, that is, the middle term in which the species and the realization of the species fall into individual individuality, has in itself the two terms of inner universality and universal individuality, then the The middle term would then have the appearance and quality of universality in its actualizing movement, would be that developmental movement which systematizes itself. —Consciousness thus regards the ideological system as the middle term between the universal spirit and its individual or sensual consciousness, and this middle term, this ideological system, as the sequential whole of spiritual life, is the The system to be examined in the book; because, as world history, it has its objective existence.But organic matter has no history, it falls directly from its universality, its life, into the individuality of concrete existence; and in this realization, the simple determinative moment and the individual animate moment united The resulting change of generation is only an accidental movement in which each part moves in its own place while the whole remains unchanged; but this activity is for itself only What is confined to its own fixed point, because there is no whole in its fixed point, and the whole is not in it, because it does not exist here as a whole for itself.

The observing reason, therefore, in looking at organic matter, sees in fact only reason itself as universal life; Differentiated systems, the stipulations and essences of these systems do not exist in the organic matter itself, but in the universal individual, the earth; and in these differences of the earth, the reason why it can intuitively perceive the development and realization of this universal life , and entirely because it follows the series which the genus attempts to establish. Since the universality of organic life does not have any mediation in its actualization that really exists for itself, but allows itself to descend directly to the other extreme, individuality, what the observing consciousness observes is only is a meaning;

And even if reason has the leisure to observe signification, it is limited to describing and recording this kind of signification about nature.It is true that this supposed spiritless freedom will appear here and there as germs of law, signs of necessity, symptoms of order and series, and very interesting superficial relations; For example, in the relationship between elements, regions, climate, etc., what can be observed can not be called laws and inevitability, but only the so-called huge influence.In the same way, on the other hand, when individuality has not the meaning of the earth but the meaning of the one inherent in organic life (this one, of course, is directly united with the universal and constitutes a genus, but because of this, its simple Unity is defined only as numbers, and all qualitative phenomena disappear), and all that observation can achieve is to find some witty opinions, interesting connections, and some kind of concept-friendly catering.But witty opinion is not necessary knowledge, and interesting associations are only interesting after all, and do not go beyond interest, and interest is only a rational signification. An innocent friendliness, if it has any value in its own right and for itself, it is not too naive, but too childish.