Chapter 22 2. Rational self-consciousness is realized through its own activities

Self-consciousness discovers that the thing is it, that it is the thing; that is to say, it becomes conscious of the fact that it is itself objective reality.Self-consciousness is no longer the immediate certainty which affirms itself to be all reality, but a certainty for which the immediate generally assumes the form of a superseded, so that this The objectivity (or objectivity) of this immediate thing is only a surface, and its inner and essence is self-consciousness itself. —— The object with which self-consciousness is actively related is therefore self-consciousness; this object is thinglike, that is to say, independent; but self-consciousness is sure that this independent object is not foreign to it. thing, which thus knows itself to be what the object recognizes; it is therefore a spirit which has the certainty of its unity with itself in the duality of its self-consciousness and In the independence of two senses of self.

Now, this certainty for which it should be elevated to truth; for it is valid the fact that self-consciousness is in itself and in its inner certainty, should now enter into its consciousness, should become for it . Ⅰ.The vertical movement of self-consciousness; the ethical world What the general stages of this realization will look like, generally speaking, it is only necessary to compare the roads it has traveled before.The previously observing reason, which repeated the movement of consciousness in the elements of the categories: sense certainty, perception and understanding, will now also pass again from independence to its freedom through the double movement of self-consciousness.First, this reason in action, conscious of itself only as an individual, and as an individual it must claim and produce its reality in other individuals; becomes universal reason, and is aware of itself as reason, of that which has been recognized in its own right, and which in its pure consciousness unites all selves. consciousness.The individual is the single spiritual essence, and since it is at the same time consciousness, it is the real substance to which the former forms return; The individual moments of the development of the primordial process, which separate from each other and assume their own form, are in fact mere actual beings and realities supported by the entity; attain their truth.

If we consider this ultimate goal in its reality—this goal is the concept that has come before us, that is, the concept that acquires its own certainty in another free self-consciousness, and precisely in The admitted self-consciousness which has acquired its truth in this other free self-consciousness—or, if we present this inner and not yet manifested spirit as a substance which has developed into concrete existence, then we It will be seen that in this concept, an ethical world is unfolded.For ethics is nothing but the absolute spiritual unity of the essences of each individual in their independent reality, a universal self-consciousness of itself; this universal self-consciousness is aware of its reality in another consciousness as follows: As for this other consciousness has complete independence, or becomes an independent thing to it, and it is in this complete independence that the universal self-consciousness becomes aware of its unity with the other consciousness.It is self-conscious only in this unity of itself with this objective essence.This ethical entity, in the general abstraction, is just the law of thinking, but it is also directly the real self-consciousness, or in other words, it is the etiquette and customs.Conversely, the individual consciousness, when it realizes in its individuality that the universal consciousness is its own existence, when its actions and actual existence are the universal customs, is only a part of this existence. That's all.

In fact, the notion of the rational realization of self-consciousness—the rational realization of self-consciousness, that is, the complete unity with which it perceives itself in the independence of another consciousness, or that it will This free thingness of what comes before me ready-made and which is my own negation, as my being for me, as my object, is to be found in the life of a nation. Its finished reality.Reason appears as fluid, universal substance, as unchanging, simple thingness.This thingness is like the dispersion of light into innumerable luminous bodies, stars, into many completely independent beings, and these independent beings dissolve not only for themselves, but for themselves in simple, independent entities.They realize that they are these individual independent beings because they have sacrificed their individuality to take this universal substance as their soul and essence; the actions of things or the undertakings they create.

The purely individual actions and acts of the individual are related to the individual as a natural thing.That is, the various needs of individuality as an existence are related; if even its most ordinary functions are not empty, but have their reality, then this is due to the universal stability. media, that is, the strength of the entire nation. —However, in the universal substance the individual acquires not only this enduring form of its action in general, but also its enduring content; what one individual does is the enduring content of all Universal common skills and ethics.The individual's action content, when fully individualized, intersects in its reality all individual actions.The labor of an individual to satisfy his own needs is the satisfaction of his own needs as well as the satisfaction of the needs of other individuals, and the satisfaction of an individual's needs can only be achieved through the labor of other individuals Purpose. —The individual man, in his individual labor, performs a general labor unconsciously or unconsciously, so he also performs a general labor in addition as his own conscious object. ; thus the whole becomes the whole of the cause to which he has devoted himself, and he recovers himself from this whole precisely by giving himself in this way. ——Here, the so-called whole is not something that seems to be opposite and complementary. In the whole, the independence of the individual is not in the dissolution of its self-existence, in its own negation, it does not give itself a positive meaning, that is, That is to say, it is not unsure that it exists for itself.This unity of being (or transformation into things) and being-for-itself, this universal substance, speaks its universal language in the customs and laws of a people; It is nothing but the verbal expression of the individual individuality itself, as if opposed to the universal substance.The law expresses the reason why each individual is an individual and what he does; the individual not only knows the law as its own universal objective thingness, but also knows itself in the thingness, or as an individuated thingness, it also knows itself in its own individuality and in each of its fellow beings.In the universal spirit, therefore, each has only his own certainty, that is to say, he is certain that he finds nothing but himself in the reality of being; Know others that way. —I see in all men that they are for themselves only these independent beings, as I am an independent being; I see in them my free unity with others as follows: This unity exists both through me and through others themselves;—I perceive them for me and I for them.

In a free people reason is thus truly realized.It is now a living, living spirit in which the individual not only finds its determination or mission expressed and existing as thingness or its universal and particular essence, but itself has already It is this essence that has also fulfilled its stipulation or fulfilled its mission.Therefore, the wisest people in ancient times once created a maxim saying: Wisdom and virtue lie in living in accordance with the ethics and customs of one's own nation. Ⅱ.The reverse movement of self-awareness; the moral world But self-consciousness, which at first was directly spiritual only in concept, has now come out of the good fortune that it has attained its stipulations and lived according to them; or, we might say, self-consciousness Such luck has not been achieved at all; for both versions are equally valid.

Reason must come out of this luck.For the life of a free people is only in itself or directly the real ethics.In other words, the real ethics is an existing ethics, so the universal spirit itself is also an individual spirit, and the whole of ethics and law is a specific ethical entity.A given ethical entity breaks its limits only in a higher moment, in the consciousness of its own essence, and only in this knowledge, and not directly in its being, does it acquire its truthfulness.On the one hand, in its existence, it is a limited ethical entity, on the other hand, the meaning of absolute limitation is just that: the spirit here has the form of being.

Therefore, going further, the individual consciousness, since it directly takes the real ethics, that is, the life of the nation, as its existence, is an individual consciousness with solid confidence.The spirit has not yet dissolved itself into its abstract moments through this confidence, and the individual consciousness has not yet thought of itself as a pure individuality for itself.But when the individual consciousness has this thought, it must have this thought, then its direct unity with the spirit or its existence in the spirit, its confidence, is completely lost.At this point, the individual consciousness is isolated for itself, it is its own essence, and the universal spirit is no longer its essence.This individual moment of self-consciousness is, of course, present in the universal spirit itself, but there it is only a non-sustainable quantity which, as soon as it appears for itself, dissolves in this spirit at once, and It just comes into consciousness as confidence.Since the individual link of self-consciousness is fixed in this way (in fact, any link, since it is an essential link, must achieve the ability to express itself as essence), the individual is further opposed to law and ethics.Law and ethics are then regarded as mere thought without absolute essence, an abstract theory without reality; but the individual, as this particular I, is for itself a living truth.

Or, we can also say that self-consciousness has not yet attained the luck that it is an ethical entity, the spirit of a nation.For, returning to itself from observation, spirit is not immediately realized as spirit through its own activity, it is only posited as immanent, that is, as abstract. — Or, the spirit exists directly at first.But because it exists directly, it is individual.It is practical consciousness which enters into the world it finds ready-made with the aim of doubling itself in the determination of individuality, that is to say, it wants to create itself both as this individuality and as its own. The corresponding object that exists, and wants to be aware of this unity of its own reality and the objective world.Practical consciousness has certainty about this unity.It thinks that this unity, its own identity with thingness, is already there, but it still sees it as realizing it through itself, or that it creates this unity at the same time as it seeks it. obtain this unity.Since this unity is also called luck, the individual is sent, so to speak, from its spirit into the world to find its luck.

Therefore, if for us the truth of this rational self-consciousness is the ethical substance, then for this self-consciousness here is only the beginning of its ethical world experience.From the point of view that rational self-consciousness has not yet become an ethical entity, this movement is advancing toward an ethical entity; and what is sublated in this movement are those individual links that self-consciousness considers to be valid in isolation.They are like an immediate will or natural impulse which is satisfied and which in turn becomes the content of a new impulse. —But if, on the other hand, self-consciousness is considered to have lost the good fortune of its substantive existence, then these natural impulses are related to the consciousness of their purpose, which is their true mission, determination, and essence.The ethical substance then descends into an unclaimed predicate whose living subjects are those individuals who have yet to fulfill their universality through themselves and must fulfill their mission by themselves. —Then in the former sense, these forms of consciousness are the process of formation or realization of the ethical entity, they go before the ethical entity; in the latter sense, they follow the ethical entity and reveal it to self-consciousness What is its mission or regulation.According to the former aspect, natural impulses lose their immediacy or simplicity in the course of their movement to reveal their truth to consciousness, and their content passes into a higher content.But according to the latter aspect, what is lost is the false representation of consciousness which placed its own determinations in the natural impulses.According to the former, the object they strive for is the immediate ethical entity, but according to the latter, the object is the consciousness of this entity in such a way that it is aware that this ethical entity is itself. and in this sense, this movement should be said to be the process of forming or realizing morality. The so-called morality is an ideology higher than ethics.At the same time, however, these forms constitute only one aspect of moral formation, that is, that which belongs to being-for-itself, or in which consciousness sublates its purpose; they do not constitute the other aspect of moral formation, that is, that which That side of it that emerges independently of the ethical entity.Since these moments have not yet acquired the meaning of those ends which are regarded as opposed to the lost ethics, they are valid here simply because of their naive content; and the goal they aim at is the ethical substance.But since the forms in which these moments appear after consciousness has lost its ethical life are closer to our time, and since it is precisely those forms which consciousness repeats in its search for its ethical life, these moments are It should be more possible to represent it according to the latter statement.

Self-consciousness is first of all only the concept of spirit, and it takes this path with the determination that, as individual spirit, it is its own essence; its purpose is therefore: to realize itself as individual consciousness and Enjoy yourself as individual consciousness in this realization. As a being-for-itself, self-consciousness is essence to itself.Self-consciousness under such a determination is the negativity of the other.In its consciousness, therefore, self-consciousness itself, as a certainty, comes out in opposition to a thing which exists, but which self-consciousness does not consider to be a being-in-itself; In the reality of reality, it appears in the purpose, and the purpose is the reality that consciousness seeks to achieve through the sublation of reality. It is not a ready-made reality, but it is to be made into a reality.But the first purpose of self-consciousness is to intuit its immediate abstract being-for-itself, in other words, to intuit this individual self-consciousness itself in another self-consciousness, or in another self-consciousness. A self-consciousness is itself.The experience of knowing the truth of this purpose heightens self-consciousness, which is henceforth itself an end, since it is at the same time universal self-consciousness and has law directly within itself.But in exercising its inner law, it experiences that the individual essence cannot be preserved at the same time, that the good can be practiced only through the sacrifice of the individual essence; and self-consciousness then becomes a virtue.The experience gained by virtue can only make it realize that its end is already fulfilled, that the pleasure is immediately in the action itself, and that the action itself is the good.The conception of this whole field, that of thingness as the being-for-itself of spirit itself, now becomes a fact for self-consciousness.Now that self-consciousness has found this concept, it is aware of itself as reality, as its own individuality directly expressing itself; this individuality is no longer resisted by an opposing reality, only This self-expression is itself the object and the end.