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1Sfirit 433 become established, our reflection may briefly recall them in this connexion : they were consciousness, selfconsciousness, and reason. Spirit is thus Consciousness in general, which contains sense- experience, perception and understanding, so far as in analysing its own self it holds fast by the moment of being a reahty objective to itself, and by abstraction eUminates the fact that this reality is its own self objectified, its own self-existence. When again it holds fast by the other abstract moment produced by analysis, the fact that its object is its own self become objective to itself, is its self-existence, then it is Self -consciousness. But as immediate consciousness of its inherent and its exphcit being, of its immanent self and its objective self, as the unity of consciousness and self-consciousness, it is that type of consciousness which has Reason : it is the consciousness which, as the word " have " indicates, has the object in a shape which is implicitly and inherently rational, or is categorised, but in such a way that the object is not yet taken by the consciousness in question to have the value of a category. Spirit here is that consciousness from the immediately preceding consideration of which we have arrived at the present stage. Finally, when this reason, which spirit '' has," is seen by spirit to be reason which actually is, to be reason which is actual in spirit, and is its world, then spirit has come to its truth ; it is spirit, the essential nature of ethical life actually existent. Spirit, so far as it is the immediate truth, is the ethical hfe of a nation : — the individual, which is a world. It has to advance to the consciousness of what it is immediately ; it has to abandon and transcend the beautiful simpHcity of ethical Hfe, and get to a VOL. II,— C
2434 Phenomenology of Mind knowledge of itself by passing through a series of stages and forms. The distinction between these and those that have gone before consists in their being real spiritual individualities {Geister), actualities proper, and instead of being forms of consciousness, they are forms of a world. The living ethical world is spirit in its truth. As it first comes to an abstract knowledge of its essential nature, ethical life {Sittlichkeit) is destroyed in the formal universahty of right or legahty {Recht). Spirit, being now sundered within itself, traces one of its worlds in the element of its objectivity as in a crass solid actuahty ; this is the realm of Culture and Civilisation ; while over against this in the element of thought is traced the world of BeHef or Faith, the realm of the Inner Life and Truth {Wesen). Both worlds, however, when in the grip of the notion — when grasped by spirit which, after this loss of self through selfdiremption, penetrates itself, — are thrown into confusion and revolutionised through individual Insight {Einsicht), and the general diffusion of this attitude, known as the " Enhghtenment " {Aufklärung). And the realm which had thus been divided and expanded into the "present " and the "remote beyond,'' into^the "here" and the " yonder," turns back into self-consciousness. This self-consciousness, again, taking now the form of Morality (the inner moral Hfe) apprehends itself as the essential truth, and the real essence as its actual self : no longer puts its world and its ground and basis away outside itself, but lets everything fade into itself, and in the form of Conscience {Gewissen) is spirit sure and certain {gewiss) of itself. The ethical world, the world rent asunder into the
3Spirit 435 " here " and the " yonder," and the moral point of view (moralische Weltanschauung) are, then, individual forms of spirit [Geister) whose process and whose return into the self of spirit, a self simple and self-existent (fürsichseynd), will be developed. When these attain their goal and final result, the actual self-consciousness of Absolute Spirit will make its appearance. Objective Spirit,* — The Ethical Order! Spirit, in its ultimate simple truth, is consciousness, and breaks asunder its moments from one another. An act divides spirit into spiritual substance on the one side, and consciousness of the substance on the other ; and divides the substance as well as consciousness. The substance appears in the shape of a universal inner nature and purpose standing in contrast to itself qua particularised reality. The middle or mediating term, infinite in character, is self-consciousness, which, being imflicitly the unity of itself and that substance, becomes so, now, exphcitly {für sich), unites the universal inner nature and its particular realisation, raises the latter to the former and becomes ethical action : and, on the other hand, brings the former down to the latter and carries out the purpose, the substance presented merely in thought. In this way it brings to light the unity of its self and the substance, and produces this unity in the form of a "work" done, and thus as actual concrete fact {Wirklichkeit). When consciousness breaks up into these elements, the simple substance has in part preserved the attitude of opposition to self-consciousness ; in part it thereby manifests in itself the very nature of consciousness, which consists in distinguishing its own content within * Der wahre Geist. t Sittlichkeit. 436
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1Sfirit 433 become established, our reflection may briefly recall them in this connexion : they were consciousness, selfconsciousness, and reason. Spirit is thus Consciousness in general, which contains sense- experience, perception and understanding, so far as in analysing its own self it holds fast by the moment of being a reahty objective to itself, and by abstraction eUminates the fact that this reality is its own self objectified, its own self-existence. When again it holds fast by the other abstract moment produced by analysis, the fact that its object is its own self become objective to itself, is its self-existence, then it is Self -consciousness. But as immediate consciousness of its inherent and its exphcit being, of its immanent self and its objective self, as the unity of consciousness and self-consciousness, it is that type of consciousness which has Reason : it is the consciousness which, as the word " have " indicates, has the object in a shape which is implicitly and inherently rational, or is categorised, but in such a way that the object is not yet taken by the consciousness in question to have the value of a category. Spirit here is that consciousness from the immediately preceding consideration of which we have arrived at the present stage. Finally, when this reason, which spirit '' has," is seen by spirit to be reason which actually is, to be reason which is actual in spirit, and is its world, then spirit has come to its truth ; it is spirit, the essential nature of ethical life actually existent. Spirit, so far as it is the immediate truth, is the ethical hfe of a nation : — the individual, which is a world. It has to advance to the consciousness of what it is immediately ; it has to abandon and transcend the beautiful simpHcity of ethical Hfe, and get to a VOL. II,— C
2434 Phenomenology of Mind knowledge of itself by passing through a series of stages and forms. The distinction between these and those that have gone before consists in their being real spiritual individualities {Geister), actualities proper, and instead of being forms of consciousness, they are forms of a world. The living ethical world is spirit in its truth. As it first comes to an abstract knowledge of its essential nature, ethical life {Sittlichkeit) is destroyed in the formal universahty of right or legahty {Recht). Spirit, being now sundered within itself, traces one of its worlds in the element of its objectivity as in a crass solid actuahty ; this is the realm of Culture and Civilisation ; while over against this in the element of thought is traced the world of BeHef or Faith, the realm of the Inner Life and Truth {Wesen). Both worlds, however, when in the grip of the notion — when grasped by spirit which, after this loss of self through selfdiremption, penetrates itself, — are thrown into confusion and revolutionised through individual Insight {Einsicht), and the general diffusion of this attitude, known as the " Enhghtenment " {Aufklärung). And the realm which had thus been divided and expanded into the "present " and the "remote beyond,'' into^the "here" and the " yonder," turns back into self-consciousness. This self-consciousness, again, taking now the form of Morality (the inner moral Hfe) apprehends itself as the essential truth, and the real essence as its actual self : no longer puts its world and its ground and basis away outside itself, but lets everything fade into itself, and in the form of Conscience {Gewissen) is spirit sure and certain {gewiss) of itself. The ethical world, the world rent asunder into the
3Spirit 435 " here " and the " yonder," and the moral point of view (moralische Weltanschauung) are, then, individual forms of spirit [Geister) whose process and whose return into the self of spirit, a self simple and self-existent (fürsichseynd), will be developed. When these attain their goal and final result, the actual self-consciousness of Absolute Spirit will make its appearance. Objective Spirit,* — The Ethical Order! Spirit, in its ultimate simple truth, is consciousness, and breaks asunder its moments from one another. An act divides spirit into spiritual substance on the one side, and consciousness of the substance on the other ; and divides the substance as well as consciousness. The substance appears in the shape of a universal inner nature and purpose standing in contrast to itself qua particularised reality. The middle or mediating term, infinite in character, is self-consciousness, which, being imflicitly the unity of itself and that substance, becomes so, now, exphcitly {für sich), unites the universal inner nature and its particular realisation, raises the latter to the former and becomes ethical action : and, on the other hand, brings the former down to the latter and carries out the purpose, the substance presented merely in thought. In this way it brings to light the unity of its self and the substance, and produces this unity in the form of a "work" done, and thus as actual concrete fact {Wirklichkeit). When consciousness breaks up into these elements, the simple substance has in part preserved the attitude of opposition to self-consciousness ; in part it thereby manifests in itself the very nature of consciousness, which consists in distinguishing its own content within * Der wahre Geist. t Sittlichkeit. 436
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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