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1The Ethical World : Law Human and Divine : Man and Woman The simple substance of spirit, being consciousness, divides itself into parts. In other words, just as consciousness of abstract sensuous existence passes over into perception, so does immediate certainty of real ethical existence ; and just as for sense perception bare " being " becomes a " thing " with many properties, so for ethical perception a given act becomes a reality involving many ethical relations. For the former, again, the unnecessary plurahty of properties concentrates itself into the form of an essential opposition between individual and universal ; and still more for the latter, which is consciousness purified and substantial, the plurality of ethical moments is reduced to and assumes a twofold form, that of a law of individuality and a law of universality. Each of these areas or " masses " of the substance remains, however, spirit in its entirety. If in sense-perception " things " have no other substantial reahty than the two determinations of individual and imiversal, these determinations express, in the present instance, merely the superficial opposition of both sides to one another. Individuahty, in the case of the subject {Wesen) we are here considering, has the significance of self-consciousness in general, not of any particular consciousness we care to take. The ethical substance is, thus, in this 440
2The Ethical World 441 determination actual concrete substance, Absolute Spirit realised in the pluraKty of distinct consciousnesses definitely existing. It [this spirit] is the community {Gemeinwesen) which, as we entered the stage of the practical embodiment of reason in general, came before us as the absolute and ultimate reahty, and which here comes objectively before itself in its true nature as a conscious ethical reahty {Wesen) and as the essential reahty, for that mode of consciousness we are now dealing with. It is spirit which is for itself, since it maintains itself by being reflected in the minds of the component individuals ; and which is in itself 01 substance, since it preserves them within itself. Qua actual substance, that spirit is a Nation ( Volk) ; qua concrete consciousness, it is the Citizens of a nation. This consciousness has its essential being in simple spirit, and is certain of itself in the actual reahsation of this spirit, in the entire nation ; it has its truth there directly, not therefore in something unreal, but in a spirit which exists and makes itself felt. This spirit can be named Human Law, because it "-^3 has its being essentially in the form of self-conscious actuahty. In the form of universahty, that spirit is law known to everybody, famihar and recognised, and is every-day present Customary Convention {Sitte) ; in the form of particularity it is the concrete certainty of itself in any and every individual ; and the certainty of itself as a single individuahty is that spirit in the form of Government. Its true and complete nature is seen in its authoritative vahdity openly and unmistakably manifested, an existence which takes the form of unconstrained independent objective fact,
3442 Phenomenology of Mind and is immediately apprehended with conscious certainty in this form. Over against this power and pubHcity of the ethical secular human order there appears, however, another power, the Divine Law. For the ethical power of the state, being the movement of self-conscious action, finds its opposition in the simple immediate essential being of the moral order ; qua actual concrete universality, it is a force exerted against the indepen- ■^ dence of the individual ; and, qua actuality in general, *^ it finds inherent in that essential being something other than the power of the state. We mentioned before that each of the opposite ways in which the ethical substance exists, contains that substance in its entirety, and contains all moments of its contents. If, then, the community is that substance in the form of self-consciously reahsed action, the other side has the form of immediate or directly existent substance. The latter is thus, on the one hand, the inner principle (Begriff) or universal possibility of the ethical order in general, but, on the other hand, contains within it also the moment of self-consciousness. This moment which expresses the ethical order in this element of immediacy or mere being, which, in other words, is an immediate consciousness of self (both as regards its essence and its particular thisness) in an "other," — and hence, is a natural ethical community — this is the Family. The family, as the inner indwelhng principle of sociality operating in an unconscious way, stands opposed to its own actuahty when exphcitly conscious ; as the basis of the actuahty of a nation, it stands in contrast to the nation itself ; as the immediate ethical 1U existence, it stands over against the ethical order
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.
1The Ethical World : Law Human and Divine : Man and Woman The simple substance of spirit, being consciousness, divides itself into parts. In other words, just as consciousness of abstract sensuous existence passes over into perception, so does immediate certainty of real ethical existence ; and just as for sense perception bare " being " becomes a " thing " with many properties, so for ethical perception a given act becomes a reality involving many ethical relations. For the former, again, the unnecessary plurahty of properties concentrates itself into the form of an essential opposition between individual and universal ; and still more for the latter, which is consciousness purified and substantial, the plurality of ethical moments is reduced to and assumes a twofold form, that of a law of individuality and a law of universality. Each of these areas or " masses " of the substance remains, however, spirit in its entirety. If in sense-perception " things " have no other substantial reahty than the two determinations of individual and imiversal, these determinations express, in the present instance, merely the superficial opposition of both sides to one another. Individuahty, in the case of the subject {Wesen) we are here considering, has the significance of self-consciousness in general, not of any particular consciousness we care to take. The ethical substance is, thus, in this 440
2The Ethical World 441 determination actual concrete substance, Absolute Spirit realised in the pluraKty of distinct consciousnesses definitely existing. It [this spirit] is the community {Gemeinwesen) which, as we entered the stage of the practical embodiment of reason in general, came before us as the absolute and ultimate reahty, and which here comes objectively before itself in its true nature as a conscious ethical reahty {Wesen) and as the essential reahty, for that mode of consciousness we are now dealing with. It is spirit which is for itself, since it maintains itself by being reflected in the minds of the component individuals ; and which is in itself 01 substance, since it preserves them within itself. Qua actual substance, that spirit is a Nation ( Volk) ; qua concrete consciousness, it is the Citizens of a nation. This consciousness has its essential being in simple spirit, and is certain of itself in the actual reahsation of this spirit, in the entire nation ; it has its truth there directly, not therefore in something unreal, but in a spirit which exists and makes itself felt. This spirit can be named Human Law, because it "-^3 has its being essentially in the form of self-conscious actuahty. In the form of universahty, that spirit is law known to everybody, famihar and recognised, and is every-day present Customary Convention {Sitte) ; in the form of particularity it is the concrete certainty of itself in any and every individual ; and the certainty of itself as a single individuahty is that spirit in the form of Government. Its true and complete nature is seen in its authoritative vahdity openly and unmistakably manifested, an existence which takes the form of unconstrained independent objective fact,
3442 Phenomenology of Mind and is immediately apprehended with conscious certainty in this form. Over against this power and pubHcity of the ethical secular human order there appears, however, another power, the Divine Law. For the ethical power of the state, being the movement of self-conscious action, finds its opposition in the simple immediate essential being of the moral order ; qua actual concrete universality, it is a force exerted against the indepen- ■^ dence of the individual ; and, qua actuality in general, *^ it finds inherent in that essential being something other than the power of the state. We mentioned before that each of the opposite ways in which the ethical substance exists, contains that substance in its entirety, and contains all moments of its contents. If, then, the community is that substance in the form of self-consciously reahsed action, the other side has the form of immediate or directly existent substance. The latter is thus, on the one hand, the inner principle (Begriff) or universal possibility of the ethical order in general, but, on the other hand, contains within it also the moment of self-consciousness. This moment which expresses the ethical order in this element of immediacy or mere being, which, in other words, is an immediate consciousness of self (both as regards its essence and its particular thisness) in an "other," — and hence, is a natural ethical community — this is the Family. The family, as the inner indwelhng principle of sociality operating in an unconscious way, stands opposed to its own actuahty when exphcitly conscious ; as the basis of the actuahty of a nation, it stands in contrast to the nation itself ; as the immediate ethical 1U existence, it stands over against the ethical order
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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