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VIII. Absolute knowing

10 of 10 chapters in The Phenomenology of Spirit by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Original German

1807 742

VIII. *Das abſolute Wiſſen*.

788 Der Geiſt der offenbaren Religion hat sein Bewuſstseyn als solches noch nicht überwunden, oder, was daſſelbe ist, sein wirkliches Selbſtbewuſstseyn iſt nicht der Gegenſtand seines Bewuſstseyns; er selbſt überhaupt und die in ihm ſich unterſcheidenden Momente fallen in das Vorſtellen und in die Form der Gegenſtändlichkeit. Der Inhalt des Vorſtellens iſt der absolute Geiſt; und es ist allein noch um das Aufheben dieser bloſſen Form zu thun, oder vielmehr weil sie dem Bewuſstseyn als solchem angehört, muſs ihre Wahrheit schon in den Geſtaltungen deſſelben ſich ergeben haben. — Diese Ueberwindung des Gegenſtandes des Bewuſstseyns iſt nicht als das einſeitige zu nehmen, daſs er sich als in das Selbſt zurückkehrend zeigte, ſondern beſtimmter ſo, daſs er sowohl als solcher ſich ihm als verschwindend darſtellte, als noch vielmehr, daſs die Entäuſſerung des 1807 743 Selbſtbewuſstseyns es ist, welche die Dingheit setzt, und daſs diese Entäuſſerung nicht nur negative, ſondern poſitive Bedeutung, ſie nicht nur für uns oder anſich, ſondern für es selbſt hat. Für es hat das negative des Gegenſtandes, oder deſſen ſich selbſt Aufheben dadurch die poſitive Bedeutung, oder es weiſs diese Nichtigkeit deſſelben dadurch einerseits, daſs es ſich selbſt entäuſſert, — denn in dieser Entäuſſerung setzt es ſich als Gegenſtand, oder den Gegenſtand um der untrennbaren Einheit des Fürſichſeyns willen als ſich ſelbſt. Andererseits liegt hierin zugleich diſs andre Moment, daſs es diese Entäuſſerung und Gegenſtändlichkeit ebensosehr auch aufgehoben und in ſich zurückgenommen hat, also in seinem Andersſeyn als solchem bey ſich iſt. — Diſs iſt die Bewegung des Bewuſstseyns, und dieses iſt darin die Totalität seiner Momente. — Es muſs sich ebenso zu dem Gegenſtande nach der Totalität seiner Bestimmungen verhalten, und ihn nach jeder derselben so erfaſst haben. Dieſe Totalität seiner Bestimmungen macht ihn an ſich zum geiſtigen Wesen, und für das Bewuſstseyn wird er diſs in Wahrheit durch das Auffaſſen einer jeden einzelnen derselben, als des Selbſts, oder durch das ebengenannte geiſtige Verhalten zu ihnen.

789 Der Gegenstand ist also theils unmittelbares Seyn, oder ein Ding überhaupt — was dem unmittelbaren Bewuſstseyn entspricht; theils ein Anderswerden seiner, sein Verhältniſs, oder Seyn für anderes, und 1807 744 Fürſichſeyn, die Beſtimmtheit — was der Wahrnehmung — theils Wesen oder als Allgemeines, — was dem Verſtande entspricht. Er iſt, als Ganzes, der Schluſs oder die Bewegung des Allgemeinen durch die Beſtimmung zur Einzelnheit, wie die umgekehrte, von der Einzelnheit durch ſie als aufgehobne oder die Bestimmung zum Allgemeinen. — Nach diesen drey Bestimmungen also muſs das Bewuſstseyn ihn als sich selbſt wiſſen. Es iſt diſs jedoch nicht das Wiſſen als reines Begreiffen des Gegenſtandes, von dem die Rede ist; ſondern diſs Wiſſen soll nur in seinem Werden oder in seinem Momenten nach der Seite aufgezeigt werden, die dem Bewuſstseyn als solchem angehört, und die Momente des eigentlichen Begriffes oder reinen Wiſſens in der Form von Geſtaltungen des Bewuſstseyns. Darum erscheint der Gegenſtand im Bewuſstseyn als solchem noch nicht als die geiſtige Wesenheit, wie sie von uns so eben ausgesprochen wurde, und sein Verhalten zu ihm ist nicht die Betrachtung deſſelben in dieser Totalität als solcher, noch in ihrer reinen Begriffsform, ſondern theils Geſtalt des Bewuſstseyns überhaupt, theils eine Anzahl solcher Geſtalten, die wir zuſammennehmen, und in welchen die Totalität der Momente des Gegenstandes und des Verhaltens des Bewuſstseyns nur aufgelöst in ihre Momente aufgezeigt werden kann.

790 Es ist hiemit für diese Seite des Erfaſſens des Gegenſtandes wie es in der Geſtalt des Bewuſstseyns 1807 745 ist, nur an die frühern Gestalten deſſelben zu ertnnern, die schon vorgekommen ſind. — In Ansehung des Gegenstandes also, insofern er unmittelbar, ein gleichgültiges Seyn ist, ſo sahen wir die beobachtende Vernunft, in dieſem gleichgültigen Dinge ſich selbst suchen und finden, d. h. ſich ihres Thuns als eines ebenso äuſſerlichen ſich bewuſst seyn, als sie des Gegenstands nur als eines unmittelbaren bewuſst iſt. — Wir sahen auch auf ihrer Spitze ihre Bestimmung in dem unendlichen Urtheile ausſprechen, daſs das Seyn des Ich ein Ding iſt. — Und zwar ein ſinnliches unmittelbares Ding: wenn Ich Seele genannt wird, so ist es zwar auch als Ding vorgestellt, aber als ein unſichtbares, unfühlbares u. s. f. in der That also nicht als unmittelbares Seyn, und nicht als das, was man unter einem Dinge meynt. — Jenes Urtheil so genommen wie es unmittelbar lautet, iſt es geiſtlos oder vielmehr das geiſtlose selbſt. Seinem Begriffe nach aber iſt es in der That das geiſtreichſte, und dieses Innre deſſelben, das an ihm noch nicht vorhanden iſt, iſt es, was die beyden andern zu betrachtenden Momente ausſprechen.

791 Das Ding iſt Ich; in der That ist in diesem unendlichen Urtheile das Ding aufgehoben; es iſt nichts an sich; es hat nur Bedeutung im Verhältniſſe, nur durch Ich und seine Beziehung auf daſſelbe. — Diſs Moment hat sich für das Bewuſstſeyn in der reinen Einſicht und Aufklärung ergeben. Die Dinge ſind schlechthin nützlich, und nur nach ihrer 1807 746 Nützlichkeit zu betrachten. — Das gebildete Selbſtbewuſstſeyn, das die Welt des ſich entfremdeten Geistes durchlauffen, hat durch ſeine Entäuſſerung das Ding als ſich ſelbſt erzeugt, behält daher in ihm noch ſich selbſt, und weiſs die Unselbstständigkeit deſſelben, oder daſs das Ding weſentlich nur Seyn für anderes iſt; oder vollständig das Verhältniſs, d. h. das, was die Natur des Gegenſtandes hier allein ausmacht, ausgedrückt, so gilt ihm das Ding als ein fürſichſeyendes, es spricht die sinnliche Gewiſsheit als absolute Wahrheit aus, aber diſs Fürſichseyn selbſt als Moment, das nur verschwindet, und in sein Gegentheil, in das preisgegebne Seyn für anderes übergeht.

792 Hierin iſt aber das Wiſſen des Dinges noch nicht vollendet; es muſs nicht nur nach der Unmittelbarkeit des Seyns und nach der Bestimmtheit, sondern auch als Wesen oder Inneres, als das Selbſt gewuſst werden. Diſs iſt in dem moralischen Selbſtbewuſstseyn vorhanden, Diſs weiſs sein Wiſſen als die absolute Wesenheit, oder das Seyn schlechthin als den reinen Willen oder Wiſſen; es iſt nichts, als nur dieser Willen und Wiſſen; anderem kommt nur unwesentliches Seyn, d. h. nicht anſichseyendes, nur seine leere Hülſe zu. Insofern das moralische Bewuſstseyn das Daseyn in seiner Weltvorſtellung aus dem Selbſt entläſst, nimmt es daſſelbe ebensosehr wieder in ſich zurück. Als Gewiſſen ist es endlich nicht mehr dieses noch abwechselnde Stellen und Verſtellen des Daseyns und des Selbſts, sondern es weiſs, daſs sein 1807 747 Daseyn als solches diese reine Gewiſsheit seiner selbſt iſt; das gegenſtändliche Element, in welches es als handelnd sich hinausſtellt, iſt nichts anderes, als das reine Wiſſen des Selbſts von sich.

793 Diſs sind die Momente, aus denen sich die Versöhnung des Geiſtes mit seinem eigentlichen Bewuſstseyn zuſammenſetzt; ſie für ſich ſind einzeln, und ihre geiſtige Einheit allein iſt es, welche die Krafft dieser Versöhnung ausmacht. Das letzte dieser Momente iſt aber nothwendig diese Einheit selbſt, und verbindet, wie erhellt, sie in der That alle in sich. Der seiner selbſt in seinem Daseyn gewiſſe Geiſt hat zum Elemente des Daseyns nichts anderes, als diſs Wiſſen von sich; das Ausſprechen, daſs was er thut, er nach Ueberzeugung von der Pflicht thut, diese seine Sprache iſt das Gelten seines Handelns. — Das Handeln iſt das erſte anſichſeyende Trennen der Einfachheit des Begriffs und die Rückkehr aus dieser Trennung. Diese erſte Bewegung schlägt in die zweyte um, indem das Element des Anerkennens sich als einfaches Wiſſen von der Pflicht gegen den Unterſchied und die Entzweyung ſetzt, die im Handeln als solchem liegt, und auf diese Weise eine eiserne Wirklichkeit gegen das Handeln bildet. In der Verzeihung sahen wir aber, wie diese Härte von sich selbſt abläſst, und sich entäuſſert. Die Wirklichkeit hat also hier für das Selbſtbewuſstseyn sowohl als unmittelbares Daseyn keine andere Bedeutung, als das reine Wiſſen zu seyn; — ebenso als beſtimmtes Daſeyn, oder als 1807 748 Verhältniſs, ist das sich gegenüberſtehende ein Wissen theils von diesem rein einzelnen Selbſt, theils von dem Wiſſen als allgemeinem. Hierin ist zugleich diſs gesetzt, daſs das dritte Moment, die Allgemeinheit oder das Wesen jedem der beyden gegenüberſtehenden, nur als Wiſſen gilt; und den leeren noch übrigen Gegensatz, heben sie endlich ebenso auf, und sind das Wissen des Ich — Ich; dieses einzelne Selbſt, das unmittelbar reines Wiſſen oder allgemeines iſt.

794 Diese Versöhnung des Bewuſstseyns mit dem Selbstbewuſstseyn zeigt ſich hiemit von der gedoppelten Seite zu Stande gebracht, daſs einemal im religiösen Geiſte, das anderemal im Bewuſstseyn selbſt als solchem. Sie unterscheiden sich beyde so voneinander, das jene diese Versöhnung in der Form des Anſichseyns, diese in der Form des Fürſichseyns iſt. Wie sie betrachtet worden, fallen sie zunächſt auseinander; das Bewuſstseyn iſt in der Ordnung, in der uns seine Geſtalten vorkamen, theils zu den einzelnen Momenten derselben, theils zu ihrer Vereinigung längſt gekommen, ehe auch die Religion ihrem Gegenſtande die Geſtalt des wirklichen Selbſtbewuſstſeyns gab. Die Vereinigung beyder Seiten iſt noch nicht aufgezeigt; ſie iſt es, welche diese Reihe der Geſtaltungen des Geiſtes beschlieſst; denn in ihr kommt der Geiſt dazu, sich zu wiſſen nicht nur wie er an ſich, oder nach seinem absoluten Inhalte, noch nur wie er für ſich nach seiner inhaltslosen Form oder nach der Seite des Selbſtbewuſstseyns, sondern wie er an und für ſich iſt.

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795 Diese Vereinigung aber iſt an ſich schon geschehen, zwar auch in der Religion, in der Rückkehr der Vorſtellung in das Selbstbewuſstseyn, aber nicht nach der eigentlichen Form, denn die religiöse Seite iſt die Seite des Anſich, welche der Bewegung des Selbſtbewuſstseyns gegenüberſteht. Die Vereinigung gehört daher dieser andern Seite an, die im Gegensatze die Seite der Reflexion in sich, also diejenige iſt, die sich selbſt und ihr Gegentheil, und nicht nur an ſich oder auf eine allgemeine Weise, sondern für ſich oder entwickelt und unterschieden enthält. Der Inhalt, so wie die andre Seite des ſelbſtbewuſsten Geiſtes, insofern ſie die andre Seite iſt, iſt in ihrer Vollſtändigkeit vorhanden und aufgezeigt worden; die Vereinigung, welche noch fehlt, iſt die einfache Einheit des Begriffs. Dieser iſt an der Seite des Selbſtbewuſstseyns selbſt auch schon vorhanden; aber wie er im Vorhergehenden vorgekommen, hat er, wie alle übrigen Momente die Form, eine besondere Geſtalt des Bewuſstseyns zu seyn. — Er iſt also derjenige Theil der Geſtalt des seiner selbſt gewiſſen Geiſtes, der in seinem Begriffe ſtehen bleibt, und die schöne Seele genannt wurde. Sie iſt nemlich sein Wiſſen von sich selbſt, in seiner reinen durchſichtigen Einheit, — das Selbſtbewuſstseyn, das dieses reine Wiſſen von dem reinen Inſichſeyn, als den Geiſt weiſs, — nicht nur die Anschauung des Göttlichen, sondern die Selbſtanschauung deſſelben. — Indem dieser Begriff sich seiner Realisirung entgegengesetzt feſthält, iſt er die einseitige Geſtalt, 1807 750 deren Verschwinden in leeren Dunſt, aber auch ihre positive Entäuſſerung und Fortbewegung wir sahen. Durch diese Realisirung hebt sich das auf sich Beharren dieses gegenſtandslosen Selbſtbewuſstseyns, die Beſtimmtheit des Begriffs gegen seine Erfüllung, auf; sein Selbſtbewuſstseyn gewinnt die Form der Allgemeinheit, und was ihm bleibt, iſt sein wahrhaffter Begriff, oder der Begriff, der seine Realiſirung gewonnen; es iſt er in seiner Wahrheit, nehmlich in der Einheit mit seiner Entäuſſerung; — das Wiſſen von dem reinen Wiſſen, nicht als abſtractem Weſen, welches die Pflicht iſt, — sondern von ihm als Wesen, das dieses Wiſſen, dieses reine Selbſtbewuſstseyn, das also zugleich wahrhaffter Gegenſtand iſt, denn er iſt das fürſichseyende Selbſt.

796 Seine Erfüllung gab sich dieser Begriff, einestheils im handelnden seiner selbſt gewiſſen Geiſt, anderntheils in der Religion: in der letztern gewann er den absoluten Inhalt als Inhalt oder in der Form der Vorſtellung, des Andersſeyns für das Bewuſstſeyn; hingegen in jener Geſtalt iſt die Form das Selbſt selber, denn sie enthält den Handelnden seiner selbſt gewiſſen Geiſt, das Selbst führt das Leben des absoluten Geiſtes durch. Diese Geſtalt iſt, wie wir sehen, jener einfache Begriff, der aber sein ewiges Weſen aufgibt, da iſt, oder handelt. Das Entzweyen oder Hervortreten hat er an der Reinheit des Begriffs, denn ſie iſt die absolute Abſtraction oder Negativität. Ebenso hat er das Element seiner Wirklichkeit 1807 751 oder des Seyns in ihm, an dem reinem Wiſſen selbſt denn es iſt die einfache Unmittelbarkeit, die eben so Seyn und Daseyn, als Wesen iſt, jenes das negative Denken, diſs das poſitive Denken selbſt. Diſs Daseyn iſt endlich ebensosehr das aus ihm, wie als Daseyn so als Pflicht, — in ſich reflectirt oder böſe seyn. Diſs inſich gehen macht den Gegensatz des Begriffs aus, und iſt damit das Auftreten des nichthandelnden, nichtwirklichen reinen Wiſſens des Wesens. Diſs sein Auftreten in diesem Gegensatze aber iſt die Theilnahme daran; das reine Wiſſen des Wesens hat sich an ſich seiner Einfachheit entäuſſert, denn es iſt das Entzweyen oder die Negativität, die der Begriff iſt; sofern diſs Entzweyen das für ſich werden iſt, iſt es das Böse; sofern es das Anſich iſt, iſt es das gutbleibende. — Was nun zuerſt an ſich geschieht, iſt zugleich für das Bewuſstseyn, und ebenso selbst gedoppelt, sowohl für es als es sein fürſichſeyn oder sein eignes Thun ist. Daſſelbe was schon anſich gesetzt ist, wiederholt sich also itzt als Wiſſen des Bewuſstseyns von ihm, und bewuſstes Thun. Jedes läſst für das andere von der Selbstständigkeit der Bestimmtheit, in der es gegen es auftritt, ab. Diſs Ablaſſen ist daſſelbe Verzichtthun auf die Einseitigkeit des Begriffs, das an ſich den Anfang ausmachte, aber es ist nunmehr sein Verzichtthun, so wie der Begriff, auf welchen es Verzicht thut, der seinige ist. — Jenes Anſich des Anfangs ist als Negativität in Wahrheit ebensosehr das vermittelte; so wie es in Wahrheit ist, setzt es sich also itzt, und das 1807 752 *negative ist als Beſtimmtheit eines jeden für das andere und an sich das sich selbst aufhebende. Der eine der beyden Theile des Gegensatzes ist die Ungleichkeit des inſich-in seiner Einzelnheit-seyns gegen die Allgemeinheit, — der andere die Ungleichheit seiner abstracten Allgemeinheit gegen das Selbst; jenes stirbt seinem Fürsichseyn ab, und entäuſſert, bekennt sich; dieses entſagt der Härte seiner abstracten Allgemeinheit, und stirbt damit seinem unlebendigen Selbst und seiner unbewegten Allgemeinheit ab; so daſs also jenes durch das Moment der Allgemeinheit, die Wesen ist, und dieses durch die Allgemeinheit, die Selbst ist, sich ergänzt hat Durch diese Bewegung des Handelns ist der Geist, — der so erst Geist ist, daſs er da ist, sein Daseyn in den Gedanken und dadurch in die absolute Entgegensetzung erhebt, und aus dieser eben durch sie und in ihr selbst zurückkehrt, — als reine Allgemeinheit des Wiſſens, welches Selbstbewuſstseyn ist, — als Selbstbewuſstseyn, das einfache Einheit des Wiſſens ist, hervorgetreten.

797 Was also in der Religion Inhalt oder Form des Vorstellens eines andern war, daſſelbe ist hier eignes Thun des Selbſts; der Begriff verbindet es, daſs der Inhalt eignes Thun des Selbſts ist; — denn dieser Begriff ist, wie wir sehen, das Wiſſen des Thuns des Selbsts in sich als aller Wesenheit und alles Daseyns, das Wiſſen von dieſem Subjecte als der Subſtanz, und von der Substanz als diesem Wiſſen seines Thuns. — Was wir hier hinzugethan, ist allein theils die Versammlung 1807 753 der einzelnen Momente, deren jedes in seinem Principe das Leben des ganzen Geiſtes darſtellt, theils das Feſthalten des Begriffes in der Form des Begriffes, dessen Inhalt sich in jenen Momenten, und der sich in der Form einer Geſtalt des Bewuſstseyns schon selbſt ergeben hätte.

798 Diese letzte Geſtalt des Geiſtes, der Geiſt, der seinem vollſtändigen und wahren Inhalte zugleich die Form des Selbſts gibt, und dadurch seinen Begriff ebenso realiſirt als er in dieser Realisirung in seinem Begriffe bleibt, iſt das absolute Wiſſen; es iſt der sich in Geiſtsgeſtalt wiſſende Geiſt oder das begreiffende Wiſſen. Die Wahrheit iſt nicht nur anſich vollkommen der Gewiſsheit gleich, sondern hat auch die Geſtalt der Gewiſsheit seiner selbſt, oder sie iſt in ihrem Daseyn, das heiſst, für den wiſſenden Geiſt in der Form des Wissens seiner selbſt. Die Wahrheit iſt der Inhalt, der in der Religion seiner Gewiſsheit noch ungleich iſt. Diese Gleichheit aber iſt darin, daſs der Inhalt die Geſtalt des Selbſts erhalten. Dadurch iſt dasjenige zum Elemente des Daseyns, oder zur Form der Gegenſtändlichkeit für das Bewuſstseyn geworden, was das Wesen selbſt iſt; nemlich der Begriff. Der Geiſt in diesem Elemente dem Bewuſstseyn erscheinend, oder was hier daſſelbe iſt, darin von ihm hervorgebracht, iſt die Wiſſenschaft.

799 Die Natur, Momente und Bewegung dieses Wissens hat sich also so ergeben, daſs es das reine 1807 754 Fürſichseyn des Selbſtbewuſstseyns iſt; es iſt Ich, das dieses und kein anderes Ich und das ebenso unmittelbar vermittelt oder aufgehobenes allgemeines Ich iſt. — Es hat einen Inhalt, den es von sich unterscheidet; denn es iſt die reine Negativität oder das sich Entzweyen; es iſt Bewuſstseyn. Dieser Inhalt iſt in seinem Unterschiede selbſt das Ich, denn er ist die Bewegung des sich selbſt Aufhebens, oder dieselbe reine Negativität die Ich iſt. Ich iſt in ihm als unterschiedenem in sich reflectirt; der Inhalt iſt allein dadurch begriffen, daſs Ich in seinem Andersſeyn bey sich selbſt iſt. Dieser Inhalt beſtimmter angegeben, iſt er nichts anders, als die so eben ausgesprochene Bewegung selbſt; denn er iſt der Geiſt, der sich selbſt und zwar für ſich als Geiſt durchläufft, dadurch daſs er die Geſtalt des Begriffes in seiner Gegenſtändlichkeit hat.

800 Was aber das Daseyn dieses Begriffs betrifft, so erscheint in der Zeit und Wirklichkeit die Wiſſenſchaft nicht eher, als bis der Geiſt zu diesem Bewuſstseyn über ſich gekommen iſt. Als der Geiſt, der weiſs, was er iſt, exiſtirter früher nicht, und sonſt nirgends als nach Vollendung der Arbeit, seine unvollkommene Geſtaltung zu bezwingen, ſich für sein Bewuſstseyn die Geſtalt seines Wesens zu verschaffen, und auf diese Weise sein Selbſtbewuſstseyn mit seinem Bewuſstseyn auszugleichen. — Der an und für ſich seyende Geiſt in seinen Momenten unterschieden, iſt fürſichseyendes Wiſſen, das Begreiffen überhaupt, das als ſolches die 1807 755 Subſtanz noch nicht erreicht hat oder nicht an sich selbſt absolutes Wiſſen iſt.

801 In der Wirklichkeit iſt nun die wiſſende Subſtanz früher da, als die Form oder Begriffsgeſtalt derselben. Denn die Subſtanz iſt das noch unentwickelte Anſich, oder der Grund und Begriff in seiner noch unbewegten Einfachheit, also die Innerlichkeit oder das Selbſt des Geiſtes, das noch nicht da iſt. Was da iſt, iſt als das noch unentwickelte Einfache und Unmittelbare, oder der Gegenſtand des vorſtellenden Bewuſstseyns überhaupt. Das Erkennen, weil es das geiſtige Bewuſstſeyn iſt, dem, was an ſich iſt, nur insofern iſt, als es Seyn für das Selbſt, und Seyn des Selbſtes oder Begriff iſt, — hat aus diesem Grunde zuerſt nur einen armen Gegenſtand, gegen welchen die Subſtanz, und deren Bewuſstſeyn reicher iſt. Die Offenbarkeit, die ſie in dieſem hat, iſt in der That Verborgenheit, denn ſie iſt das noch ſelbſtlose Seyn, und offenbar iſt ſich nur die Gewiſsheit ſeiner ſelbſt. Zuerſt gehören dem Selbſtbewuſstſeyn daher von der Subſtanz nur die abstracten Momente an; aber indem dieſe als die reinen Bewegungen ſich ſelbſt weiter treiben, bereichert es ſich, bis es die ganze Subſtanz dem Bewuſstſeyn entriſſen, den ganzen Bau ihrer Weſenheiten in ſich geſogen, und indem dieſes negative Verhalten zur Gegenſtändlichkeit ebenſoſehr poſitiv, Setzen iſt, — ſie aus ſich erzeugt und damit für das Bewuſstseyn zugleich wieder hergeſtellt hat. In dem Begriffe, der ſich als Begriff 1807 756 weiſs, treten hiemit die Momente früher auf, als das erfüllte Ganze, deſſen Werden die Bewegung jener Momente iſt. In dem Bewuſstſeyn dagegen iſt das Ganze, aber unbegriffne, früher als die Momente. — Die Zeit iſt der Begriff ſelbſt, der da iſt, und als leere Anſchauung ſich dem Bewuſstſeyn vorſtellt; deſswegen erſcheint der Geiſt nothwendig in der Zeit, und er erſcheint ſolange in der Zeit als er nicht ſeinen reinen Begriff erfaſst, das heiſst, nicht die Zeit tilgt. Sie iſt das äuſſere angeſchaute vom Selbſt nicht erfaſste reine Selbſt, der nur angeſchaute Begriff; indem dieſer ſich ſelbſt erfaſst, hebt er ſeine Zeitform auf, begreift das Anſchauen, und iſt begriffnes und begreiffendes Anſchauen. — Die Zeit erſcheint daher als das Schickſal und die Nothwendigkeit des Geiſtes, der nicht in ſich vollendet iſt, — die Nothwendigkeit, den Antheil, den das Selbſtbewuſstſeyn an dem Bewuſstseyn hat, zu bereichern, die Unmittelbarkeit des Anſich, — die Form, in der die Subſtanz im Bewuſstseyn iſt, — in Bewegung zu ſetzen oder umgekehrt das Anſich als das Innerliche genommen, das was erſt innerlich iſt, zu realiſiren und zu offenbaren, — d. h. es der Gewiſsheit ſeiner ſelbſt zu vindiciren.

802 Es muſs aus dieſem Grunde geſagt werden, daſs nichts gewuſst wird, was nicht in der Erfahrung iſt, oder wie daſſelbe auch ausgedrückt wird, was nicht als gefühlte Wahrheit, als innerlich geoffenbartes Ewiges, als geglaubtes Heiliges, oder welche Ausdrücke ſonſt gebraucht werden, — vorhanden iſt. Denn die 1807 757 Erfahrung iſt ebendiſs, daſs der Inhalt — und er iſt der Geiſt — an ſich, Subſtanz und alſo Gegenſtand des Bewuſstſeyns iſt. Dieſe Subſtanz aber, die der Geiſt iſt, iſt das Werden ſeiner zu dem, was er an ſich iſt; und erſt als diſs ſich in ſich reflectirende Werden iſt er an sich in Wahrheit der Geiſt. Er iſt an sich die Bewegung, die das Erkennen iſt, — die Verwandlung jenes Anſichs in das Fürſich, der Subſtanz in das Subject, des Gegenſtands des Bewuſstſeyns in Gegenſtand des Selbſtbewuſstſeyns, d. h. in ebenſoſehr aufgehobnen Gegenſtand, oder in den Begriff. Sie ist der in sich zurückgehende Kreis, der ſeinen Anfang vorausſetzt, und ihn nur im Ende erreicht. — Insofern der Geist also nothwendig dieses Unterscheiden in ſich ist, tritt sein Ganzes angeschaut seinem einfachen Selbſtbewuſstſeyn gegenüber, und da also jenes das unterschiedene ist, so ist es unterschieden in seinen angeschauten reinen Begriff, in die Zeit, und in den Inhalt oder in das Anſich; die Substanz hat, als Subject, die erſt innere Nothwendigkeit an ihr, sich an ihr selbſt als das darzuſtellen, was sie an sich iſt, als Geiſt. Die vollendete gegenständliche Darstellung ist erst zugleich die Reflexion derselben oder das Werden derselben zum Selbst. — Eh daher der Geist nicht anſich, nicht als Weltgeist sich vollendet, kann er nicht als ſelbſtbewuſster Geist seine Vollendung erreichen. Der Inhalt der Religion spricht darum früher in der Zeit, als die Wiſſenschaft, es aus, was der Geiſt iſt, aber diese ist allein sein wahres Wiſſen von ihm selbst.

1807 758

803 Die Bewegung, die Form seines Wiſſens von sich hervorzutreiben, iſt die Arbeit, die er als wirkliche Geſchichte vollbringt. Die religiöse Gemeine, insofern sie zuerst die Substanz des absoluten Geistes ist, ist das rohe Bewuſstſeyn, das ein um so barbarischeres und härteres Daseyn hat, je tiefer sein innerer Geist ist, und sein dumpfes Selbſt eine um so härtere Arbeit mit seinem Wesen, dem ihm fremden Inhalte seines Bewuſstseyns. Erſt nachdem es die Hoffnung aufgegeben, auf eine äuſſerliche d. h. fremde Weise das Fremdseyn aufzuheben, wendet es sich, weil die aufgehobne fremde Weise die Rückkehr ins Selbſtbewuſstseyn ist, an sich selbſt, an seine eigne Welt und Gegenwart, entdekt sie als sein Eigenthum und hat somit den ersten Schritt gethan aus der Intellectualwelt herabzuſteigen, oder vielmehr deren abstractes Element mit dem wirklichen Selbſt zu begeiſten. Durch die Beobachtung einerseits findet es das Daſeyn als Gedanken, und begreifft daſſelbe, und umgekehrt in seinem Denken das Daseyn. Indem es so zunächſt die unmittelbare Einheit des Denkens und Seyns, des abstracten Wesens und des Selbſts, selbſt abſtract ausgesprochen und das erſte Lichtwesen reiner, nemlich als Einheit der Ausdehnung und des Seyns, — denn Ausdehnung ist die dem reinen Denken gleichere Einfachheit, denn das Licht iſt, — und hiemit im Gedanken die Substanz des Aufgangs wieder erweckt hat, schaudert der Geist zugleich von dieser abstracten Einheit, von dieser ſelbſtlosen Substantialität zurück, und 1807 759 behauptet die Individualität gegen sie. Erſt aber nachdem er diese in der Bildung entäuſſert, dadurch sie zum Daseyn gemacht und in allem Daseyn sie durchgesetzt, — zum Gedanken der Nützlichkeit gekommen, und in der absoluten Freyheit das Daseyn als seinen Willen erfaſst, kehrt er somit den Gedanken seiner innerſten Tiefe heraus, und spricht das Wesen als Ich = Ich aus. Diſs Ich = Ich ist aber die sich in sich selbst reflectirende Bewegung; denn indem diese Gleichheit als abſolute Negativität der abſolute Unterschied ist, so steht die Sichselbstgleichheit des Ich diesem reinen Unterschiede gegenüber, der als der reine und zugleich dem sich wiſſenden Selbſt gegenständliche, als die Zeit auszusprechen ist, so daſs wie vorhin das Wesen als Einheit des Denkens und der Ausdehnung ausgeſprochen wurde, es als Einheit des Denkens und der Zeit zu faſſen wäre; aber der sich selbst überlaſſne Unterschied, die ruhe- und haltlose Zeit fällt vielmehr in sich selbst zusammen; sie ist die gegenständliche Ruhe der Ausdehnung, diese aber ist die reine Gleichheit mit sich selbst, das Ich. — Oder Ich ist nicht nur das Selbſt, sondern es ist die Gleichheit des Selbſts mit ſich; diese Gleichheit aber ist die vollkommne und unmittelbare Einheit mit sich selbst oder diſs Subject ist ebensosehr die Subſtanz. Die Substanz für sich allein, wäre das inhaltsleere Anschauen oder das Anschauen eines Inhalts, der als bestimmter nur Accidentalität hätte, und ohne Nothwendigkeit wäre; die Substanz gälte nur in sofern als das 1807 760 Absolute, als sie als die abſolute Einheit gedacht oder angeschaut wäre, und aller Inhalt müſste nach seiner Verschiedenheit auſſer ihr in die Reflexion fallen, die ihr nicht angehört, weil sie nicht Subject, nicht das über sich und sich in sich reflectirende oder nicht als Geist begriffen wäre. Wenn doch von einem Inhalte gesprochen werden sollte, so wäre es theils nur, um ihn in den leeren Abgrund des Absoluten zu werfen, theils aber wäre er äuſſerlich aus der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung aufgerafft; das Wiſſen schiene zu Dingen, dem Unterschiede von ihm selbst, und dem Unterschiede mannichfaltiger Dinge gekommen zu seyn, ohne daſs man begriffe, wie und woher.

804 Der Geist aber hat sich uns gezeigt, weder nur das Zurückziehen des Selbſtbewuſstſeyns in seine reine Innerlichkeit zu seyn, noch die bloſſe Versenkung deſſelben in die Substanz und das Nichtseyn seines Unterschiedes, sondern diese Bewegung des Selbsts, das sich seiner selbst entäuſſert und sich in seine Substanz versenkt, und ebenso als Subject aus ihr in sich gegangen ist, und sie zum Gegenstande und Inhalte macht, als es diesen Unterschied der Gegenständlichkeit und des Inhalts aufhebt. Jene erste Reflexion aus der Unmittelbarkeit ist das sich Unterscheiden des Subjects von seiner Substanz, oder der sich entzweyende Begriff, das Insichgehen und Werden des reinen Ich. Indem dieser Unterschied das reine Thun des Ich = Ich ist, ist der Begriff die Nothwendigkeit und das Aufgehen des Daseyns, das die Substanz zu seinem 1807 761 Wesen hat, und für sich besteht. Aber das Bestehen des Daseyns für sich ist der in der Bestimmtheit gesetzte Begriff und dadurch ebenso seine Bewegung an ihm selbst, nieder in die einfache Substanz zu gehen, welche erst als diese Negativität und Bewegung Subject ist. — Weder hat Ich sich in der Form des Selbſtbewuſstseyns gegen die Form der Substantialität und Gegenständlichkeit festzuhalten, als ob es Angst vor seiner Entäuſſerung hätte; die Kraft des Geistes ist vielmehr, in seiner Entäuſſerung sich selbst gleich zu bleiben, und als das an und fürſichseyende, das Fürſichseyn ebensosehr nur als Moment zu setzen, wie das Ansichseyn, — noch ist es ein Drittes, das die Unterschiede in den Abgrund des Absoluten zurückwirft, und ihre Gleichheit in demselben ausſpricht, sondern das Wiſſen besteht vielmehr in dieser scheinbaren Unthätigkeit, welche nur betrachtet, wie das Unterschiedne sich an ihm selbst bewegt, und in seine Einheit zurückkehrt.

805 In dem Wiſſen hat also der Geist die Bewegung seines Gestaltens beschloſſen, insofern daſſelbe mit dem unüberwundnen Unterschiede des Bewuſstseyns behaftet ist. Er hat das reine Element seines Daseyns, den Begriff, gewonnen. Der Inhalt ist nach der Freyheit seines Seyns das sich entäuſſernde Selbſt, oder die unmittelbare Einheit des sich selbst wiſſens. Die reine Bewegung dieser Entäuſſerung macht, sie am Inhalte betrachtet, die Nothwendigkeit deſſelben aus. Der verschiedne Inhalt ist als bestimmter im Verhältniſſe, nicht an sich, und seine Unruhe sich selbst aufzuheben 1807 762 oder die Negativität; also ist die Nothwendigkeit oder Verschiedenheit, wie das freye Seyn, ebenso das Selbſt, und in dieser selbstischen Form, worin das Daseyn unmittelbar Gedanke ist, ist den Inhalt Begriff. Indem also der Geist den Begriff gewonnen, entfaltet er das Daseyn und Bewegung in diesem Aether seines Lebens, und ist Wiſſenschaft. Die Momente seiner Bewegung stellen sich in ihr nicht mehr als bestimmte Geſtalten des Bewuſstseyns dar, sondern indem der Unterschied deſſelben in das Selbſt zurück gegangen, als beſtimmte Begriffe, und als die organische in sich selbſt gegründete Bewegung derselben. Wenn in der Phänomenologie des Geistes jedes Moment der Unterschied des Wiſſens und der Wahrheit, und die Bewegung iſt, in welcher er sich aufhebt, so enthält dagegen die Wiſſenschaft diesen Unterschied und deſſen Aufheben nicht, sondern indem das Moment die Form des Begriffs hat, vereinigt es die gegenständliche Form der Wahrheit und des wiſſenden Selbſts in unmittelbarer Einheit. Das Moment tritt nicht als diese Bewegung auf, aus dem Bewuſstſeyn oder der Vorſtellung in das Selbſtbewuſstſeyn und umgekehrt herüber und hinüber zu gehen, sondern seine reine von seiner Erscheinung im Bewuſstſeyn befreyte Geſtalt, der reine Begriff, und deſſen Fortbewegung hängt allein an seiner reinen Beſtimmtheit. Umgekehrt entspricht jedem abſtracten Momente der Wiſſenschaft eine Geſtalt des erscheinenden Geiſtes überhaupt. Wie der daseyende Geiſt nicht reicher iſt, als sie, so iſt er in seinem 1807 763 Inhalte auch nicht ärmer. Die reinen Begriffe der Wissenschaft in dieser Form von Geſtalten des Bewuſstseyns zu erkennen, macht die Seite ihrer Realität aus, nach welcher ihr Wesen, der Begriff, der in ihr in seiner einfachen Vermittlung als Denken gesetzt ist, die Momente dieser Vermittlung auseinanderſchlägt und nach dem innern Gegensatze sich darſtellt.

806 Die Wiſſenſchaft enthält in ihr selbſt diese Nothwendigkeit, der Form des reinen Begriffs sich zu entäuſſern und den Uebergang des Begriffes ins Bewuſstſeyn. Denn der sich selbſt wiſſende Geiſt, ebendarum daſs er seinen Begriff erfaſst, ist er die unmittelbare Gleichheit mit sich selbſt, welche in ihrem Unterschiede die Gewiſsheit vom Unmittelbaren iſt, oder das sinnliche Bewuſstseyn, — der Anfang, von dem wir ausgegangen; dieses Entlaſſen seiner aus der Form seines Selbſts iſt die höchste Freyheit und Sicherheit seines Wiſſens von sich.

807 Doch ist diese Entäuſſerung noch unvollkommen; sie drückt die Beziehung der Gewiſsheit seiner selbſt auf den Gegenſtand aus, der eben darin, daſs er in der Beziehung ist, seine völlige Freyheit nicht gewonnen hat. Das Wiſſen kennt nicht nur sich, sondern auch das negative seiner selbſt, oder seine Gräntze. Seine Gräntze wiſſen, heiſst sich aufzuopfern wiſſen. Diese Aufopferung iſt die Entäuſſerung, in welcher der Geiſt sein Werden zum Geiſte, in der Form des freyen zufälligen Geschehens darſtellt, sein reines Selbſt, als die Zeit auſſer ihm, und ebenso sein Seyn als Raum anschauend. Dieses sein letzteres Werden, die Natur, iſt sein 1807 764 lebendiges unmittelbares Werden; sie, der entäuſſerte Geiſt, iſt in ihrem Daſeyn nichts, als diese ewige Entäuſſerung ihres Beſtehens und die Bewegung, die das Subject herſtellt.

808 Die andere Seite aber seines Werdens, die Geschichte, iſt das wiſſende sich vermittelnde Werden — der an die Zeit entäuſſerte Geiſt; aber diese Entäuſſerung ist ebenso die Entäuſſerung ihrer selbſt; das Negative ist das negative seiner selbst. Diſs Werden ſtellt eine träge Bewegung und Aufeinanderfolge von Geiſtern dar, eine Gallerie von Bildern, deren jedes mit dem vollſtändigen Reichthume des Geiſtes ausgeſtattet, ebendarum sich so träge bewegt, weil das Selbſt dieſen ganzen Reichthum seiner Subſtanz zu durchdringen und zu verdauen hat. Indem seine Vollendung darin beſteht, das was er iſt, seine Subſtanz, vollkommen zu wiſſen, so ist diſs Wiſſen sein Inſichgehen, in welchem er sein Daseyn verläſst und seine Gestalt der Erinnerung übergibt. In seinem Insichgehen ist er in der Nacht seines Selbſtbewuſstseyns versunken, sein verschwundnes Daseyn aber ist in ihr aufbewahrt, und diſs aufgehobne Daseyn, — das vorige, aber aus dem Wiſſen neugeborne, — ist das neue Daseyn, eine neue Welt und Geistesgestalt. In ihr hat er ebenso unbefangen von vornen bey ihrer Unmittelbarkeit anzufangen, und sich von ihr auf wieder groſs zu ziehen, als ob alles vorhergehende für ihn verloren wäre, und er aus der Erfahrung der frühern Geister nichts gelernt hätte. Aber die Er-Innerung hat sie aufbewahrt und ist das Innre und die in der That höhere Form 1807 765 der Subſtanz. Wenn also dieser Geist seine Bildung von sich nur auszugehen scheinend wieder von vornen anfängt, so ist es zugleich auf einer höhern Stuffe daſs er anfängt. Das Geisterreich, das auf diese Weise sich in dem Daseyn gebildet, macht eine Aufeinanderfolge aus, worin einer den andern ablöſte, und jeder das Reich der Welt von dem vorhergehenden übernahm. Ihr Ziel ist die Offenbarung der Tiefe, und diese ist der absolute Begriff; diese Offenbarung ist hiemit das Aufheben seiner Tiefe oder seine Ausdehnung, die Negativität dieses insichseyenden Ich, welche seine Entäuſſerung oder Subſtanz ist, — und seine Zeit, daſs diese Entäuſſerung sich an ihr selbst entäuſſert und so in ihrer Ausdehnung ebenso in ihrer Tiefe, dem Selbſt iſt. Das Ziel, das absolute Wiſſen, oder der sich als Geist wiſſende Geist hat zu seinem Wege die Erinnerung der Geister, wie sie an ihnen selbst sind und die Organisation ihres Reiches vollbringen Ihre Aufbewahrung nach der Seite ihres freyen in der Form der Zufälligkeit erscheinenden Daseyns, ist die Geschichte, nach der Seite ihrer begriffnen Organisation aber die Wiſſenschaft des erſcheinenden Wiſſens; beyde zusammen, die begriffne Geschichte, bilden die Erinnerung und die Schädelſtätte des absoluten Geistes, die Wirklichkeit, Wahrheit und Gewiſsheit seines Throns, ohne den er das leblose Einſame wäre; nur —aus dem Kelche dieses Geisterreichesschäumt ihm seine Unendlichkeit.

Musean translation

Mouseia's complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the complete German of the 1807 first edition, all 808 standard paragraphs in eight chapters plus Preface and Introduction, for fidelity, Hegel's argument, clarity and structure. German witness: Deutsches Textarchiv, CC BY-SA 4.0; page markers keep the 1807 pagination.

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VIII. *Absolute knowing*.

788 The spirit of revealed religion has not yet overcome its consciousness as such, or, what is the same, its actual self-consciousness is not the object of its consciousness. Spirit itself in general, and the moments distinguishing themselves within it, fall within representation and the form of objectivity. The content of representation is absolute spirit, and all that remains is to sublate this mere form—or rather, because it belongs to consciousness as such, its truth must already have emerged in the shapes of consciousness.—This overcoming of the object of consciousness must not be taken one-sidedly, as though the object showed itself returning into the self. Rather, more determinately, the object as such both presented itself to consciousness as vanishing, and, still more, the externalization of 1807 743 self-consciousness is what posits thinghood, and this externalization has not only a negative but a positive meaning, not only for us or in itself, but for self-consciousness itself. For it, the negative of the object, or the object's self-sublation, has a positive meaning—or it knows this nullity of the object—on the one hand because it externalizes itself; for in this externalization it posits itself as object, or, because of the inseparable unity of being-for-itself, posits the object as itself. On the other hand, this also contains the further moment that it has equally sublated this externalization and objectivity and taken them back into itself, and is thus at home with itself in its otherness as such.—This is the movement of consciousness, and in it consciousness is the totality of its moments.—Consciousness must equally relate to the object according to the totality of its determinations and have grasped it in this way according to each of them. This totality of its determinations makes the object a spiritual essence in itself; and for consciousness it becomes this in truth through the apprehension of each individual determination as the self, or through the spiritual relation to them just mentioned.

789 The object is thus partly immediate being, or a thing in general, corresponding to immediate consciousness; partly its own becoming-other, its relation, or being-for-another, and 1807 744 being-for-itself, determinacy, corresponding to perception; partly essence, or as universal, corresponding to understanding. As a whole it is the syllogism, or the movement of the universal through determination to singularity, as well as the reverse movement from singularity through singularity as sublated, or through determination, to the universal.—According to these three determinations, then, consciousness must know the object as itself. Yet what is at issue here is not knowledge as pure comprehension of the object. Rather, this knowledge must be exhibited only in its becoming, or in its moments, on the side belonging to consciousness as such, and the moments of the concept proper, or pure knowledge, in the form of shapes of consciousness. For this reason, in consciousness as such the object does not yet appear as the spiritual essence we have just expressed, and consciousness's relation to it is not the consideration of it in this totality as such or in its pure conceptual form. Rather, it is partly a shape of consciousness in general, partly a number of such shapes that we gather together, and in which the totality of the object's moments and of consciousness's relation can be exhibited only as dissolved into its moments.

790 Thus, for this side of grasping the object as it exists in the shape of consciousness, 1807 745 we need only recall the earlier shapes of consciousness that have already appeared.—Regarding the object, then, insofar as it is immediate, an indifferent being, we saw observing reason seek and find itself in this indifferent thing: that is, be conscious of its doing as something just as external as it is conscious of the object only as something immediate.—We also saw it at its summit express its determination in the infinite judgment that the being of the I is a thing—indeed, a sensuous, immediate thing. If the I is called soul, it is indeed also represented as a thing, but as invisible, intangible, and so on, thus in fact not as immediate being and not as what is meant by a thing.—Taken just as it immediately reads, that judgment is spiritless, or rather spiritlessness itself. According to its concept, however, it is in fact the most spiritual judgment; and this inwardness of it, which is not yet present within it, is what the other two moments to be considered express.

791 The thing is I: in fact, in this infinite judgment the thing is sublated. It is nothing in itself; it has meaning only in relation, only through the I and its relation to the thing.—This moment emerged for consciousness in pure insight and enlightenment. Things are absolutely useful and must be considered solely according to their 1807 746 usefulness.—Cultivated self-consciousness, which has traversed the world of self-alienated spirit, has through its externalization produced the thing as itself, therefore still retains itself in it, and knows its lack of independence, or that the thing is essentially only being-for-another. Or, to express fully the relation, that is, what alone constitutes the nature of the object here: the thing counts for consciousness as something being-for-itself; consciousness declares sensuous certainty absolute truth, but declares this being-for-itself itself a moment that merely vanishes and passes into its opposite, into being-for-another that has been surrendered.

792 Yet knowledge of the thing is not completed in this. The thing must be known as the self not only according to the immediacy of being and according to determinacy, but also as essence or inwardness. This is present in moral self-consciousness. It knows its knowledge as absolute essence, or being absolutely as pure will or knowledge. Nothing is but this will and knowledge; to anything else belongs only inessential being, that is, being not in itself, only its empty husk. Insofar as moral consciousness lets existence go free from the self in its representation of the world, it equally takes it back into itself. Finally, as conscience it is no longer this still alternating positing and displacing of existence and self, but knows that its 1807 747 existence as such is this pure certainty of itself. The objective element into which it steps as acting is nothing other than the self's pure knowledge of itself.

793 These are the moments composing spirit's reconciliation with its consciousness proper. For themselves they are individual, and their spiritual unity alone constitutes the force of this reconciliation. Yet the last of these moments is necessarily this unity itself and, as is evident, in fact combines them all within itself. Spirit certain of itself in its existence has no element of existence other than this knowledge of itself. The declaration that what it does it does from conviction of duty—this language of its—is the validity of its action.—Action is the first separation, in itself, of the concept's simplicity and the return from this separation. This first movement turns into the second when the element of recognition, as simple knowledge of duty, sets itself against the difference and division lying in action as such, and in this way forms an iron actuality against action. In forgiveness, however, we saw how this hardness relinquishes itself and externalizes itself. Here, therefore, for self-consciousness actuality as immediate existence has no meaning other than being pure knowledge; likewise as determinate existence, or as 1807 748 relation, what stands opposed to itself is a knowledge partly of this pure individual self, partly of knowledge as universal. At the same time, it is posited herein that the third moment, universality or essence, counts for each of the two opposed sides only as knowledge. Finally they equally sublate the empty opposition still remaining, and are the knowledge of I—I: this individual self that is immediately pure, or universal, knowledge.

794 This reconciliation of consciousness with self-consciousness thus shows itself accomplished from a twofold side: once in religious spirit, and again in consciousness itself as such. The two differ in that the former is this reconciliation in the form of being-in-itself, the latter in the form of being-for-itself. As they have been considered, they initially fall apart. In the order in which its shapes appeared to us, consciousness had long since arrived partly at their individual moments, partly at their union, before religion too gave its object the shape of actual self-consciousness. The union of the two sides has not yet been exhibited; it is what concludes this sequence of the shapes of spirit. For in it spirit comes to know itself not only as it is in itself, or according to its absolute content, nor merely as it is for itself, according to its contentless form or the side of self-consciousness, but as it is in and for itself.

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795 Yet this union has already occurred in itself, indeed also in religion, in representation's return into self-consciousness, but not according to its proper form; for the religious side is the side of the in-itself, confronting the movement of self-consciousness. The union therefore belongs to this other side, which in the opposition is the side of reflection into itself, and thus contains itself and its opposite, not merely in itself, or in a universal manner, but for itself, or developed and differentiated. The content, like the other side of self-conscious spirit insofar as it is the other side, is present in its completeness and has been exhibited; the union still lacking is the simple unity of the concept. This is also already present on the side of self-consciousness itself; but as it occurred above, it has, like all the other moments, the form of being a particular shape of consciousness.—It is therefore that part of the shape of spirit certain of itself which remains within its concept and was called the beautiful soul. It is spirit's knowledge of itself in its pure, transparent unity: self-consciousness knowing this pure knowledge of pure being-within-itself as spirit—not merely the intuition of the divine, but the divine's intuition of itself.—Insofar as this concept holds itself fast in opposition to its realization, it is the one-sided shape 1807 750 whose vanishing into empty vapor, but also whose positive externalization and forward movement, we saw. Through this realization, the persistence in itself of this objectless self-consciousness, the determinacy of the concept against its fulfillment, is sublated. Its self-consciousness acquires the form of universality, and what remains to it is its true concept, or the concept that has attained its realization. It is the concept in its truth, namely in unity with its externalization: knowledge of pure knowledge, not as abstract essence, which is duty, but of it as essence that is this knowledge, this pure self-consciousness, and thus at the same time a true object, for the object is the self being-for-itself.

796 This concept gave itself its fulfillment partly in acting spirit certain of itself, partly in religion. In the latter it attained absolute content as content, or in the form of representation, of otherness for consciousness; in the former shape, by contrast, the form is the self itself, for it contains acting spirit certain of itself: the self lives through the life of absolute spirit. This shape, as we see, is that simple concept, which, however, gives up its eternal essence, exists, or acts. It possesses division, or emergence, in the purity of the concept, for this purity is absolute abstraction, or negativity. It equally has within itself the element of its actuality 1807 751 or being, in pure knowledge itself; for pure knowledge is simple immediacy, which is being and existence just as much as essence: the former negative thought, the latter positive thought itself. Finally, this existence is equally being reflected out of it—both as existence and as duty—into itself, or being evil. This withdrawal into itself constitutes the opposition of the concept, and is thereby the appearance of the nonacting, nonactual pure knowledge of essence. Yet its appearance in this opposition is participation in it; pure knowledge of essence has in itself externalized its simplicity, for it is the division, or negativity, that the concept is. Insofar as this division is becoming-for-itself, it is evil; insofar as it is the in-itself, it is what remains good.—Now what first happens in itself is at the same time for consciousness, and itself equally doubled, both for it and as its being-for-itself, or its own doing. Thus the same thing already posited in itself now repeats itself as consciousness's knowledge of it and as conscious doing. Each relinquishes for the other the independence of the determinacy in which it appears against the other. This relinquishing is the same renunciation of the one-sidedness of the concept that in itself constituted the beginning, but it is now its renunciation, just as the concept it renounces is its own.—That in-itself of the beginning, as negativity, is in truth equally mediated; it now therefore posits itself as it is in truth, and the 1807 752 *negative, as the determinacy of each for the other and in itself, is self-sublating. One of the two parts of the opposition is the inequality of being within itself, in its singularity, with universality; the other is the inequality of its abstract universality with the self. The former dies to its being-for-itself and externalizes, confesses itself; the latter renounces the hardness of its abstract universality and thereby dies to its lifeless self and motionless universality. Thus the former has completed itself through the moment of universality that is essence, and the latter through the universality that is self. Through this movement of action, spirit—which is spirit only by existing, raising its existence into thought and thereby into absolute opposition, and returning from this opposition precisely through it and within it—has emerged as the pure universality of knowledge that is self-consciousness, as self-consciousness that is the simple unity of knowledge.

797 Thus what in religion was content, or the form of representing an other, is here the self's own doing. The concept unites the two: that the content is the self's own doing. For this concept, as we see, is knowledge of the self's doing within itself as all essence and all existence, knowledge of this subject as substance, and of substance as this knowledge of its doing.—What we have added here is solely, partly, the gathering 1807 753 of the individual moments, each of which in its principle presents the life of the whole spirit; partly, holding fast the concept in the form of the concept, whose content would already have emerged in those moments, and which would already have emerged itself in the form of a shape of consciousness.

798 This final shape of spirit—spirit that at the same time gives its complete and true content the form of the self, and thereby realizes its concept just as much as it remains within its concept in this realization—is absolute knowing. It is spirit knowing itself in the shape of spirit, or comprehending knowledge. Truth is not only in itself perfectly equal to certainty, but also has the shape of certainty of itself; or, in its existence—that is, for knowing spirit—it is in the form of knowledge of itself. Truth is the content that in religion is still unequal to its certainty. But this equality consists in the content's having received the shape of the self. What essence itself is—namely, the concept—has thereby become the element of existence, or the form of objectivity for consciousness. Spirit appearing to consciousness in this element, or, what is the same here, produced in it by consciousness, is science.

799 The nature, moments, and movement of this knowledge have thus emerged as its being the pure 1807 754 being-for-itself of self-consciousness. It is I, which is this and no other I, and which is equally immediately mediated, or a sublated, universal I.—It has a content that it distinguishes from itself; for it is pure negativity, or self-division: it is consciousness. In its distinction, this content is itself the I, for it is the movement of sublating itself, or the same pure negativity that the I is. In this distinguished content the I is reflected into itself; the content is comprehended only through the I's being at home with itself in its otherness. More determinately stated, this content is nothing other than the movement itself just expressed; for it is spirit traversing itself, indeed for itself as spirit, through having the shape of the concept in its objectivity.

800 As regards the existence of this concept, however, science appears in time and actuality no earlier than when spirit has attained this consciousness of itself. As spirit knowing what it is, it does not exist earlier or anywhere else than after completing the labor of subduing its imperfect shape, obtaining for its consciousness the shape of its essence, and in this way reconciling its self-consciousness with its consciousness.—Spirit being in and for itself, distinguished in its moments, is knowledge being-for-itself, comprehension in general, which as such has not yet 1807 755 attained substance, or is not absolute knowledge in itself.

801 In actuality, knowing substance is present earlier than its form, or conceptual shape. For substance is the still undeveloped in-itself, or the ground and concept in its still motionless simplicity, thus the inwardness or self of spirit that does not yet exist. What exists is present as the still undeveloped simple and immediate, or the object of representational consciousness in general. Because cognition is spiritual consciousness, for which what is in itself exists only insofar as it is being for the self and being of the self, or concept, it has for this reason initially only a poor object, compared with which substance and consciousness of it are richer. The manifestation substance possesses in this consciousness is in fact concealment, for it is still selfless being, and only certainty of itself is manifest to itself. Initially, therefore, only the abstract moments of substance belong to self-consciousness. Yet as these, as pure movements, drive themselves further, self-consciousness enriches itself until it has wrested the whole substance from consciousness, absorbed the whole structure of its essences into itself, and—since this negative relation to objectivity is equally positive, a positing—produced substance from itself and thereby at the same time restored it for consciousness. Thus in the concept that knows itself as concept, 1807 756 the moments appear earlier than the fulfilled whole, whose becoming is the movement of those moments. In consciousness, by contrast, the whole, though uncomprehended, is earlier than the moments.—Time is the concept itself that exists and presents itself to consciousness as empty intuition. Spirit therefore necessarily appears in time, and appears in time so long as it does not grasp its pure concept—that is, does not efface time. Time is the pure self, externally intuited and not grasped by the self, the merely intuited concept. When the concept grasps itself, it sublates its temporal form, comprehends intuiting, and is intuition comprehended and comprehending.—Time therefore appears as the fate and necessity of spirit not completed within itself: the necessity of enriching self-consciousness's share in consciousness, setting in motion the immediacy of the in-itself—the form in which substance exists in consciousness—or, conversely, taking the in-itself as the inward, of realizing and revealing what is initially only inward; that is, claiming it for certainty of itself.

802 For this reason it must be said that nothing is known that is not in experience, or, as the same thing is also expressed, that is not present as felt truth, as the inwardly revealed eternal, as the holy believed in, or whatever other expressions are used. For 1807 757 experience is precisely the content—and it is spirit—being in itself, substance, and thus the object of consciousness. Yet this substance that spirit is is its becoming what it is in itself; and only as this becoming reflecting itself into itself is spirit in itself truly spirit. In itself it is the movement that cognition is: the transformation of that in-itself into being-for-itself, of substance into subject, of the object of consciousness into the object of self-consciousness, that is, into an equally sublated object, or into the concept. This movement is the circle returning into itself, which presupposes its beginning and reaches it only at the end.—Since spirit is thus necessarily this differentiation within itself, its whole, intuited, confronts its simple self-consciousness; and because that whole is thus differentiated, it is distinguished into its intuited pure concept, time, and into the content, or the in-itself. As subject, substance contains the necessity, initially only inward, of presenting itself within itself as what it is in itself, as spirit. Only the completed objective presentation is at the same time substance's reflection, or its becoming self.—Before spirit has therefore perfected itself in itself, as world-spirit, it cannot attain its perfection as self-conscious spirit. The content of religion thus expresses in time, earlier than science, what spirit is; but science alone is spirit's true knowledge of itself.

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803 The movement of bringing forth the form of its knowledge of itself is the labor spirit accomplishes as actual history. Insofar as the religious community is initially the substance of absolute spirit, it is crude consciousness, whose existence is all the more barbaric and harsh the deeper its inner spirit is; and its dull self has all the harder a labor with its essence, the content of its consciousness alien to it. Only after it has given up the hope of sublating alienation in an external—that is, alien—manner does it turn toward itself, toward its own world and present, because the sublated alien manner is the return into self-consciousness. It discovers this world as its property and has thus taken the first step toward descending from the intellectual world, or rather toward animating that world's abstract element with the actual self. Through observation, on the one hand, it finds existence as thought and comprehends it, and conversely finds existence in its thought. Having thus initially expressed the immediate unity of thought and being, of abstract essence and self, itself abstractly, and reawakened the first being of light more purely—namely, as the unity of extension and being, for extension is a simplicity more equal to pure thought than light is—and thereby reawakened in thought the substance of the dawn, spirit at the same time recoils in horror from this abstract unity, this selfless substantiality, and 1807 759 asserts individuality against it. Yet only after it has externalized individuality in cultivation, thereby made it existence and established it throughout all existence, arrived at the thought of usefulness, and grasped existence as its will in absolute freedom, does it thus turn outward the thought of its innermost depths and express essence as I = I. But this I = I is movement reflecting itself into itself. For since this equality as absolute negativity is absolute difference, the I's equality with itself confronts this pure difference, which, as pure and at the same time objective to the self knowing itself, must be expressed as time. Thus, just as essence was previously expressed as the unity of thought and extension, it would have to be grasped as the unity of thought and time. Yet difference left to itself, restless and unstable time, instead collapses into itself; it is the objective repose of extension, while extension is pure equality with itself, the I.—Or the I is not merely the self, but the self's equality with itself; and this equality is complete and immediate unity with itself, or this subject is just as much substance. Substance for itself alone would be contentless intuition, or intuition of a content that, as determinate, would have only accidentality and be without necessity. Substance would count as the 1807 760 absolute only insofar as it were thought or intuited as absolute unity, and all content in its diversity would have to fall outside it into reflection not belonging to it, because substance would not be comprehended as subject, as reflecting upon itself and into itself, or as spirit. If a content were nevertheless to be spoken of, this would be partly only to cast it into the empty abyss of the absolute; partly, however, it would be gathered externally from sensuous perception. Knowledge would seem to have arrived at things, at their difference from knowledge itself and the difference among manifold things, without anyone comprehending how or from where.

804 Spirit, however, has shown itself to us to be neither merely the withdrawal of self-consciousness into its pure inwardness nor its mere immersion in substance and the nonbeing of its difference. Rather, it is this movement of the self, which externalizes itself and immerses itself in its substance, and has equally, as subject, gone out of substance into itself and makes substance its object and content, just as it sublates this difference of objectivity and content. That first reflection out of immediacy is the subject's distinguishing itself from its substance, or the self-dividing concept, the withdrawal into itself and becoming of the pure I. Since this difference is the pure doing of I = I, the concept is the necessity and the arising of existence that has substance as its 1807 761 essence and subsists for itself. Yet existence's subsistence for itself is the concept posited in determinacy, and thereby equally its movement within itself of descending into simple substance, which is subject only as this negativity and movement.—Neither must the I hold fast to itself in the form of self-consciousness against the form of substantiality and objectivity, as though afraid of its externalization—the power of spirit consists rather in remaining equal to itself in its externalization and, as what is in and for itself, positing being-for-itself as only a moment just as much as being-in-itself—nor is it a third thing that throws the differences back into the abyss of the absolute and pronounces their equality therein. Knowledge consists rather in this apparent inactivity that merely considers how what is distinguished moves within itself and returns into its unity.

805 In knowledge, then, spirit has concluded the movement of its shaping insofar as that movement is burdened with the unsurmounted difference of consciousness. It has attained the pure element of its existence, the concept. According to the freedom of its being, the content is the self externalizing itself, or the immediate unity of self-knowing. The pure movement of this externalization, considered in the content, constitutes its necessity. As determinate, the differentiated content exists in relation, not in itself, and is its unrest of sublating itself, 1807 762 or negativity. Thus necessity, or diversity, like free being, is equally the self; and in this self-endowed form, in which existence is immediately thought, the content is concept. Having attained the concept, spirit therefore unfolds existence and movement in this ether of its life, and is science. In science the moments of its movement no longer present themselves as determinate shapes of consciousness, but, because consciousness's difference has returned into the self, as determinate concepts and as their organic movement grounded within itself. Whereas in the phenomenology of spirit each moment is the difference between knowledge and truth and the movement in which that difference sublates itself, science, by contrast, contains neither this difference nor its sublation; rather, because the moment has the form of the concept, it unites the objective form of truth and of the knowing self in immediate unity. The moment does not appear as this movement of passing back and forth from consciousness or representation into self-consciousness and conversely, but as its pure shape freed from its appearance in consciousness, the pure concept, whose advance depends solely on its pure determinacy. Conversely, to every abstract moment of science there corresponds a shape of appearing spirit in general. Just as existent spirit is not richer than science, so in its 1807 763 content it is not poorer either. To recognize the pure concepts of science in this form of shapes of consciousness constitutes the side of their reality, according to which their essence—the concept, posited in science as thought in its simple mediation—unfolds the moments of this mediation and presents itself according to its inner opposition.

806 Science contains within itself this necessity of externalizing itself from the form of the pure concept, and the transition of the concept into consciousness. For precisely because self-knowing spirit grasps its concept, it is immediate equality with itself, which in its difference is certainty of the immediate, or sensuous consciousness—the beginning from which we started. This release of itself from the form of its self is the highest freedom and security of its knowledge of itself.

807 Yet this externalization is still imperfect; it expresses the relation of certainty of itself to the object, which, precisely because it is in relation, has not attained its complete freedom. Knowledge knows not only itself but also the negative of itself, or its limit. To know one's limit means to know how to sacrifice oneself. This sacrifice is the externalization in which spirit presents its becoming spirit in the form of free contingent happening, intuiting its pure self as time outside itself, and equally its being as space. This latter becoming of spirit, nature, is its 1807 764 living immediate becoming; nature, externalized spirit, is in its existence nothing but this eternal externalization of its subsistence and the movement that establishes the subject.

808 The other side of spirit's becoming, history, is knowing, self-mediating becoming—spirit externalized into time; yet this externalization is equally the externalization of itself: the negative is the negative of itself. This becoming presents a sluggish movement and succession of spirits, a gallery of images, each endowed with the complete wealth of spirit and moving so sluggishly precisely because the self must penetrate and digest this whole wealth of its substance. Since spirit's perfection consists in completely knowing what it is, its substance, this knowledge is its withdrawal into itself, in which it abandons its existence and entrusts its shape to remembrance. In withdrawing into itself, it is submerged in the night of its self-consciousness; yet its vanished existence is preserved in this night, and this sublated existence—the previous existence, but reborn from knowledge—is the new existence, a new world and shape of spirit. In this world it must just as ingenuously begin again from the start with its immediacy and rear itself anew from there, as though everything preceding were lost to it and it had learned nothing from the experience of earlier spirits. Yet recollection into inwardness has preserved them and is the inward and in fact higher form 1807 765 of substance. Thus, when this spirit begins its cultivation again from the start, seemingly proceeding only from itself, it begins at the same time on a higher stage. The realm of spirits formed in existence in this manner constitutes a succession in which one displaced another and each took over the kingdom of the world from its predecessor. Their goal is the revelation of depth, and this depth is the absolute concept. This revelation is therefore the sublation of its depth, or its extension, the negativity of this I being within itself, which is its externalization or substance—and its time: that this externalization externalizes itself within itself and thus, in its extension, is equally in its depth, the self. The goal, absolute knowing, or spirit knowing itself as spirit, has as its path the remembrance of spirits as they are within themselves and accomplish the organization of their realm. Their preservation on the side of their free existence appearing in the form of contingency is history; on the side of their comprehended organization, however, it is the science of appearing knowledge. Together, the two—comprehended history—form the remembrance and the place of skulls of absolute spirit, the actuality, truth, and certainty of its throne, without which it would be lifeless and solitary; only—from the chalice of this realm of spiritsits infinity foams up to it.

Plain English translation

Mouseia's complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from the same complete German, paragraph by paragraph, in shorter sentences and everyday words.

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VIII. *Absolute Knowing*.

788 The spirit of revealed religion has not yet overcome its consciousness as such. Or, what is the same, its actual self-consciousness is not the object of its consciousness. Spirit itself in general, and the moments distinguishing themselves within it, fall into representation and the form of objectivity. Representation's content is absolute spirit. All that remains is to sublate this mere form—or rather, because it belongs to consciousness as such, its truth must already have emerged in consciousness's shapes.—This overcoming of consciousness's object must not be taken one-sidedly, as its showing itself returning into the self. More precisely, the object as such both presented itself to consciousness as vanishing, and, still more, the externalization of 1807 743 self-consciousness is what posits thinghood. This externalization has not only a negative but a positive meaning, and has this meaning not only for us, or in itself, but for self-consciousness itself. For it, the object's negative character, or its self-sublation, has positive meaning—or self-consciousness knows the object's nullity—on the one hand because self-consciousness externalizes itself. For in this externalization it posits itself as object, or, because of the inseparable unity of being-for-itself, posits the object as itself. On the other hand, this also contains the further moment that it has equally sublated this externalization and objectivity and taken them back into itself, and thus remains at home with itself in its otherness as such.—This is the movement of consciousness, which in it is the totality of its moments.—It must likewise relate to the object according to the totality of its determinations and have grasped it in this way according to each. This totality of the object's determinations makes it in itself spiritual essence. For consciousness it becomes this in truth by consciousness's grasping each individual determination as self, or through the spiritual relation to them just described.

789 The object is therefore partly immediate being, or a thing in general, corresponding to immediate consciousness; partly a becoming-other of itself, its relation, or being for another and 1807 744 being-for-itself, determinacy, corresponding to perception; partly essence, or as universal, corresponding to understanding. As a whole it is the syllogism, or movement of the universal through determination to individuality, as well as the reverse movement from individuality through individuality as sublated, or determination, to the universal.—According to these three determinations, then, consciousness must know the object as itself. Yet what we are discussing is not knowing as pure comprehension of the object. This knowing is to be shown only in its coming-to-be, or in its moments on the side belonging to consciousness as such; the moments of the concept proper, or pure knowing, are to be shown in the form of shapes of consciousness. Thus in consciousness as such the object does not yet appear as the spiritual essence we have just expressed, and consciousness's relation to it is not its consideration in this totality as such, or in its pure conceptual form. Instead it is partly a shape of consciousness in general, partly a number of such shapes that we gather together, and in which the totality of the object's moments and of consciousness's relation can be shown only as dissolved into its moments.

790 For this side of grasping the object as it exists in the shape of consciousness, 1807 745 then, we need only recall the earlier shapes of consciousness that have already appeared.—Regarding the object as immediate, as indifferent being, we saw observing reason seek and find itself in this indifferent thing. That is, it was conscious of its doing as equally external as the object of which it was conscious was merely immediate.—At its highest point we also saw it express its determination in the infinite judgment that the being of the I is a thing.—And indeed a sensory, immediate thing. If the I is called soul, it is admittedly also represented as a thing, but an invisible, intangible thing, and so forth—in fact, therefore, not as immediate being or as what is meant by a thing.—Taken as it immediately reads, that judgment is spiritless, or rather spiritlessness itself. But according to its concept it is in fact the most spiritually rich. This inward aspect, not yet present in it, is what the other two moments to be considered express.

791 The thing is I. In fact, in this infinite judgment the thing is sublated. It is nothing in itself; it has meaning only in relation, only through the I and its relation to the thing.—This moment emerged for consciousness in pure insight and enlightenment. Things are simply useful and must be considered only according to their 1807 746 usefulness.—Cultivated self-consciousness, which has passed through the world of self-alienated spirit, has through its externalization produced the thing as itself. It therefore still retains itself within the thing and knows its lack of independence, or knows that the thing is essentially only being for another. Or, to express fully the relation—that is, what alone here constitutes the object's nature—the thing counts for consciousness as something existing for itself. Consciousness declares sense-certainty absolute truth, but declares this being-for-itself itself a moment that only vanishes and passes into its opposite, being for another, surrendered to it.

792 But knowing the thing is not yet complete in this. The thing must be known as self not only according to immediacy of being and determinacy, but also as essence or inwardness. This is present in moral self-consciousness. It knows its knowing as absolute essence, or being simply as pure willing or knowing. Nothing is except this willing and knowing. Other things have only inessential being—that is, being not in itself, only its empty shell. Insofar as moral consciousness releases existence from the self in its representation of the world, it equally takes existence back into itself. Finally, as conscience it is no longer this still alternating positioning and shifting of existence and self. It knows that its 1807 747 existence as such is this pure self-certainty. The objective element into which it places itself as acting is nothing other than the self's pure knowing of itself.

793 These are the moments composing spirit's reconciliation with its consciousness proper. Taken separately, they are individual, and only their spiritual unity constitutes the power of this reconciliation. But the last of these moments is necessarily this unity itself and, as is clear, in fact combines them all within itself. Spirit certain of itself in its existence has nothing as the element of existence but this self-knowing. Declaring that it does what it does from conviction of duty—this language of its own—is the validity of its action.—Acting is the first separation, in itself, of the concept's simplicity and the return from this separation. This first movement turns into the second when the element of recognition sets itself, as simple knowing of duty, against the difference and division lying in action as such, and thus forms an iron actuality against action. But in forgiveness we saw this hardness relinquish and externalize itself. Here, therefore, for self-consciousness actuality as immediate existence has no meaning other than being pure knowing. Likewise, as determinate existence, or 1807 748 relation, what confronts itself is a knowing partly of this purely individual self, partly of knowing as universal. This also posits that the third moment, universality or essence, counts for each of the opposed sides only as knowing. Finally they equally sublate the empty opposition still remaining and are the knowing of I—I: this individual self that is immediately pure knowing, or universal.

794 This reconciliation of consciousness with self-consciousness thus shows itself accomplished from two sides: once in religious spirit, the other time in consciousness itself as such. They differ in that the former is reconciliation in the form of being-in-itself, the latter in the form of being-for-itself. As considered, they initially fall apart. In the order in which its shapes appeared to us, consciousness had long since reached partly the individual moments of this reconciliation, partly their union, before religion too gave its object the shape of actual self-consciousness. The union of both sides has not yet been shown. It closes this series of spirit's shapes. For in it spirit comes to know itself not only as it is in itself, or according to its absolute content, nor only as it is for itself, according to its contentless form or the side of self-consciousness, but as it is in and for itself.

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795 But this union has already happened in itself, including in religion, in representation's return into self-consciousness. Yet it has not happened according to its proper form, since the religious side is the side of the in-itself, which stands opposed to self-consciousness's movement. The union therefore belongs to this other side, which in the opposition is the side of reflection into itself. It is thus the side containing itself and its opposite, not only in itself, or in a universal way, but for itself, or developed and differentiated. The content, as the other side of self-conscious spirit insofar as it is the other side, is present and has been shown in its completeness. The union still lacking is the concept's simple unity. This concept is also already present on the side of self-consciousness itself. But as it appeared earlier, it has, like every other moment, the form of being a particular shape of consciousness.—It is therefore that part of the shape of spirit certain of itself which remains within its concept, and was called the beautiful soul. It is spirit's self-knowledge in its pure transparent unity: self-consciousness knowing this pure knowledge of pure being-within-itself as spirit—not merely intuition of the divine, but the divine's self-intuition.—When this concept holds itself fixed against its realization, it is the one-sided shape 1807 750 whose disappearance into empty mist, but also whose positive externalization and advance, we saw. Through this realization, the self-insistence of this objectless self-consciousness—the concept's determinacy against its fulfillment—is sublated. Its self-consciousness gains the form of universality, and what remains to it is its true concept, or the concept that has gained its realization. It is the concept in its truth, namely in unity with its externalization: knowledge of pure knowing, not as the abstract essence that duty is, but as essence that is this knowing, this pure self-consciousness, and therefore also true object, since it is the self existing for itself.

796 This concept gave itself fulfillment partly in acting spirit certain of itself, partly in religion. In religion it gained absolute content as content, or in the form of representation, of otherness for consciousness. In the other shape, by contrast, the form is the self itself, since it contains acting spirit certain of itself: the self lives through the life of absolute spirit. As we see, this shape is that simple concept, but a concept giving up its eternal essence, existing, or acting. It has division, or emergence, in the concept's purity, since this is absolute abstraction or negativity. Likewise, it has the element of its actuality 1807 751 or being within it, in pure knowing itself. For pure knowing is simple immediacy, which is equally being and existence, and essence: the former negative thought, the latter positive thought itself. Finally, this existence is equally a reflection into itself out of pure knowing, both as existence and as duty—or a being evil. This going-into-itself constitutes the opposition of the concept, and thus the emergence of nonacting, nonactual pure knowledge of essence. But its emergence in this opposition is participation in it. Pure knowledge of essence has in itself externalized its simplicity, since it is the division, or negativity, that the concept is. Insofar as this division is becoming-for-itself, it is evil; insofar as it is the in-itself, it is what remains good.—What first happens in itself is also for consciousness, and itself equally doubled: both for consciousness and as consciousness's being-for-itself, or its own doing. What is already posited in itself is therefore now repeated as consciousness's knowledge of it and as conscious doing. Each side gives up, for the other, the independence of the determinacy in which it confronts the other. This relinquishment is the same renunciation of the concept's one-sidedness that constituted the beginning in itself. But now it is its renunciation, just as the concept it renounces is its own.—That in-itself of the beginning, as negativity, is in truth equally mediated. It now therefore posits itself as it is in truth, and the 1807 752 *negative, as the determinacy of each for the other and in itself, is what sublates itself. One side of the opposition is the inequality of being-within-itself in its individuality with universality; the other is the inequality of its abstract universality with the self. The first dies to its being-for-itself, externalizes itself, and confesses. The second renounces the hardness of its abstract universality and thereby dies to its lifeless self and motionless universality. Thus the first has completed itself through the moment of universality that is essence, and the second through universality that is self. Through this movement of action, spirit has emerged as the pure universality of knowing that is self-consciousness—as self-consciousness that is the simple unity of knowing. For spirit is spirit only by existing, raising its existence into thought and thereby into absolute opposition, and returning from this opposition precisely through it and within it.

797 What in religion was content, or the form of representing an other, is here the self's own doing. The concept unites them in the fact that the content is the self's own doing. For, as we see, this concept is the knowledge of the self's doing within itself as all essentiality and all existence: the knowledge of this subject as substance, and of substance as this knowledge of its doing.—What we have added here is only, partly, the gathering 1807 753 of the individual moments, each of which in its principle presents the life of the whole spirit; partly, holding fast to the concept in the form of the concept, whose content had already emerged in those moments and which itself had already emerged in the form of a shape of consciousness.

798 This final shape of spirit—spirit that also gives its complete and true content the form of self, thereby realizing its concept while remaining in its concept in this realization—is absolute knowing. It is spirit knowing itself in the shape of spirit, or comprehending knowing. Truth is not only in itself completely equal to certainty, but also has the shape of self-certainty. Or in its existence—that is, for knowing spirit—it is in the form of self-knowing. Truth is the content that in religion is still unequal to its certainty. But this equality consists in the content's receiving the shape of self. Through this, what the essence itself is, namely the concept, has become the element of existence, or the form of objectivity for consciousness. Spirit appearing to consciousness in this element—or, what is the same here, produced by consciousness within it—is science.

799 The nature, moments, and movement of this knowing have thus emerged as the pure 1807 754 being-for-itself of self-consciousness. It is I, which is this I and no other, and which is equally immediately mediated, or sublated universal I.—It has a content that it distinguishes from itself, since it is pure negativity, or self-division; it is consciousness. In its difference this content is itself the I, since it is the movement of sublating itself, or the same pure negativity that the I is. In this differentiated content the I is reflected into itself. The content is comprehended only because the I remains at home with itself in its otherness. More precisely, this content is nothing other than the movement just expressed. For it is spirit traversing itself, and doing so for itself as spirit, by having the shape of the concept in its objectivity.

800 As for this concept's existence, however, science does not appear in time and actuality until spirit has reached this consciousness of itself. As spirit knowing what it is, it exists neither earlier nor anywhere else than after completing the work of overcoming its imperfect shaping, obtaining for its consciousness the shape of its essence, and thereby reconciling its self-consciousness with its consciousness.—Spirit existing in and for itself, distinguished in its moments, is knowing existing for itself, comprehension in general, which as such has not yet reached 1807 755 substance, or is not absolute knowing within itself.

801 In actuality, knowing substance exists earlier than its form, or conceptual shape. For substance is the still undeveloped in-itself, or the ground and concept in its still motionless simplicity. It is thus the inwardness, or spirit's self, that does not yet exist. What exists is present as the still undeveloped simple and immediate, or the object of representing consciousness in general. Knowing is spiritual consciousness for which what is in itself exists only insofar as it is being for the self and being of the self, or concept. For this reason, knowing initially has only a poor object, compared with which substance and its consciousness are richer. The revelation substance has in this consciousness is in fact concealment, since substance is still selfless being, and only self-certainty is revealed to itself. Thus initially only the abstract moments of substance belong to self-consciousness. But as these drive themselves further as pure movements, self-consciousness enriches itself until it has wrested the whole substance from consciousness, absorbed into itself the entire structure of substance's essences, and—since this negative relation to objectivity is equally positive, a positing—produced substance from itself and thereby also restored it for consciousness. Thus in the concept knowing itself as concept, 1807 756 the moments appear earlier than the fulfilled whole, whose coming-to-be is the movement of those moments. In consciousness, by contrast, the whole, though uncomprehended, is earlier than the moments.—Time is the concept itself that exists and presents itself to consciousness as empty intuition. Spirit therefore necessarily appears in time, and appears in time as long as it has not grasped its pure concept—that is, has not erased time. Time is the external, intuited pure self not grasped by the self, the merely intuited concept. When the concept grasps itself, it sublates its temporal form, comprehends intuiting, and is comprehended and comprehending intuition.—Time therefore appears as the fate and necessity of spirit not complete within itself: the necessity to enrich self-consciousness's share in consciousness, to set in motion the immediacy of the in-itself—the form in which substance exists in consciousness—or, conversely, taking the in-itself as the inward, to realize and reveal what is initially only inward: that is, to claim it for self-certainty.

802 For this reason we must say that nothing is known that is not in experience, or, as the same thing is also expressed, that is not present as felt truth, as inwardly revealed eternity, as believed holiness, or whatever other expressions are used. For 1807 757 experience is precisely this: the content—and it is spirit—is in itself, substance, and thus object of consciousness. But this substance, which is spirit, is spirit's becoming what it is in itself. Only as this becoming that reflects itself into itself is spirit in itself truly spirit. In itself it is the movement that knowing is: the transformation of that in-itself into the for-itself, of substance into subject, of consciousness's object into self-consciousness's object, that is, into an equally sublated object, or into the concept. It is the circle returning into itself, presupposing its beginning and reaching it only at the end.—Since spirit is therefore necessarily this differentiating within itself, its whole, intuited, confronts its simple self-consciousness. Since the whole is thus differentiated, it is differentiated into its intuited pure concept, time, and into the content, or the in-itself. Substance as subject contains the necessity, at first only inward, of presenting itself within itself as what it is in itself, as spirit. Only the completed objective presentation is also substance's reflection, or its becoming self.—Before spirit has completed itself in itself, as world-spirit, it cannot reach its completion as self-conscious spirit. Religion's content therefore expresses what spirit is earlier in time than science does, but science alone is spirit's true knowledge of itself.

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803 The movement of bringing forth the form of its self-knowledge is the work spirit accomplishes as actual history. Insofar as the religious community is initially absolute spirit's substance, it is crude consciousness, whose existence is all the more barbarous and harsh the deeper its inner spirit is, and whose dull self has all the harder labor with its essence, the content of its consciousness foreign to it. Only after giving up the hope of sublating alienation in an external—that is, foreign—way does it turn to itself, to its own world and present. For the sublation of the foreign way is the return into self-consciousness. It discovers this world and present as its property and has thus taken the first step down from the intellectual world, or rather toward animating that world's abstract element with the actual self. Through observation, on the one hand, it finds existence as thought and comprehends it, and conversely finds existence in its thought. At first it has thus itself abstractly expressed the immediate unity of thought and being, of abstract essence and self, and has more purely expressed the first being of light as the unity of extension and being—for extension is a simplicity more equal to pure thought than light is. It has thereby reawakened in thought the substance of the sunrise. But spirit also shrinks back in horror from this abstract unity, from this selfless substantiality, and 1807 759 asserts individuality against it. Only after externalizing individuality in cultivation, thereby making it existence and asserting it throughout all existence, reaching the thought of usefulness, and grasping existence as its will in absolute freedom, does spirit thus bring out the thought of its innermost depth and express essence as I = I. But this I = I is movement reflecting itself into itself. For since this equality as absolute negativity is absolute difference, the I's self-equality confronts this pure difference, which, as pure and also objective to the self knowing itself, must be expressed as time. Thus, just as essence was earlier expressed as the unity of thought and extension, it would have to be grasped as the unity of thought and time. But difference left to itself, time without rest or stability, instead collapses into itself. It is the objective repose of extension, while extension is pure equality with itself, the I.—Or the I is not only self, but the self's equality with itself. This equality is complete and immediate unity with itself; or this subject is equally substance. Substance taken alone would be contentless intuition, or the intuition of a content that, being determinate, would have only accidental status and lack necessity. Substance would count as 1807 760 absolute only insofar as it was thought or intuited as absolute unity. All content, in its difference, would have to fall outside substance into a reflection that does not belong to it, since substance would not be subject, not what reflects over itself and into itself, or not comprehended as spirit. If content were nevertheless to be discussed, this would be partly only to throw it into the empty abyss of the absolute; partly it would be gathered externally from sensory perception. Knowing would seem to have arrived at things, at their difference from itself and at the difference of manifold things, without anyone comprehending how or from where.

804 But spirit has shown itself to us as neither merely self-consciousness's withdrawal into its pure inwardness, nor its mere immersion in substance and the nonbeing of its difference. It is instead this movement of the self: externalizing itself and immersing itself in its substance, equally withdrawing from substance into itself as subject and making substance its object and content, while sublating this difference of objectivity and content. That first reflection out of immediacy is the subject's differentiation of itself from its substance, or the concept dividing itself, the withdrawal into itself and coming-to-be of the pure I. Since this difference is the pure doing of I = I, the concept is the necessity and emergence of existence, which has substance as its 1807 761 essence and subsists for itself. But existence's subsistence for itself is the concept posited in determinacy, and thus equally the concept's movement within itself of descending into simple substance, which is subject only as this negativity and movement.—The I must neither hold itself fixed in the form of self-consciousness against the form of substantiality and objectivity, as if afraid of its externalization—spirit's strength is instead to remain equal to itself in its externalization, and, as what exists in and for itself, to posit being-for-itself just as much as only a moment as being-in-itself—nor is the I a third thing throwing the differences back into the abyss of the absolute and declaring their equality there. Knowing instead consists in this apparent inactivity, which merely considers how what is differentiated moves within itself and returns into its unity.

805 In knowing, then, spirit has concluded the movement of its shaping insofar as this shaping is burdened with consciousness's unovercome difference. It has gained the pure element of its existence, the concept. In the freedom of its being, the content is the self externalizing itself, or the immediate unity of self-knowing. Considered in the content, the pure movement of this externalization constitutes the content's necessity. Different content as determinate exists in relation, not in itself; and it is its unrest of sublating itself, 1807 762 or negativity. Thus necessity, or difference, is equally the self, just as free being is. In this self-endowed form, in which existence is immediately thought, the content is concept. Having gained the concept, spirit therefore unfolds existence and movement in this ether of its life, and is science. In science, the moments of spirit's movement no longer present themselves as determinate shapes of consciousness. Since consciousness's difference has returned into the self, they present themselves as determinate concepts and as their organic movement grounded within itself. In the phenomenology of spirit, each moment is the difference of knowing and truth, and the movement in which this difference sublates itself. Science, by contrast, does not contain this difference and its sublation. Instead, because the moment has the form of the concept, it unites the objective form of truth and the knowing self in immediate unity. The moment does not appear as this movement of passing back and forth from consciousness or representation into self-consciousness and conversely. Instead, it appears in its pure shape, freed from its appearance in consciousness: the pure concept. The concept's advance depends solely on its pure determinacy. Conversely, to each abstract moment of science there corresponds a shape of appearing spirit in general. Just as existing spirit is not richer than science, so in its 1807 763 content it is not poorer either. Knowing science's pure concepts in this form of shapes of consciousness constitutes the side of its reality in which its essence, the concept—posited within science as thought in its simple mediation—unfolds the moments of this mediation and presents itself according to its inner opposition.

806 Science contains within itself this necessity of giving up the form of the pure concept, and the concept's transition into consciousness. Precisely because self-knowing spirit grasps its concept, it is immediate equality with itself, which in its difference is certainty of the immediate, or sensory consciousness—the beginning from which we started. This release of itself from the form of its self is the highest freedom and security of its self-knowing.

807 Yet this externalization is still incomplete. It expresses self-certainty's relation to the object, which, precisely because it is in the relation, has not gained its complete freedom. Knowing knows not only itself but also its own negative, or its limit. To know its limit means to know how to sacrifice itself. This sacrifice is the externalization in which spirit presents its becoming spirit in the form of free contingent occurrence, intuiting its pure self as time outside it, and equally its being as space. This latter becoming of spirit, nature, is its 1807 764 living immediate becoming. Nature, externalized spirit, is in its existence nothing other than this eternal externalization of its subsistence and the movement that establishes the subject.

808 But the other side of its becoming, history, is knowing, self-mediating becoming—spirit externalized into time. Yet this externalization is equally the externalization of itself; the negative is its own negative. This becoming presents a slow movement and succession of spirits, a gallery of images, each equipped with spirit's complete wealth. It moves so slowly precisely because the self must penetrate and digest this entire wealth of its substance. Since spirit's completion consists in completely knowing what it is, its substance, this knowing is its withdrawal into itself, in which it leaves its existence and hands its shape over to recollection. In its withdrawal into itself it has sunk into the night of its self-consciousness, but its vanished existence is preserved there. This sublated existence—the former one, but born anew from knowing—is the new existence, a new world and shape of spirit. In this new world spirit must just as unselfconsciously begin again from its immediacy and grow great again from it, as if everything preceding were lost to it and it had learned nothing from the experience of earlier spirits. But recollection, the taking-inward, has preserved them and is the inwardness and in fact the higher form 1807 765 of substance. Thus when this spirit begins its cultivation again from the beginning, seeming to start only from itself, it also begins at a higher level. The realm of spirits that has formed itself in existence in this way constitutes a succession in which one replaced another, and each took over the world's realm from its predecessor. Their goal is the revelation of depth, and this depth is the absolute concept. This revelation is therefore the sublation of its depth, or its extension: the negativity of this I within itself, which is its externalization or substance—and its time, in which this externalization externalizes itself within itself and is thus, in its extension, equally in its depth, the self. The goal, absolute knowing, or spirit knowing itself as spirit, has for its path the recollection of spirits as they are within themselves and accomplish the organization of their realm. Their preservation, on the side of their free existence appearing in the form of contingency, is history; on the side of their comprehended organization it is the science of appearing knowing. Both together, comprehended history, form the recollection and the place of skulls of absolute spirit, the actuality, truth, and certainty of its throne, without which it would be lifeless and alone. Only—from the cup of this realm of spiritsits infinity foams up to it.

About this section

VIII. Absolute knowing is part of The Phenomenology of Spirit by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This page sets the German original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 10 of 10 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.

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