795

[R Srivatsan]

795.  The unification between consciousness and self-consciousness has already happened in religion, when the I sees itself as part of the We in revealed religion.  However, this unification is in-itself (i.e., it is a unification that does not comprehend what it is on about).  This is because the religious consciousness still sees god as an external Object beyond itself.

Therefore the unification  has to proceed from the other side, i.e., in the beautiful soul, which is the reflection or self-consciousness of morality, and the turning inward for insight into the truth.  This inwardness is both an abstraction (a for-itself) and a concretion (i.e., a development and articulation of its position through reason).  Its other side, i.e., the consciousness of the community, too has been exhibited in its completeness, i.e., in the form of its identity and difference from the beautiful soul itself.  What is lacking on this side, is the Concept, i.e., the sublation whereby the identity and difference become identity in difference.

However, the beautiful soul in its isolation and ivory tower withdrew from any action, and in this state, literally vanished because of its irrelevance.  But at the same time, the beautiful soul also saw its own reflection in the community and saw its own evil in that reflection -- this led to its progression.  The point Hegel makes is that this beautiful soul's self-consciousness is as much the self-consciousness of God, insofar as all individual self consciousnesses are expressions of substance becoming subject and spirit expressing itself, which for Hegel is the actuality of God as process, as opposed to God as prime mover or supreme being without cause.  This God is spirit as community.  Insofar as the beautiful soul is an individual who has arisen out of the very community he opposes ("This is not me"), (s)he represents the identity of the community in the difference she marks out from it.

In the progression (that is an opposite movement of the vanishing or irrelevance of its essence) the beautiful soul approaches the genuine concept, i.e., its realization that in its withdrawal has to accommodate itself to the in-itself of the community, the We.  It has to unify with its estrangement (from the community).  Its knowledge is no longer the abstract essence of duty, nor is it the pure inner voice that whispers the truth into its ear, but a rational comprehension of what is good for the We, in the concrete form of the in-itself of actual social life.

Srivats

   

 

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R Srivatsan
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There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning – devotion to individuals, to groups or to causes, social, political, intellectual or creative work … in old age we should wish still to have passions strong enough to prevent us turning in on ourselves. One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, compassion. - Simone de Beauvoir