794

[R Srivatsan]

794.  The reconciliation between consciousness and self-consciousness, i.e., seeing that the one is (related to, and ultimately) the same as the other occurs in the exposition of the PhS in two directions, and at two times.  One, it occurs at the end of Conscience in the Spirit Section, where forgiveness occurs between the self-consciousness/other consciousness of the beautiful soul/community.  Two, it occurs at the end of Revealed Religion, when the self-consciousness sees the community as its own self, its We that is I.  In revealed religion, the reconciliation is in the form of the being-in-itself, i.e., the individual in the community, while with conscience the reconciliation is in the form of the being-for-itself, i.e., the mutual forgiveness between two types of consciousness.  Consciousness as Conscience arrives at its unity long before Religion does (in our exposition) because we needed to go through the whole of the spirit section before beginning to talk about religion as the representation of the (working) spirit of the community to itself.

However, the final unification of conscience/forgiveness's perspective and that of revealed religion has not yet been achieved.  The series of meditations on the patterns of consciousness and spirit, will close when the two sides, i.e.,  being-for-self as pure form devoid of content (conscience) and  being-in-itself as content devoid of the form of self-consciousness (religious subject) unite and come together as being-in-and-for-itself.

The occurrence of this unification will mean that religion will become rational and individual reason will become spiritual in the Hegelian sense.  Thus the opposition of faith and enlightenment will be sublated:  faith becomes rationalized and insight will become spiritually united with the community to which it is responsible.

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