At the beginning, the content of the will is simply there. The will did not produce it itself. It finds it already there.

What follows from this? The will is free, yes. But at first it is free only in itself. That means: in its potential. We who look at it see its freedom. The will itself does not yet have its freedom before its eyes. It is free and at the same time unfree.

A comparison: A child is already a human being. It has reason, but only as a potential, as a possibility. It still has to work its way toward being a rational, free human being. It must go out of itself, learn and educate itself. In this way, it becomes for itself what it already is in itself.

The same holds for the will. It is free for itself only when it has itself as its object. That is, when it wants freedom itself.

Here we also see what “finite” means. Something is one thing in its potential, but it still shows itself as something else. Potential and appearance fall apart.

We should remember two things. If you know a thing only in its potential, you do not yet know it in its truth. And the mere potential also exists already, in a shape of its own. After all, the child really exists, as a child.

The danger: The understanding likes to stop at the potential. Then it calls freedom a capacity. It thinks: I am free because I could if I wanted to. In this way, freedom remains a mere possibility. In its view, what I really want is just an application to some material. That does not belong to freedom itself, it says. So the understanding holds an empty shell of freedom in its hand, not its truth.

Summary: At first the will is free in its potential, but not yet in reality. It only becomes really free when it wants freedom itself.

§ 469. Spirit as will knows itself as resolving upon itself within itself and as fulfilling itself out of itself. This fulfilled being-for-self or individuality constitutes the side of existence or reality of the Idea of spirit; as will spirit enters into actuality, as knowing it stands on the ground of the universality of the concept. – As giving itself its content, the will is with itself, free in general; this is its determinate concept. – Its finitude consists in the formalism of this, that its being fulfilled through itself is the abstract determinacy, its own determinacy in general, which is not identified with developed reason. The determination of the will which is in itself is to bring freedom into existence in the formal will, and the purpose of the latter is accordingly to fulfil itself with its concept, i.e. to make freedom its determinacy, its content and purpose as well as its determinate being. This concept, freedom, is essentially only as thinking; the way of the will to make itself objective spirit is to raise itself to a thinking will – to give itself the content which it can have only as a will that thinks itself. True freedom is, as ethical life, this: that the will has as its purposes not a subjective, i.e. selfish, content, but a universal one; such a content, however, is only in thinking and through thinking; it is nothing less than absurd to want to exclude thinking from ethical life, religiosity, uprightness, and so forth.

§ 469. Spirit as will knows itself as determining itself, and thus as fulfilling itself out of itself. This fulfilled being-for-self or individuality constitutes the side of existence or reality of the Idea of spirit, whose concept is reason. – The finitude of the will consists in its formalism, according to which it is, as self-determining, with itself and hence free, but this being fulfilled through itself is at first only the abstract determinacy, its own determinacy in general, and has not yet identified itself with developed reason. The determination of the will which is in itself is to bring freedom into existence in the formal will, and hence the purpose of the latter is to fulfil itself with this its concept, i.e. to make freedom its determinacy, its content and purpose as well as its determinate being. This concept, freedom, is essentially only as thinking; the way of the will to make itself objective spirit is to raise itself to a thinking will – to give itself the content which it can have only as something that thinks itself. True freedom, ethical life, is this: that the will has as its purposes not a subjective, i.e. selfish, content, but a universal one; such a content, however, is only in thinking and through thinking; it is nothing less than absurd to want to exclude thinking from ethical life, religiosity, uprightness and so forth.

§ 388. Spirit as intelligence is at first, however, abstractly for itself; as free will it is fulfilled, because it is as concept, as self-determining. This fulfilled being-for-self or individuality constitutes the side of existence or reality of the Idea of spirit, whose concept is reason.