We have reached the end of morality. What has it shown us?

Two sides that each lack the other:

The good was universal, but empty. It did not say what to do.

Conscience was alive and decisive. But it had no firm content. It could talk itself into anything.

Both need each other. The good needs someone who determines it and does it. Conscience needs a content that holds for all.

A dangerous longing:

Someone who can no longer bear the emptiness inside often looks for something to hold on to. He would rather submit to an outside authority than go on floating in emptiness. That is understandable. But it is not the solution.

The solution:

The solution is the unity of both sides. The good comes alive in the will of people. And the will of people finds its firm content in the good. We call this unity ethical life. In it, people live in family, society and state by orders that they know as their own.

This is no mere claim. It has shown itself. Right and morality both lead there of their own accord.

Summary: The good without conscience is empty, and conscience without the good has no footing. Their unity is ethical life. With it the third part of the book begins.

§ 512. This highest pinnacle of the phenomenon of the will, which has volatilized itself into this absolute vanity – a being-good that is not objective but only certain of itself, and a certainty of itself in the nullity of the universal – collapses immediately in upon itself. Evil, as the innermost reflection of subjectivity into itself against the objective and universal, which is to it mere semblance, is the same as the good disposition of the abstract good, which reserves to subjectivity the determination of that good; – the wholly abstract seeming, the immediate perverting and annihilating of itself. The result, the truth of this seeming, is, on its negative side, the absolute nullity of this willing that is for itself against the good, as well as of the good that is to be merely abstract; on its affirmative side, within the concept, that seeming, thus collapsing into itself, is the same simple universality of the will which the good is. Subjectivity in this its identity with the same is only the infinite form, the activity and development thereof; thus the standpoint of the mere relation of the two to one another and of the ought is abandoned, and it has passed over into ethical life.

§ 512. This highest pinnacle of the phenomenon of the will, which has volatilized itself into this absolute vanity – a being-good that is not objective but purely certain only of itself, and a certainty of itself in the nullity of the universal – collapses immediately in upon itself. Evil, as the pure reflection of subjectivity into itself against the objective and universal, which is to it mere semblance, is the same as the good disposition of the abstract good, which reserves to subjectivity the determination of that good; – the wholly abstract seeming, the immediate perverting and annihilating of itself. But collapsing into itself in this way, this seeming is rather the same simple universality of the will which the good is. The concept of subjectivity, in this its identity with the same, is only the infinite form – the activity and development thereof; thus the standpoint of relation and of the ought is altogether abandoned, and it has passed over into ethical life.

[zu § 141 Anm.] The good, the abstract in-itself, is volatilized through the subject[ivity,] the idealization of all determinate duty – made into a pure abstraction; the determining passes over into subjectivity. This, isolating itself abstractly, has no in-itself, has only arbitrary choice as its determination – precisely it wills to be without determination – this its apex. –
This indeterminacy, however, is rather the opposite of arbitrary choice, – it is the self-identical, the universal of the will – Were it to recognize itself thus, it would give up subjectivity, – rather, [it is] the concept of the will. – To represent itself thus is thus to think itself – for universality. –
α) Refutation – where then do you take the determination for acting from? For action, for actuality, there must be determination – nothing but arbitrary choice – contingency. – Or if it is to be good, universal, then it is objective, in and for itself, eternal – not merely something posited, by me, through me, which I would ironically have merely made so. – The true is nothing ironic.
β) dialectical transition: the abstract subjectivity of the will is in itself the universal, the good, the being-in-itself – opining – I do within myself whatever pleases me, whatever I, this particular one, may will – spirit of the world, substance – humiliation, the matter must come to pass, – to recognize no matter [as valid]; I am rather the fulfilled, determinate, universal matter. Respect for the matter. – The good has this absolute irony over this divine subjectivity. Therein lies absolute determination, – namely subjectivity is the determining activity of reason – but only this side – it is rational only in its oppositionless unity with the universal – its determinations only truly within the ground of universality – not a determining of arbitrary choice – The good receives its determinations through the moment of subjectivity. This is true [only] in unity with the universal. Subjectivity determines as universally good, as objective, i.e. as being, in itself, but is ironic about this – takes itself back, namely takes back the universal, the in-itself.
a. With the identity of subjectivity and the good, the one-sidedness of both disappears.
α) the good is
αα) not abstract subjectivity, infinite determining
ββ) not finite – but system –
β) subjectivity – the determining [is]
αα) not against the good,
ββ) not merely subsuming this or that, but
γγ) as system, in accordance with the concept.
b. Right and morality, freedom also particularization – determinate being – external, and determining within the will (particular content) –
c. Historical remark
Freedom in its essential universality itself the object. Not to lose sight of the essential will, freedom – the determination of right – passes over into subjectivity in general, which fades away within itself.
Retrospect – difference between the Idea of the free will and ethical life –
We are only ever at the same Idea – both one and the same, never beyond it, never losing it –
– But the two sides are distinguished in their determination.
Ethical life is the Idea as actual life – truth – in-itself and for-itself – is now the object of self-consciousness – as it is for us from the beginning.
To grasp the Idea thus, to determine it thus, requires that subjectivity be conceived not only in general, but in the formal determination in which it is posited as identical with the universal.
Subjectivity – return into itself – α) knowledge of what is immediate – β) universal nature of ac[tion] –
γ) universal nature according to its concept – the good.
Subjectivity is drive, natural will is personal will, of this or that matter – with complete indifference of interest – subjectivity is welfare – intent, knowledge of the circumstances – purpose is self-determination out of the category of the good – is out of conviction – all these are modes of subjectivity.
But the one mode of subjectivity through which [it] is posited as absolute, namely as identical with the good – the choice between good and evil – the form of being – is itself universality, – the form of being or determinate being is consciousness – and the determinacy of the concept –
The former gives the configurations we have seen – the latter the determinacy of the concept. Strict right: α) freedom, β) particularity, external content – this balanced out for itself
The concept of freedom thus grasped has for its existence self-consciousness – subjectivity, and one such that, conversely, its determinacy is only that universal, that concept existing in itself. – I – the mode of my determinate being [is] the universal. – Conversely, the universal – the mode of its determinate being [is] self-consciousness – but that which only is within the universal here – lives, i.e. is actual, unity of the inner and the outer, such that one can no longer say what the inner and the outer are – The good is lifeless – without the subjectivity for which it is essentially the absolute end – self-consciousness spiritually lifeless, which is only natural, has its drives for its determination, – or only its excellence – the abstract good –
Where right – i.e. private right – is administered, such a condition [is] not yet an ethical one. What belongs to this is that subjectivity, particularity, be determined as universal – this [is] actuality – all modes of actuality only consequences of this – for subjectivity is what actualizes.
[above:] Subjectivity is itself the concept.
[below:] My determinations fall within the matter.

§ 429. The purely abstract good disposition is, within itself, the sublation of the mediation of this reflection and of choosing into the simple universality of the good – the nullity of the null. This universal has, at once in its concept and in this consciousness, the meaning of the unsayable, or of the simply immediate good – and thus of the objective. Subjectivity, in this its own identity with the same, has thereby sublated the standpoint of relation, and has passed over into ethical life.