Comments on: 147

By: Hegel (Simple)

Hegel (Simple) — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:54:19 +0000

§ 147: Not alien, but one’s own essence

The ethical laws face me. But they are not alien to me. In them I recognize my own essence. I live in them like a fish in water.

More than faith:

This is even closer than faith or trust. Someone who believes pictures something to himself and holds it to be true. There is still a distance there. Believing in a religion is one thing. Living in it is another.

An example from antiquity:

A Persian general invited envoys from Sparta. He wanted them to stay with the king and become great and rich. The Spartans answered: You do not know our happiness. Otherwise you would advise us to give up everything for it. They needed no reasons. Their homeland and their laws were simply their life.

And what about thinking?

We can think about the ethical laws. We can look for reasons: out of fear, out of hope, for profit, from history. That is allowed. But we can understand them fully only through comprehending thought.

Summary: The ethical laws are the very essence of a person. He lives in them, more closely than in faith. He can fully grasp them only through thinking.

By: Cross-reference

Cross-reference — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:49:22 +0000

Cross-reference: From the reading group’s excursuses (in German), the following belong here: Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion: Faith

By: Hegel (Encyclopedia 1830)

Hegel (Encyclopedia 1830) — Sat, 18 Sep 1830 23:06:32 +0000

Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1830), § 515:

§ 515. Because substance is the absolute unity of individuality and the universality of freedom, the actuality and activity of each individual in being for itself and providing for itself is conditioned both by the presupposed whole, within whose context alone it exists, and also is a passing-over into a universal product. – The disposition of individuals is the knowledge of the substance and of the identity of all their interests with the whole; and that the other individuals reciprocally know themselves, and are actual, not only in this identity, is trust – the true, ethical disposition.

By: Hegel (Encyclopedia 1827)

Hegel (Encyclopedia 1827) — Thu, 24 May 1827 23:06:32 +0000

Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1827), § 515:

§ 515. Because substance is the absolute unity of individuality and the universality of freedom, the actuality and activity of each individual in being for itself and providing for itself is conditioned both by the presupposed whole, within whose context alone it exists, and also is a passing-over into a universal product. – The disposition of individuals is the knowledge of the substance and of the identity of all their interests with the whole, and that the other individuals reciprocally know themselves, and are actual, only in this identity – trust – the true, ethical disposition.

By: Hegel (Notes)

Hegel (Notes) — Wed, 22 Jan 1823 08:08:32 +0000

Freedom – in laws of reason – against duties – family right of the subject
So they are – so they live
The Greeks had no conscience – against custom –
Hydarnes urged the Lacedaemonian envoys to remain with him, to be friends of his king, and to be as great and fortunate as he was. [They replied:] "Your advice is good and in keeping with your experience. Had you tasted the happiness that we enjoy, you would advise us to give up possessions and blood for it." Before Xerxes, no more plainly: "How could we live here, abandoning our country, our laws, and such men, for whom, to die, we have undertaken so long a journey?" – Jacobi, Letters, p. 240 – from Herodotus VII, c. 135 f.
They can give no account, no conscience, no conviction – not through reasons – choice, approval – posited as identical with me – To conviction belongs, [having] first made myself subjectively – empty – indeterminate – [having] set the content over against me as something other – complete mediation – not immediate feeling and being – (although these underlie it and constitute precisely the reasons to which I trace the matter back) – nor feeling either – but being, so am I – insight, I am conscious of this mediation, this connection.
Everyone has this experience, life within himself –
He can set himself against this – but cannot get outside himself – jump out of his skin – Goethe: –
Ethical [ethisch] – instead of moral [moralisch] – sittlich

By: Hegel (Encyclopedia 1817)

Hegel (Encyclopedia 1817) — Wed, 30 Apr 1817 23:06:32 +0000

Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817), § 432:

§ 432. Because substance is the absolute unity of the individuality and the universality of freedom, the actuality and activity of each individual in being for itself and providing for itself is conditioned both by the presupposed whole, within whose context alone it exists, and also is a passing-over into a universal product. – Likewise, substance and the universal work are the self-subsistence of the individuals, which is thereby brought forth. – The disposition of individuals is the knowledge of this identity of all their interests with the whole, and that the other individuals reciprocally know themselves, and are actual, only in this identity – trust – the true, substantial disposition.