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184

The Idea, in this its division, grants to its moments a peculiar existence — to particularity the right to develop and range itself over all sides, and to universality the right to prove itself the ground and necessary form of particularity, as well as the power over it and its ultimate purpose. — It is the system of the ethical, lost in its extremes, that constitutes the abstract moment of the reality of the Idea, which is here present, in this external appearance, only as relative totality and inner necessity.

DE ES

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2 responses to “184”

  1. Eduard Gans (Additions) Avatar
    Eduard Gans (Additions)

    Ethical life is here lost in its extremes, and the immediate unity of the family has disintegrated into a multiplicity. Here reality is externality, dissolution of the concept, independence of the moments of existence that have become free. Since in civil society particularity and universality have fallen apart, they are nevertheless both reciprocally bound and conditioned. Even as the one seems to do precisely the opposite of the other, and believes it can only be by keeping the other at arm’s length, each nevertheless has the other as its condition. Thus most people regard, for instance, the payment of taxes as an injury to their particularity, as something hostile to them that stunts their end; but true as this seems, the particularity of the end can nonetheless not be satisfied without the universal, and a country in which no taxes were paid would hardly distinguish itself by any strengthening of particularity. Likewise it might seem that universality would fare better if it drew the powers of particularity into itself, as is carried out, for example, in the Platonic state; but this too is again only a semblance, since both are only through and for one another and pass over into each other. In furthering my end, I further the universal, and this in turn furthers my end.

  2. Hegel (Simple) Avatar
    Hegel (Simple)

    § 184: Two sides that separate

    In civil society, ethical life falls apart into two sides. Each side gets its own right.

    The particular may unfold freely. Each person may develop his wishes and abilities in every direction.

    The universal shows itself as the ground and frame of the particular. It is the power over the particular and its ultimate purpose.

    Two sides that need each other:

    It seems that the two fight each other. Many people, for example, feel taxes as an attack on what is their own. But without the universal, the particular could not thrive. A country without taxes would not be a country of flourishing private people. On the other hand, it would also be wrong to suppress the particular entirely. Each side exists only through the other.

    Summary: In civil society, the particular and the universal each have their own right. They seem to oppose each other. In truth, neither can exist without the other.

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