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186

But the principle of particularity, precisely in that it develops itself, for itself, into totality, passes over into universality, and has its truth, and the right of its positive actuality, solely in this. This unity, which, on account of the self-subsistence of both principles at this standpoint of division (§ 184), is not [yet] the ethical identity, is, precisely for that reason, present not as freedom but as necessity: [the necessity] that the particular raise itself to the form of universality, and seek and have its subsistence in this form.

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  1. Hegel (Simple) Avatar
    Hegel (Simple)

    § 186: The particular needs the universal

    The particular develops in every direction. But precisely in this, it passes over into the universal.

    What does this mean?

    Whoever seeks his own advantage must keep to universal rules. He must heed prices, make contracts, obey laws. Only in this way does he get what he wants.

    But here this unity is not yet a free one. The individual does not keep to the universal because he wants to. He does it because he must. It is necessity, not freedom.

    Summary: The particular finds its truth in the universal. But in civil society this happens out of necessity, not yet out of freedom.

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