3. The concluding and immediate singularity of the person relates to a nature it finds already present, to which the personality of the will, as something subjective, is thereby opposed; but this will, being in itself infinite and universal, finds the restriction of being merely subjective contradictory and null. |44| It is the active power that cancels this restriction and gives itself reality, or, what is the same thing, that posits that existence as its own.
3. Man [is] lord over everything in nature – only through him [does it attain] existence as [existence] of freedom – it has no soul of its own, is not an end in itself – not even living nature – only man as free, – not as living.
Life indeed an end in itself – not for itself –
§ 39: The person and the world
The person stands before a nature it finds already there. The world is simply there. The person did not make it.
What is unsatisfying about this?
The person knows itself as free and infinite. But at first this freedom is only inside. It is merely subjective. That does not fit. Something infinite that lives only in one’s own head contradicts itself.
That is why the person does not stay still. It is active. It wants to overcome this bare inwardness. It wants to give itself reality. That means: It makes the world it finds into its own.
A comparison: A settler comes into a valley where no one lives yet. He clears land, builds and plants. After some years he sees himself again in the valley. It bears his traces.
Why may a human being do this?
The things of nature have no end of their own. This holds even for plants and animals. They are alive, but they do not know themselves as free. Only the human being is free. That is why he is the master over nature.
Summary: A freedom that stays only inside contradicts itself. That is why the person makes the world it finds into its own. Property comes from this.
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