[p. 219]
|219| necessary. To the extent that the human being has determinate drives immediately, he is subject to nature and behaves as a necessary and unfree being.
§ 11
Yet the human being, as a thinking being, can reflect upon his drives, which in themselves have necessity for him. Reflection means, in general, abbreviation [?] from the immediate. The reflection of light consists in this, that its rays, which for themselves would propagate themselves in a straight line, are deflected from this direction. – Spirit has reflection. It is not bound to the immediate, but is able to go out beyond it to something else, – e.g. from an occurrence to the representation of its consequence, or of a similar occurrence, or also of its cause. In that spirit goes out to something immediate, it has removed the same from itself. It has reflected itself into itself. It has gone into itself. It has cognized the immediate, in so far as it opposes an other to it, as something limited. There is therefore a very great difference whether one merely is or has something, or whether one also knows that one is or has this; e.g. ignorance or coarseness of dispositions or of conduct are limitations which one can have without knowing that one has them. In so far as one reflects upon them or knows of them, one must know of their opposite. Reflection upon them is already a first step beyond them.
The drives, as natural determinations, are limitations. Through reflection upon them the human being begins, in general, to go beyond them. The first reflection here concerns the means: whether they are suited to the drive, whether the drive is satisfied thereby; further, whether the means are not too important to be sacrificed for this drive.
Reflection compares the different drives and their purposes with the fundamental purpose of the being. The purposes of the particular drives are limited, but each in
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