The Doctrine of Right, Duties and Religion for the Lower Class

[p. 242]

|242| from external influence, not from itself. Spirit, on the other hand, can, because of its freedom, act against the laws. Action can therefore be taken against right. Here one must distinguish 1. universal right, right qua right, 2. particular right, as it relates merely to the right of an individual person to an individual thing. Universal right is that in general everyone, independently of this property, is a rightful person. The infringement of right can therefore be of such a nature that it is merely asserted that this particular right, this particular thing, does not belong to someone. But universal right is not thereby violated. One conducts oneself towards one’s opponent as a rightful person. Such a judgement can in general be regarded as a merely negative one, in which in the predicate the particular is negated; e.g. when I judge: “this stove is not green”, I negate merely the predicate of being coloured in such and such a way, but not the universal. – In the second case of infringement upon the right of another I assert not only that a particular thing is not the property of another, but I also negate that he is a rightful person. I do not treat him as a person. I do not lay claim to something on the ground that I have the right to it or believe myself to have it. I violate right qua right. Such a judgement belongs to those which are called infinite. The infinite judgement negates of the predicate not only the particular, but also the universal; e.g. “this stove is not a whale” or “it is not the memory”. Because not only the determinate but also the universal of the predicate is negated, nothing remains for the subject. Such judgements are therefore nonsensical, yet correct. In the same way the violation of right qua right is something possible, which also happens, but something nonsensical, self-contradictory. The cases of the first kind belong to civil law, those of the second to criminal law. The first is also called civic law, the second penal law.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71