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

[p. 207]

|207| that of the deed which lies in the resolution or was in consciousness, which the will thus recognises as its own.

§ 10

The free will, as free, is furthermore not bound to the determinateness and individuality by which one individual distinguishes itself from another, but it is universal will, and the individual, according to his pure will, is a universal being.

§ 11

The will can indeed take up into itself and make its own manifold external content, i.e. content not proceeding from its essence. Insofar it remains self-equal only in form, namely in that it is conscious of being able at once to abstract again from every content and to restore its purity, but not in content and essence. Insofar it is in general only arbitrary will.

§ 12

But for the will to be truly and absolutely free, what it wills, or its content, can be nothing other than itself. It can only will in itself and have itself as its object. The pure will therefore wills not some particular content for the sake of its particularity, but that the will as such be free in its doing and be set free, or that the universal will come to pass.

The closer determination and development of this universal principle of the will is presented by the doctrine of right, duties and religion.

Explanations of the Introduction

§ 1

Objects are the particular thing that they are through their determination, – a sensuous object, e.g., through

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