Jena Philosophy of Spirit

[p. 261]

|261| negative and positive meaning at once – the former through tyranny, the latter in the preservation of the singular, or [through] the externalization of the universal.

This¹⁴⁶⁾ unity of individuality and of the universal is now there in the twofold way – extremes of the universal, which is itself individuality, government – is not an abstractum – of the state –, individuality which has the universal as such for its purpose – and the other extreme of the same, which has the singular for its purpose – Both individualities as the same, – the same man provides for himself and his family, labours, concludes contracts, etc. and likewise he also labours for the universal, has this for his purpose – on that side he is called bourgeois, on this citoyen.¹⁴⁷⁾ – The universal will is obeyed as the majority of all, and constituted through the determinate pronouncing and voting of the singulars; even those who are not of the opinion of the majority obey; – even if the measure or the law is against their conviction. – It is open to them to protest, i.e. to reserve their conviction,¹⁴⁸⁾ to declare determinately that they are in it with their obedience but not with their conviction; which is especially the affair of the Germans, this tenacity of clinging to conviction, this self-will of abstract willing, of empty right, without the thing, without the possession. – In this democracy the will of the singular is still contingent α) as opinion in general – he must renounce it against the majority, – β) as actual will – as self, or doing, the will is itself singular, and to it each must submit; the execution presupposes will-less actual obeying, each renounces his opinion about the execution γ) the resolutions, laws, here concern only particular circumstances – the insight into their connection with the universal is the insight of all, but on account of their particularity itself contingent.

146) In the margin: Living unity – ancient ethical life

147) In the margin: Philistine citizens and citizens of the Empire, the one as much a formal philistine as the other

148) In the margin: absurd

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