is posited as well, the syntheses, insofar as they are meant to have not merely the negative significance of the sublation of one part of the opposition, but also a positive significance of intuition, can only represent empirical intuitions.

These two ways of scientifically treating natural right must first be characterized more closely; the first with regard to the manner in which the absolute Idea appears in it according to the moments of the absolute form; the other, as to how the infinite, or the negative absolute, seeks in vain to bring itself to a positive organization; the discussion of this latter attempt will lead directly to a consideration of the nature and the relation of the sciences of the ethical, as philosophical sciences, as well as their relation to that which is called positive science of right, which, though it holds itself outside philosophy, and by itself renouncing philosophy believes it can withdraw itself from its critique, nonetheless at the same time also claims to have an absolute subsistence and a true reality — a pretension that cannot be overlooked.

As for the way of treating natural right which we have called the empirical way, in the first place it is not at all possible to engage, as regards their matter, with the determinacies and relational concepts themselves which it seizes upon and asserts under the name of principles; rather, it is precisely this isolating and fixing of determinacies that must be negated. The nature of this isolating brings with it that the scientific element can only concern the form of unity, and that, from an organic relation with the manifold qualities into which it can be divided, some determinacy must be singled out — provided these are not merely to be enumerated — in order to arrive at a unity out of this multitude, and this determinacy must be regarded as the essence of the relation; but precisely by this the totality of the organic is not attained, and the rest of it, excluded from that chosen determinacy, comes under the dominion of this determinacy, which is elevated to essence and purpose. Thus, for example, in order to cognize the relation of marriage, now the begetting of children, now the community of goods, and so on, is posited, and from such a determinacy, which is made into the law as the essential element, the whole organic relation is determined and contaminated; or, regarding punishment, now the determinacy of the moral improvement of the criminal, now of the damage done, now of the representation of the punishment in others, now of the criminal’s own representation of it preceding the crime, now of the necessity that this representation be made real, that the threat be carried out, and so on, is seized upon, and such a single feature is made into the purpose and essence of the whole;

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