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第115章

phenomenology of mind-第115章

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innermost; this bottomless pit; where every solid base and stay have vanished: and in the depths it
sees nothing but a common thing; a plaything for its whims; a chance result of its own caprice。 Its
spirit consists in quite unreal imagining; in being superficiality forsaken of all true spiritual import。

Just as self…consciousness had its own manner of speech in dealing with state…power; in other
words; just as spirit took the form of expressly and actually mediating between these two
extremes; self…consciousness has also a mode of speech in dealing with wealth; but still more when
in revolt does it adopt a language of its own。 The form of utterance which supplies wealth with the
sense of its own essential significance; and thereby makes itself master of it; is likewise the
language of flattery; but of ignoble flattery; for what it gives out to be the essential reality; it knows
to be a reality without an inherent nature of its own; to be something at the mercy of others。 The
language of flattery; however; as already remarked; is that of a spirit still one…sided。 To be sure its
constituent elements are; on the one hand; a self moulded by service into a shape where it is
reduced to bare existence; and; on the other; the inherent reality of the power dominating the self。
Yet the bare principle; the pure conception; in which the simple self and the inherent reality
(Ansich); that pure ego and this pure reality or thought; are one and the same thing — this
conceptual unity of the two aspects between which the reciprocity takes effect; is not consciously
felt when this language is used。 The object is consciously still the inherent reality in opposition to
the self; in other words; the object is not for consciousness at the same time its own proper self as
such。

The language expressing the condition of disintegration; wherein spiritual life is rent asunder; is;
however; the perfect form of utterance for this entire realm of spiritual culture and development; of
the formative process of moulding self…consciousness (Bildung); and is the spirit in which it most
truly exists。 This self…consciousness; which finds befitting the rebellion that repudiates its own
repudiation; is eo ipso absolute self…identity in absolute disintegration; the pure activity of
mediating pure self…consciousness with itself。 It is the oneness expressed in the identical judgment;
where one and the same personality is subject as well as predicate。 But this identical judgment is at
the same time the infinite judgment; for this personality is absolutely split in two; and subject and
predicate are entities utterly indifferent one to the other; which have nothing to do with each other;
with no necessary unity; so much so that each has the power of an independent personality of its
own。 What exists as a self on its own account has for its object its own self…existence; which is
object in the sense of an absolute other; and et at the same time directly in the form of itself — itself
in the sense of an other; not as if this had an other content; for the content is the same self in the
form of an absolute opposite; with an existence completely all its own and indifferent。

We have; then; here the spirit of this real world of formative culture; conscious of its own nature as
it truly is; and conscious of its ultimate and essential principle (Begriff)。

This type of spiritual life is the absolute and universal inversion of reality and thought; their entire
estrangement the one from the other; it is pure culture。 What is found out in this sphere is that
neither the concrete realities; state…power and wealth; nor their determinate conceptions; good and
bad; nor the consciousness of good and bad (the consciousness that is noble and the
consciousness that is base) possess real truth; it is found that all these moments are inverted and
transmuted the one into the other; and each is the opposite of itself。

The universal power; which is the substance; when it gains a spiritual nature peculiarly its own
through the principle of individuality; accepts the possession of a self of its own merely as a。 name
by which it is described; and; even in being actual power; is really so powerless as to have to
sacrifice itself。 But this self…less reality given over to others; this self that is turned into a thing; is in
fact the return of the reality into itself; it is a self…existence that is there for its own sake; it is the
existence of spirit。

The principles belonging to these realities; the thoughts of good and bad; are similarly transmuted
and reversed in this process; what is characterized as good is bad; and vice versa。 The
consciousness of each of these moments by itself; the conscious types judged as noble and base
— these are rather in their real truth similarly the reverse of what these specific forms intend to be;
nobility is base and repudiated; just as what is repudiated as base turns round into the nobleness
that characterizes the most highly developed form of free self…consciousness。

Looked at formally; everything is likewise in its external aspects the reverse of what it is internally
for itself; and again it is not really and in truth what it is for itself; but something else than it wants to
be; its existence on its own account is; strictly speaking; the loss of self; and alienation of self is
really self…preservation。

The state of things brought about here; then; is that all moments execute justice on one another all
round; each is just as much in a condition of inherent self…alienation as it moulds itself into its
opposite; and in this way reverses the nature of that opposite。

                         (b) The Language of Distraction

Spirit truly objective; however; is just this unity of absolutely separate moments; and in fact comes
into existence as the common ground; the mediating agency; just through the independent reality of
these self…less extremes。 Its existence consists in universal talk and depreciatory judgment rending
and tearing everything; before which all those moments are broken up that are meant to signify
something real and to stand for actual members of the whole; and which at the same time plays
with itself this game of self…dissolution。 This judging and talking is; therefore; the real truth; which
cannot be got over; while it overpowers everything it is that which in this real world is alone truly
of importance。 Each part of this world comes to find there its spirit expressed; or gets to be
spoken of with esprit and finds said of it what it is。

The honest(8) soul takes each moment as a permanent and essential fact; and is the uncultivated
thoughtless condition that does not think and does not know that it is likewise doing the very
inverse。 The distraught and disintegrated soul is; however; aware of inversion; it is; in fact; a
consciousness of absolute inversion: the conceptual principle predominates there; brings together
into a single unity the thoughts that lie far apart in the case of the honest soul; and the language
conveying its meaning is; therefore; full of esprit and wit (geistreich)。

The content uttered by spirit and uttered about itself is; then; the inversion and perversion of all
conceptions and realities; a universal deception of itself and of others。 The shamelessness
manifested in stating this deceit is just on that account the greatest truth。 This style of speech is the
madness of the musician 〃who piled and mixed up together some thirty airs; Italian; French; tragic;
comic; of all sorts and kinds; now; with a deep bass; he descended to the depths of hell; then;
contracting his throat to a high; piping falsetto; he rent the vault of the skies; raving and soothed;
haughtily imperious and mockingly jeering by turns〃。(9) The placid soul(10) that in simple honesty of
heart takes the melody of the good and true to consist in harmony of sound and uniformity of
tones; i。e。 in a single note; regards this style of expression as a 〃fantastic mixture of wisdom and
folly; a melée of as much skill as low cunning; composed of ideas as likely to be right as wrong;
with as complete a perversion of sentiment; with as much consummate shamefulness in 

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