Self-Consciousness

A: From Consciousness to Self-Consciousness

1. Infinity, or this absolute unrest of pure self-movement, in which whatever is determined in one
way or another, e.g. as being, is rather the opposite of this determinateness, this no doubt has been from the
start the soul of all that has gone before; but it is in the inner world that it has first freely and clearly shown
itself. Appearance, or the play of Forces, already displays it, but it is as 'explanation' that it first freely
stands forth; and in being finally an object for consciousness, as that which it is, consciousness is thus
self-consciousness. The nderstanding's 'explanation' is primarily only the description
!"eschreibung# of what self-consciousness is$ It supersedes the differences present in the law, differences
which have already become pure differences but are still indifferent, and posits them in a single unity, in
Force. But this unifying of them is eually and immediately a sundering, for it supersedes the differences
and posits the oneness of Force only by creating a new difference, that of !aw and Force, which, however,
at the same time is no difference; and, moreover, from the fact that this difference is no difference, it goes
on to supersede this difference again, since it lets Force be similarly constituted to !aw$ "ut this
mo%ement, or necessity, is thus still a necessity and a mo%ement of the nderstanding, or, the
mo%ement as such is not the nderstanding's object; on the contrary, in this movement the
"nderstanding has as ob#ects positive and negative electricity, distance, force of attraction, and a thousand
other things which constitute the content of the moments of the movement. The reason why 'explaining'
affords so much self-satisfaction is just because in it consciousness is, so to spea&, communing
directly with itself, enjoying only itself; although it seems to be busy with something else, it is in fact
occupied only with itself$ $1%&'
(. BB)
a. *Infinity+ $die "nendlich,eit' is the holistic constellation of elements whose
determinateness consists in their relations of material incompatibility -e.clusion/ and conseuence
-inclusion/ to one another. It is a unity constituted by the differences of the members into which it is
articulated.
b. It is as explanation $0r,l1ren' that infinity is first clearly grasped.
c. Infinity is also the structure of the self.
d. 2o, although phenomenal consciousness does not yet ,now this, in grasping the nature of
infinity through its activity of e.plaining, consciousness is really grasping for the first time the nature of
itself. It is a form of consciousness as self-consciousness.
e. 3hat is why in $1%4' *self-consciousness is the truth of consciousness.+ It is why in
$1%5', *"nderstanding e.periences only itself,+ and why the two e.tremes of the syllogism of which
sensuous appearance is the middle term, the world as revealed by theory -inference/ and *the inner being
ga6ing into this pure inner world+ coincide.
f. 3he ,ey claim, that infinity is the structure of the self, is not something that the
"nderstanding itself has come to understand. 3hat is something that Hegel throws in, a claim for us. 7e
just claims it. 3hat it is true is something we will have to come to see, by following a different movement
of phenomenal consciousness, this one articulating and developing its understanding of selves.
&. In the contrary law, as the inversion of the first law, or in the inner difference, it is true that infinity itself
becomes the object of the nderstanding; but once again the "nderstanding falls short of infinity as such, since it
again apportions to two worlds, or to two substantial elements, that which is a difference in itself8the self-repulsion of
the selfsame and the self-attraction of the unli,e. 3o the "nderstanding, the movement, as it is found in e.perience, is
here a $mere' happening, and the selfsame and the unli,e are predicates, whose essence is an inert substrate. 'hat is,
for the nderstanding, an object in a sensuous co%ering, is for us in its essential form as a pure (otion$ This
apprehension of the difference as it is in truth, or the apprehension of infinity as such, is for us, or in itself !i$e$ is
merely implicit#$ 3he e.position of its 9otion belongs to 2cience; but consciousness, in the way that it immediately
has this 9otion, again comes on the scene as a form belonging to consciousness itself, or as a new shape of
consciousness, which does not recogni6e in what has gone before its own essence, but loo,s on it as something uite
different. )ince this (otion of infinity is an object for consciousness, the latter is consciousness of a difference
that is no less immediately cancelled; consciousness is for its own self, it is a distinguishing of that which contains no
difference, or self-consciousness. I distinguish myself from myself, and in doing so I am directly aware that what is
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distinguished from myself is not different $from me'. I, the selfsame being, repel myself from myself; but what is
posited as distinct from me, or as unli,e me, is immediately, in being so distinguished, not a distinction for me. It is
true that consciousness of an 'other', of an object in general, is itself necessarily self-consciousness, a
reflectedness-into-self, consciousness of itself in its otherness$ 3he necessary advance from the previous shapes of
consciousness for which their truth was a 3hing, an <other< than themselves, e.presses #ust this, that not only is
consciousness of a thing possible only for a self-consciousness, but that self-consciousness alone is the truth of
those shapes. But it is only for us that this truth e.ists, not yet for consciousness. But self-consciousness has at first
become $simply' for itself, not yet as a unity with consciousness in general. $1%4'
4. =e see that in the inner world of appearance, the nderstanding in truth comes to &now nothing else but
appearance, but not in the shape of a play of Forces, but rather that play of Forces in its absolutely uni%ersal
moments and in their mo%ement; in fact, the nderstanding experiences only itself. >aised above perception,
consciousness exhibits itself closed in a unity with the supersensible world through the mediating term of
appearance, through which it ga*es into this bac&ground $lying behind appearance'. The two extremes !of this
syllogism#, the one, of the pure inner world, the other, that of the inner being ga*ing into this pure inner world,
ha%e now coincided, and #ust as they, ua e.tremes, have vanished, so too the middle term, as something other than
these e.tremes, has also vanished. 3his curtain $of appearance' hanging before the inner world is therefore drawn away,
and we ha%e the inner being !the '+'# ga*ing into the inner world,the %ision of the undifferentiated selfsame
being, which repels itself from itself, posits itself as an inner being containing different moments, but for which
e-ually these moments are immediately not different,self-consciousness$ It is manifest that behind the so-called
curtain which is supposed to conceal the inner world, there is nothing to be seen unless we go behind it ourselves, as
much in order that we may see, as that there may be something behind there which can be seen. But at the same time it
is evident that we cannot without more ado go straightway behind appearance. For this ,nowledge of what is the truth
of appearance as ordinarily conceived, and of its inner being, is itself only a result of a comple. movement whereby the
modes of consciousness <meaning<, perceiving, and the "nderstanding, vanish; and it will be eually evident that the
cognition of what consciousness ,nows in ,nowing itself, reuires a still more comple. movement, the e.position of
which is contained in what follows. $1%5'
": )ociality passages
5. A self-consciousness e.ists for a self-consciousness. ?nly so is it in fact self-consciousness; for
only in this way does the unity of itself in its otherness become e.plicit for it@ =ith this, we already have
before us the 9otion of 2pirit. =hat still lies ahead for consciousness is the e.perience of what )pirit is8
this absolute substance which is the unity of the different independent self-consciousnesses which, in
their opposition, enjoy perfect freedom and independence: '+' that is ''e' and ''e' that is '+'$ It is in
self-consciousness, in the 9otion of 2pirit, that consciousness first finds its turning-point, where it leaves behind it the
colourful show of the sensuous here-and-now and the nightli,e void of the supersensible beyond, and steps out into the
spiritual daylight of the present. $1AA'
%. 2elf-consciousness e.ists in and for itself when, and by the fact that, it so e.ists for another; that
is, it e.ists only in being ac,nowledged@ 3he twofold significance of the distinct moments has in the
nature of self-consciousness to be infinite, or directly the opposite of the determinateness in which it is
posited. 3he detailed e.position of the 9otion of this spiritual unity in its duplication will present us with
the process of .ecognition. $1AB'
A. 9ow, this movement of self-consciousness in relation to another self-consciousness has in this way been
represented as the action of one self-consciousness, but this action of the one has itself the double significance of being
both its own action and the action of the other as well. For the other is eually independent and self-contained, and
there is nothing in it of which it is not itself the origin@3hus the movement is simply the double mo%ement of the
two self-consciousnesses. 0ach sees the other do the same as it does; each does itself what it demands of the other, and
therefore also does what it does only in so far as the other does the same. Action by one side only would be useless
because what is to happen can only be brought about by both. $1B('
B. It is aware that it at once is, and is not, another consciousness, and eually that this other is for itself only
when it supersedes itself as being for itself, and is for itself only in the being-for-self of the other. 0ach is for the
other the middle term, through which each mediates itself with itself and unites with itself; and each is for itself, and for
the other, an immediate being on its own account, which at the same time is such only through this mediation. They
recogni*e themsel%es as mutually recogni*ing one another. $1B4'
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C. =e have now to see how the process of this pure (otion of recognition, of the duplicating of self-
consciousness in its oneness, appears to self-consciousness. At first, it will e.hibit the side of the ineuality of the
two, or the splitting-up of the middle term into the e.tremes which, as e.tremes, are opposed to one another, one being
only recogni6ed, the other only recogni6ing. $1B5'
1;. $3'he <other< is also a self-consciousness; one individual is confronted by another individual. @0ach is indeed
certain of its own self, but not of the other, and therefore its own self-certainty still has no truth. For it would have truth
only if its own being-for-self had confronted it as an independent ob#ect, or, what is the same thing, if the ob#ect had
presented itself as this pure self-certainty. But according to the (otion of recognition this is possible only
when each is for the other what the other is for it, only when each in its own self through its own
action, and again through the action of the other, achieves this pure abstraction of being-for-self. $1B%'
11. $3he *smo,ing gun+ passage)' In 2cepticism, consciousness truly e.periences itself as internally
contradictory. From this e.perience emerges a new form of consciousness which brings together the two
thoughts which 2cepticism holds apart. 2cepticism<s lac, of thought about itself must vanish, because it is
in fact one consciousness which contains within itself these two modes. 3his new form is, therefore, one
which ,nows that it is the dual consciousness of itself, as self-liberating, unchangeable, and self-identical,
and as self-bewildering and self-perverting, and it is the awareness of this self-contradictory nature of itself.
In 2toicism, self-consciousness is the simple freedom of itself. In 2cepticism, this freedom
becomes a reality, negates the other side of determinate e.istence, but really duplicates itself, and now
,nows itself to be a duality. /onse-uently, the duplication which formerly was di%ided between two
indi%iduals, the lord and the bondsman, is now lodged in one$ 3he duplication of self-consciousness
within itself, which is essential in the 9otion of 2pirit, is thus here before us, but not yet in its unity) the
"nhappy Donsciousness is the consciousness of self as a dual-natured, merely contradictory being. $(1;'
1(. 2tructure of the discussion )
A/ 3ransition from Consciousness to Self-Consciousness
B/ !ife
D/ From Eesire to >ecognition
E/ Fride
0/ Gastery
F/ Getaphysical Irony) the causality of fate.
H/ 2lavery
7/ 2toicism, 2,epticism, and the "nhappy Donsciousness
I/ 3ransition to Reason
A creature is *essentially self-conscious+ if what it is for itself, its self-conception, is an essential
element of what it is in itself. 7ow something that is essentially self-conscious appears to itself is
part of what it really is.
0ssentially self-conscious creatures accordingly en#oy the possibility of a distinctive ,ind of self-
transformation) making themselves be different by taking themselves to be different.
Because what they are in themselves is at any point the outcome of such a developmental process
depending on their attitudes, essentially self-conscious beings donIt have natures, they have
histories.
>ehearsing such a historical narrative -7egelIs J0rinnerungI/ is a distinctive way of
understanding oneself as an essentially historical, because essentially self-conscious, sort of being.
3o be for oneself a historical being is to constitute oneself as in oneself a special ,ind of being) a
self-consciously historical being. Ga,ing e.plicit to oneself this crucial structural aspect of the
metaphysical ,ind of being one always implicitly has been as essentially self-conscious is itself a
structural self-transformation) the achievement of a new ,ind of self-consciousness. It is a self-
transformation generically of this sort that 7egel aims to produce in us his readers by his
Phenomenology.
3he elements of oneIs self-conception that are essential to oneIs self -i.e. that oneIs self-
conception has those features is essential to what one actually is/, we may say, are those that one
identifies with.
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?ne identifies with what one is willing to risk and sacrifice for.
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