第 52 节
作者:匆匆      更新:2021-02-27 02:11      字数:9322
  extreme is another such object。 The means is effective and potent against the latter because its
  own object is connected with the self…determining activity; while for the other object the immediate
  determinateness that it possesses is an indifferent one。 Their process in this relation is none other
  than the mechanical or chemical one; in this objective externality the previous relationships emerge
  but under the dominance of the end。 These processes; however; as they themselves showed;
  spontaneously return into the end。 if; therefore; in the first instance; the relation of the means to the
  external object it has to work upon is an immediate one; it has already at an earlier stage exhibited
  itself as a syllogism; the end having proved itself to be their true middle term and unity。 As;
  therefore; the means is the object that stands on the side of the end and has within it the activity of
  the end; the mechanism that is found here is at the same time the return of objectivity into itself;
  into the Notion; which however is already presupposed as the end; the negative attitude of
  purposive activity towards the object is thus not an external attitude; but the alteration and
  transition of objectivity in its own self into the end。
  That the end relates itself immediately to an object and makes it a means; as also that through this
  means it determines another object; may be regarded as violence 'Gewalt' in so far as the end
  appears to be of quite another nature than the object; and the two objects similarly are mutually
  independent totalities。 But that the end posits itself in a mediate relation with the object and
  interposes another object between itself and it; may be regarded as the cunning of reason。 The
  finitude of rationality has; as remarked; this side; that the end enters into relationship with the
  presupposition; that is; with the externality of the object。 In the immediate relation to the object;
  it would itself enter into the sphere of mechanism or chemism and thereby be subject to
  contingency and the loss of its determination as the Notion that is in and for itself。 But as it is; it
  puts forward an object as means; allows it to wear itself out in its stead; exposes it to attrition and
  shields itself behind it from mechanical violence。
  Further; since the end is finite it has a finite content; accordingly it is not an absolute; nor simply
  something that in its own nature is rational。 But the means is the external middle term of the
  syllogism which is the realisation of the end; in the means; therefore; the rationality in it manifests
  itself as such by maintaining itself in this external other; and precisely through this externality。 To
  this extent the means is superior to the finite ends of external purposiveness: the plough is more
  honourable than are immediately the enjoyments procured by it and which are ends。 The tool
  lasts; while the immediate enjoyments pass away and are forgotten。 In his tools man possesses
  power over external nature; even though in respect of his ends he is; on the contrary; subject to it。
  But the end does not merely keep outside the mechanical process; rather it maintains itself in it and
  is its determination。 The end; as the Notion that freely exists in face of the object and its process
  and is a self…determining activity; is no less the absolute truth of mechanism; and therefore in
  mechanism it is only meeting with itself。 The power of the end over the object is this explicit
  identity and its activity is the manifestation of it。 The end as content is the determinateness that
  exists in and for itself; which appears in the object as indifferent and external; but the activity of the
  end is; on the one hand; the truth of the process and as negative unity the sublating of the
  illusory show of externality。 From the abstract point of view; it is the indifferent determinateness
  of the object that equally externally is replaced by another; but the simple abstraction of the
  determinateness is in its truth the totality of the negative; the concrete Notion that posits externality
  within itself。
  The content of the end is its negativity as simple particularity reflected into itself; distinguished
  from its totality as form。 On account of this simplicity whose determinateness is in and for itself
  the totality of the Notion; the content appears as the permanently identical element in the
  realisation of the end。 The teleological process is the translation of the Notion that has a distinct
  concrete existence as Notion into objectivity; this translation into a presupposed other is seen to
  be the meeting of the Notion with itself through itself。
  Now the content of the end is this identity that has a concrete existence in the form of the identical。
  In every transition the Notion maintains itself; for example; when cause becomes effect it is only
  the cause meeting with itself in the effect; but in the teleological transition it is the Notion that as
  such already has a concrete existence as cause; as the absolute concrete unity that is free in the
  face of objectivity and its external determinability。 The externality into which the end translates
  itself is itself; as we have seen; already posited as moment of the Notion; as form of its immanent
  differentiation。 The end possesses; therefore; in externality its own moment; and the content; as
  content of the concrete unity; is its simple form; which not merely remains implicitly self…identical
  in the distinct moments of the end…as subjective end; as means and mediating activity; and as
  objective end…but also has a concrete existence as the abiding self…identical。
  It can therefore be said of the teleological activity that in it the end is the beginning; the consequent
  the ground; the effect the cause; that it is a becoming of what has become; that in it only what
  already exists comes into existence; and so forth; which means that in general all the
  determinations of relationship belonging to the sphere of reflection or of immediate being have lost
  their distinctions; and what was enunciated as an other; such as end; consequent; effect; etc。; no
  longer has in the end relation the determination of an other; but on the contrary is posited as
  identical with the simple Notion。
  2。 Now examining more closely the product of the teleological activity; we see that it contains the
  end only externally; in so far as it is an absolute presupposition over against the subjective end;
  that is to say; in so far as we stop short at the point of view that the purposive activity through its'
  means is only in a mechanical relation with the object; and instead of positing one indifferent
  determinateness of the latter posits another equally external to it。 A determinateness of this kind;
  which an object possesses through the end; differs in general from another merely mechanical one
  by the fact that the former is moment of a unity; so that although the determinateness is indeed
  external to the object; yet it is not in its own self something merely external。 The object that
  exhibits such a unity is a whole; towards which its parts; its own externality; is indifferent; a
  determinate concrete unity which unites within itself distinct relations and determinatenesses。 This
  unity which cannot be comprehended from the specific nature of the object; and as regards
  determinate content is another content than that peculiar to the object; is not by itself a mechanical
  determinateness; but it is still mechanically related to the object。 Just as in this product of the
  purposive activity the content of the end and the content of the object are external to each other;
  so a like relation holds between the determinations of this activity in the other moments of the
  syllogism…in the unifying middle term; between the purposive activity and the object which is
  means; and in the subjective end; the other extreme; between the infinite form as totality of the
  Notion and its content。 According to the relation by which the subjective end is united with
  objectivity; both premises alike…the relation of the object determined as means to the still external
  object; and the relation of the subjective end to the object which is made means…are immediate
  relations。 The syllogism therefore suffers from the defect of the formal syllogism in general; that the
  relations of which it consists; are not themselves conclusions or mediations; but in fact already
  presuppose the conclusion for whose production they are supposed to serve as means。
  If we consider one of the premises; the immediate relation of the subjective end to the object
  which thereby becomes the means; then the former cannot immediately relate itself to the latter; for
  the latter is no less immediate than the object of the other extreme; in which the end is to be
  realised through mediation。 Since they are thus posited as diverse; it is necessary to interpolate
  between this objectivity and the subjective end a means of their relation; but this means is likewise
  an object already determined by the end; and between that object's objectivity and the teleological
  determination a new means must be interpolated; and so on to infinity。 Thus there is posited the
  infinite progress of media