第 53 节
作者:匆匆      更新:2021-02-27 02:11      字数:9322
  determination a new means must be interpolated; and so on to infinity。 Thus there is posited the
  infinite progress of mediation。 The same thing takes place in respect of the other premise; the
  relation of the means to the as yet undetermined object。 Since they are absolutely self…subsistent;
  they can only be united in a third; and so on to infinity。 Or conversely; since the premises already
  presuppose the conclusion; the conclusion; being based on these merely immediate premises; can
  only be imperfect。 The conclusion or the product of the purposive act is nothing but an object
  determined by an end external to it; consequently it is the same thing as the means。 In such a
  product; therefore; only a means; not a realised end; has resulted; or the end has not truly
  attained an objectivity in it。
  It is therefore a matter of complete indifference whether we regard an object determined by
  external end as a realised end or only as a means; the determination here is relative; external to the
  object itself and not objective。 All objects; therefore; in which an external end is realised; are
  equally only a means of the end。 Whatever is intended to be used for realising an end and to be
  taken essentially as means; is a means which; in accordance with its destiny; is to be destroyed。
  But the object that is supposed to contain the realised end; and to represent the objectivity of the
  end; is also perishable; it too fulfils its end not by a tranquil existence in which it preserves itself;
  but only in so far as it is worn away; for only thus does it conform to the unity of the Notion; in that
  its externality; that is; its objectivity; sublates itself in that unity。 A house; a clock; may appear as
  ends in relation to the tools employed for their production; but the stones and beams; or wheels
  and axles; and so on; which constitute the actuality of the end fulfil that end only through the
  pressure that they suffer; through the chemical processes with air; light; and water to which they
  are exposed and that deprive man of them by their friction and so forth。 Accordingly; they fulfil
  their destiny only by being used and worn away and they correspond to what they are supposed
  to be only through their negation。 They are not positively united with the end; because they
  possess self…determination only externally and are only relative ends; or essentially nothing but
  means。
  These ends; as we have seen; have in general a limited content; their form is the infinite
  self…determination of the Notion; which through that content has limited itself to an external
  individuality。 The limited content makes these ends inadequate to the infinity of the Notion and
  reduces them to an untruth; such a determinateness is already through the sphere of necessity;
  through being; at the mercy of becoming and alteration and must pass away。
  3。 Thus we obtain the result that external purposiveness which has as yet only the form of
  teleology; really only comes to be a means; not an objective end…because the subjective end
  remains an external subjective determination; or; in so far as the end is active and realises itself;
  though only in a means it is still connected with the object immediately; immersed in it; it is itself
  an object; and the end; one may say; does not attain to a means; because the realisation of the end
  is a prior requirement before that realisation could be brought about through a means。
  In fact; however; the result is not only an external end relation; but the truth of it; an internal end
  relation and an objective end。 The externality of the object; self…subsistent as against the Notion;
  which the end presupposes for itself is posited in this presupposition as an unessential illusory
  show and is also already sublated in and for itself; the activity of the end is therefore; strictly
  speaking; only the representation of this illusory show and the sublating of it。 As the Notion has
  shown us; the first object becomes by communication a means; because it is in itself totality of the
  Notion; and its determinateness which is none other than externality itself is posited merely as
  something external and unessential and therefore appears within the end itself as the end's own
  moment not as a self…subsistent moment relatively to the end。 Thus the determination of the object
  as a means is purely an immediate one。 Accordingly; in order to make that object a means; the
  subjective end requires to use no violence against the object; no reinforcement against it other than
  the reinforcing of itself; the resolve 'Entschluss'; the explication 'Aufschluss'; this determination
  of itself; is the merely posited externality of the object; which appears therein as immediately
  subjected to the end and possesses no other determination counter to it than that of the nullity of
  the being…in…and…for…self。
  The second sublating of objectivity by objectivity differs from the above as follows: the former
  sublation; as the first; is the end in objective immediacy; and therefore the second is not merely
  the sublating of a first immediacy but of both; of the objective as something merely posited; and of
  the immediate。 In this way; the negativity returns into it self in such a manner that it is equally a
  restoration of the objectivity but of an objectivity identical with it; and in this it is as at the same
  time also a positing of the objectivity as an external objectivity determined only by the end。
  Through the latter circumstance this product remains as before also a means; through the former it
  is objectivity that is identical with the Notion; the realised end; in which the side of being a means
  is the reality of the end itself。 In the realised end the means vanishes; for it would be the objectivity
  that is as yet only immediately subsumed under the end; and in the realised end objectivity is
  present as the return of the end into itself; further; with it there also vanishes the mediation itself as
  a relation of something external; on the one side; into the concrete identity of the objective end;
  and on the other; into the same identity as abstract identity and immediacy of existence。
  Herein is also contained the mediation that was demanded for the first premise; the immediate
  relation of the end to the object。 The realised end is also means; and conversely the truth of the
  means is just this; to be itself a real end; and the first sublating of objectivity is already also the
  second; just as the second proved to contain the first; as well。 That is to say; the Notion
  determines itself; its determinateness is external indifference; which is immediately determined in
  the resolution 'Entschluss' as sublated; namely as internal; subjective indifference; and at the
  same time as a presupposed object。 Its further passage out from itself which appeared; namely;
  as an immediate communication and subsumption of the presupposed object under it; is at the
  same time a sublating of the former determinateness of externality that was internal and enclosed
  within the Notion; that is; posited as sublated; and at the same time a sublating of the
  presupposition of an object; consequently; this apparently first sublating of the indifferent
  objectivity is already the second as well; a reflection…into…self that has passed through mediation;
  and the realised end。
  Since the Notion here in the sphere of objectivity; where its determinateness has the form of
  indifferent externality; is in reciprocal action with itself; the exposition of its movement here
  becomes doubly difficult and involved; because this movement is itself double and a first is always
  a second also。 In the Notion taken by itself; that is in its subjectivity; its difference from itself
  appears as an immediate identical totality on its own account; but since its determinateness here is
  indifferent externality; its identity with itself in this externality is also immediately again
  self…repulsion; so that what is determined as external and indifferent to the identity is the identity
  itself; and the identity as identity; as reflected into itself; is rather its other。 Only by keeping this
  firmly in mind can we grasp the objective return of the Notion into itself; that is; the true
  objectification of the Notion…grasp that each of the single moments through which this mediation
  runs its course is itself the entire syllogism of those moments。
  Thus the original inner externality of the Notion through which it is self…repellent unity; the end and
  the striving of the end towards objectification; is the immediate positing or presupposition of an
  external object; the _self…determination is also the determination of an external object not
  determined by the Notion; and conversely; the latter determination is self…determination; that is;
  externality sublated and posited as internal…or the certainty of the unessentiality of the external
  object。 Of the second relation; the determination of the object as means; it has just been shown
  how it is within itself the mediation of the end in the object with itself。 Similarly; the third relation;
  mechanism; which proceeds under the dominance of the end and sublates the object by the
  object; is on the one hand a sublating of the m