phenomenology of mind-第123部分
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simplicity of this form has abolished; and brought together into an individuality at peace with itself。
Hence the condition of unrest stands contrasted with this form; confronting quiescent individuality;
the essential reality; stands self…consciousness; which; being its source and origin; has nothing left
over for itself except to be pure activity。 What belongs to the substance; the artist imparted entirely
to his work; to himself; however; as a specific individuality he gave in his work no reality。 He could
only confer completeness on it by relinquishing his particular nature; divesting himself of his own
being; and rising to the abstraction of pure action。
In this first and immediate act of production; the separation of the work and his self…conscious
activity is not yet healed again。 The work is; therefore; not by itself really an animated thing; it is a
whole only when its process of coming to be is taken along with it。 The obvious and common
element in the case of a work of art; that it is produced in consciousness and is made by the hand
of man; is the moment of the notion existing qua notion; and standing in contrast to the work
produced。 And if this notion; qua the artist or spectator; is unselfish enough to declare the work of
art to be per se absolutely animated; and to forget himself qua agent or onlooker; then; as against
this; the notion of spirit has to be insisted on; spirit cannot dispense with the moment of being
conscious of itself。 This moment; however; stands in contrast to the work; because spirit; in this its
primary disruption; gives the two sides their abstract and specifically contrasted characteristics of
〃doing〃 something and of being a 〃thing〃; and their return to the unity they started from has not yet
come about。
The artist finds out; then; in his work; that he did not produce a reality like himself。 No doubt there
comes back to him from his work a consciousness in the sense that an admiring multitude honours
it as the spirit; which is their own true nature。 But this way of animating his work; since it renders
him his self…consciousness merely in the way of admiration; is rather a confession to the artist that
the animated work is not on the same level as himself。 Since his self comes back to him in the form
of gladness in general; he does not find therein the pain of his self…discipline and the pain of
production; nor the exertion and strain of his own toil。 People may; moreover; judge the work; or
bring it offerings and gifts; or endue it with their consciousness in whatever way they like — if they
with their knowledge set themselves over it; he knows how much more his act is than what they
understand and say; if they put themselves beneath it; and recognize in it their own dominating
essential reality; he knows himself as the master of this。
(2) THE HYMN
The work of art hence requires another element for its existence; God requires another way of
going forth than this; in which; out of the depths of his creative night; he drops into the opposite;
into externality; to the character of a 〃thing〃 with no self…consciousness。 This higher element is that
of Language…a way of existing which is directly self…conscious existence。 When individual
self…consciousness exists in that way; it is at the same time directly a form of universal contagion;
complete isolation of independent self…existent selves is at once fluent continuity and universally
communicated unity of the many selves; it is the soul existing as soul。 The god; then; which takes
language as its medium of embodiment; is the work of art inherently animated; endowed with a
soul; a work which directly in its existence contains the pure activity which was apart from and in
contrast to the god when existing as a 〃thing〃 In other words; self …consciousness; when its
essential being becomes objective; remains in direct unison with itself。 It is; when thus at home with
itself in its essential nature; pure thought or devotion; whose inwardness gets at the same time
express existence in the Hymn。 The hymn keeps within it the individuality of self…consciousness;
and this individual character is at the same time perceived to be there universal。 Devotion; kindled
in every one; is a spiritual stream which in all the manifold self…conscious units is conscious of itself
as one and the same function in all alike and a simple state of being。 Spirit; being this universal
self…consciousness of every one; holds in a single unity its pure inwardness as well as its objective
existence for others and the independent self…existence of the individual units。
This kind of language is distinct from another way God speaks; which is not that of universal
self…consciousness。 The Oracle; both in the case of the god of the religions of art as well as of the
preceding religions; is the necessary and the first form of divine utterance。 For God's very principle
implies that God is at once the essence of nature and of spirit; and hence has not merely natural
but spiritual existence as well。 In so far as this moment is merely implied as yet in God's principle
and is not realized in religion; the language used is; for the religious self…consciousness; the speech
of an alien and external self…consciousness。 The self…consciousness which remains alien and foreign
to its religious communion; is not yet there in the way its essential principle requires it should be。
The self is simple self…existence; and thereby is altogether universal self…existence; that self;
however; which is cut off from the self…consciousness of the communion; is primarily a mere
individual self。
The content of this its own peculiar and individual form of speech results from the general
determinate character which the Absolute Spirit is affirmed to have in its religion as such。 Thus the
universal spirit of the Sunrise; which has not yet particularized its existence; utters about the
Absolute equally simple and universal statements; whose substantial content is sublime in the
simplicity of its truth; but at the same time appears; because of this universality; trivial to the
self…consciousness developing further。
The further developed self; which advances to being distinctively for itself; rises above the pure
〃pathos〃 of 'unconscious' substance; gets the mastery over the objectivity of the Light of the rising
Sun; and knows that simplicity of truth to be the inherent reality (das Ansichseyende) which does
not possess the form of contingent existence through an utterance of an alien self; but is the sure
and unwritten law of the gods; a law that 〃lives for ever; and no man knows what time it came〃。
As the universal truth; revealed by the 〃Light〃 of the world; has here returned into what is within or
what is beneath; and has thus got rid of the form of contingent appearance; so too; on the other
hand; in the religion of art; because God's shape has taken on consciousness and hence
individuality in general; the peculiar utterance of God; who is the spirit of an ethically constituted
nation; is the Oracle; which knows its special circumstances and situation; and announces what is
serviceable to its interests。 Reflective thought; however; claims for itself the universal truths
enunciated; because these are known as the essential inherent reality of the nation's life; and the
utterance of them is thus for such reflexion no longer a strange and alien speech; but is its very
own。 Just as that wise man of old(4) searched in his own thought for what was worthy and good;
but left it to his 〃Daimon〃 to find out and decide the petty contingent content of what he wanted to
know — whether it was good for him to keep company with this or that person; or good for one
of his friends to go on a journey; and such like unimportant things; in the same way the universal
consciousness draws the knowledge about the contingent from birds; or trees; or fermenting earth;
the steam from which deprives the self…conscious mind of its sanity of judgment。 For what is
accidental is not the object of sober reflexion; and is extraneous; and hence the ethical
consciousness lets itself; as if by a throw of the dice; settle the matter in a manner that is similarly
unreflective and extraneous。 If the individual; by his understanding; determines on a certain course;
and selects; after consideration; what is useful for him; it is the specific nature of his particular
character which is the ground of this self…determination。 This basis is just what is contingent; and
that; knowledge which his understanding supplies as to what is useful for the individual; is hence
just such a knowledge as that of 〃oracles〃 or of the 〃lot〃; only that he who questions the oracle or
lot; thereby shows the ethical sentiment of indifference to what is accidental; while the former; on
the contrary; treats the inherently contingent as an essential concern of his thought and knowledge。
Higher than both; however; is to make careful reflexion the oracle for contingent action; but yet to
recognize that this very act reflected on is something contingent; because it refers to what is
opportune and has a relation to what is particular。
The true self…conscious existence; which spirit receives in the form of speech; which is not the
utterance of an alien and so accidental; i。e。 not universal; self…consciousness; is the work of art
which we met with before。 It stands in contrast to the statue; which has the character of a 〃thing〃。
As the statue is existence in a state of rest; the other is existence in a state of transience。 In the
case of the former; objectivity is set free and is without the immediate presence of a self of its own;
in the latter; on the other hand; objectivity is too much confined within the self; attains insufficiently
to definite embodiment; and is; like time; no longer… there just as soon as it is there。
(3)。 THE CULT
The religious Cult constitutes the process of the two sides — a process in which the divine
embodiment in motion within the pure feeling…element of self…consciousness; and its embodiment at
rest in the element of thinghood; reciprocally abandon the different character each posses