Determination, Constitution and Limit

²³⁰ The in-itself into which something is reflected into itself out of its being-for-other is no longer an abstract in-itself, but as negation of its being-for-other is mediated by the latter, which is thus its moment.

It is not only the immediate identity of the something with itself, but the identity through which there is present in the something that which it is in itself; being-for-other is present in it because the in-itself is the sublation of the being-for-other, has returned out of the being-for-other into itself;

But equally, too, simply because it is abstract and therefore essentially burdened with negation, with being-for-other.

There is present here not only quality and reality, determinateness in the form of simple being, but determinateness in the form of the in-itself; and the development consists in positing this determinateness as reflected into itself.

²³¹ 1. The quality which is constituted by the essential unity of the in-itself in the simple something with its other moment, the presence in it of its being-for-other, can be called the determination of the in-itself, in so far as this word in its exact meaning is distinguished from determinateness in general.

Determination is affirmative determinateness as the in-itself with which something in its determinate being remains congruous in face of its entanglement with the other by which it might be determined, maintaining itself in its self-equality, and making its determination hold good in its being-for-other.

Something fulfils its determination in so far as the further determinateness which at once develops in various directions through something’s relation to other, is congruous with the in-itself of the something, becomes its filling. Determination implies that what something is in itself, is also present in it.

²³² The determination of man is thinking reason; thought in general, thought as such, in his simple determinateness — by it he is distinguished from the brute; in himself he is thought, in so far as this is also distinguished from his being-for-other, from his own natural existence and sense — nature through which he is directly connected with his other.

But thought is also present in him; man himself is thought, he actually exists as thinking, it is his concrete existence and actuality; and, further, since thought is in his determinate being and his determinate being is in thought, it is to be taken as concrete, as having content and filling; it is thinking reason and as such the determination of man.

But even this determination again is only in itself as something which ought to be, that is it, together with the filling which is incorporated in its in-itself, is in the form of the in-itself in general, in contrast to the determinate being not incorporated in it, which at the same time still confronts it externally as immediate sense-nature and nature.

²³³ 2. The filling of the in-itself with determinateness is also distinct from the determinateness which is only being-for-other and remains outside the determination. For in the sphere of quality, the differences in their sublated form as moments also retain the form of immediate, qualitative being relatively to one another.

That which something has in it, thus divides itself and is from this side an external determinate being of the something, which is also its determinate being, but does not belong to the something’s in-itself. The determinateness is thus a constitution.

²³⁴ Constituted in this or that way, something is involved in external influences and relationships. This external connection on which the constitution depends, and the circumstance of being determined by an other, appears as something contingent. But it is the quality of something to be open to external influences and to have a constitution.

²³⁵ In so far as something alters, the alteration falls within its constitution; it is that in the something which becomes an other. The something itself preserves itself in the alteration which affects only this unstable surface of its otherness, not its determination.

²³⁶ Determination and constitution are thus distinguished from each other; something, in accordance with its determination, is indifferent to its constitution. But that which something has in it, is the middle term connecting them in this syllogism.

Or, rather, the being-in-the-something showed itself as falling apart into these two extremes. The simple middle term is determinateness as such; to its identity belongs both determination and constitution. But determination spontaneously passes over into constitution, and the latter into the former.

This is implied in what has been said already; the connection is more precisely this: in so far as that which something is in itself is also present in it, it is burdened with being-for-other; hence the determination is, as such, open to relationship to other.

The determinateness is at the same time a moment, but contains at the same time the qualitative distinction of being different from the in-itself, of being the negative of the something, another determinate being. The determinateness which thus holds the other within it, being united with the in-itself, brings the otherness into the latter or into the determination, which, consequently, is reduced to constitution.

Conversely, being-for-other isolated as constitution and posited by itself, is in its own self the same as the other as such, the other in its own self, that is, the other of itself; but thus it is self-related determinate being, the in-itself with a determinateness, and therefore a determination. Consequently, in so far as determination and constitution are also to be held apart, the latter, which appears to be grounded in something external, in an other in general, also depends on the former, and the determining from outside is at the same time determined by the something’s own, immanent determination. But further, the constitution belongs to that which the something is in itself; something alters with its constitution.

²³⁷ This alteration of something is no longer the first alteration of something merely in accordance with its being-for-other; the first was only an implicit (an sich seiende) alteration belonging to the inner Notion; now alteration is also posited in the something. The something itself is further determined and the negation is posited as immanent in it, as its developed being-within-self.

²³⁸ In the first place, the transition of determination and constitution into each other is the sublation of their difference, resulting in the positing of determinate being or something in general; and since this latter results from that difference which equally includes within it qualitative otherness, there are two somethings which, however, are not opposed to each other only as others in general — for in that case this negation would still be abstract and would arise only from comparing them. But the negation is now immanent in the somethings. As determinate beings they are indifferent to each other, but this their affirmation is no longer immediate, each relates itself to itself only by means of the sublation of the otherness which, in the determination, is reflected into the in-itself.

²³⁹ Thus something through its own nature relates itself to the other, because otherness is posited in it as its own moment.

Its being-within-self includes the negation within it, by means of which alone it now has its affirmative determinate being.

But the other is also qualitatively distinguished from this and is thus posited outside the something. The negation of its other is now the quality of the something, for it is as this sublating of its other that it is something.

It is only in this sublation that the other is really opposed to another determinate being; the other is only externally opposed to the first something, or rather, since in fact they are directly connected, that is in their Notion, their connection is this, that determinate being has passed over into otherness, something into other, and something is just as much an other as the other itself is.

Now in so far as the being-within-self is the non-being of the otherness which is contained in it but which at the same time has a distinct being of its own, the something is itself the negation, the ceasing of an other in it; it is posited as relating itself negatively to the other and in so doing preserving itself.

This other, the being-within-self of the something as negation of the negation, is its in-itself, and at the same time this sublation is present in it as a simple negation, namely, as its negation of the other something external to it. There is a single determinateness of both, which on the one hand is identical with the being-within-self of the somethings as negation of the negation, and on the other hand, since these negations are opposed to one another as other somethings, conjoins and equally disjoins them through their own nature, each negating the other: this determinateness is limit.

²⁴⁰ 3. Being-for-other is the indeterminate, affirmative community of something with its other; in the limit the non-being-for-other becomes prominent, the qualitative negation of the other, which is thereby kept apart from the something which is reflected into itself. We must observe the development of this Notion, which manifests itself, however, rather as an entanglement and a contradiction. This contradiction is at once to be found in the circumstance that the limit, as something’s negation reflected into itself, contains ideally in it the moments of something and other, and these, as distinguished moments, are at the same time posited in the sphere of determinate being as really, qualitatively distinct.

²⁴¹ [a] Something, therefore, is immediate, self-related determinate being, and has a limit, in the first place, relatively to an other; the limit is the non-being of the other, not of the something itself: in the limit, something limits its other. But the other is itself a something in general, therefore the limit which something has relatively to the other is also the limit of the other as a something, its limit whereby it keeps the first something as its other apart from it, or is a non-being of that something; it is thus not only non-being of the other, but-non-being, equally of the one and of the other something, consequently of the something as such.

²⁴² But the limit is essentially equally the non-being of the other, and so something at the same time is through its limit. It is true that something, in limiting the other, is subjected to being limited itself; but at the same time its limit is, as the ceasing of the other in it, itself only the being of the something; through the limit something is what it is, and in the limit it has its quality. This relationship is the outward manifestation of the fact that the limit is simple negation or the first negation, whereas the other is, at the same time, the negation of the negation, the being-within-itself of the something.

²⁴³ Something, as an immediate determinate being, is, therefore, the limit relatively to another something, but the limit is present in the something itself, which is a something through the mediation of the limit which is just as much the non-being of the something. Limit is the mediation through which something and other each as well is, as is not.

²⁴⁴ [b] Now in so far as something in its limit both is and is not, and these moments are an immediate, qualitative difference, the negative determinate being and the determinate being of the something fall outside each other. Something has its determinate being outside (or, as it is also put, on the inside) of its limit; similarly, the other, too, because it is a something, is outside it. Limit is the middle between the two of them in which they cease. They have their determinate being beyond each other and beyond their limit; the limit as the non-being of each is the other of both.

²⁴⁵ It is in accordance with this difference of something from its limit that the line appears as line only outside its limit, the point; the plane as plane outside the line; the solid as solid only outside its limiting surface. It is primarily this aspect of limit which is seized by pictorial thought — the self-externality of the Notion — and especially, too, in reference to spatial objects.

²⁴⁶ [c] But further, something as it is outside the limit, the unlimited something, is only a determinate being in general.

As such, it is not distinguished from its other; it is only determinate being and therefore has the same determination as its other; each is only a something in general, or each is an other; thus both are the same.

But this their primarily immediate determinate being is now posited with the determinateness as limit, in which both are what they are, distinguished from each other. Limit is, however, equally their common distinguishedness, their unity and distinguishedness, like determinate being.

This double identity of both, of determinate being and limit, contains this: that something has its determinate being only in the limit, and that since the limit and the determinate being are each at the same time the negative of each other, the something, which is only in its limit, just as much separates itself from itself and points beyond itself to its non-being, declaring this is to be its being and thus passing over into it.

To apply this to the preceding example and taking first the determination that something is what it is only in its limit: as thus determined, the point is therefore the limit of the line, not merely in the sense that the line only ceases in the point, and as a determinate being is outside it.

Neither is the line the limit of the plane merely in the sense that the plane only ceases in it-and similarly with surface as limit of the solid; on the contrary, in the point the line also begins; the point is its absolute beginning.

Even when the line is represented as unlimited on either side, or, as it is put, is produced to infinity, the point still constitutes its element, just as the line is the element of the plane, and the surface that of the solid. These limits are the principle of that which they limit; just as one, for example as hundredth, is the limit, but also the element, of the whole hundred.

The other determination is the unrest of the something in its limit in which it is immanent, an unrest which is the contradiction which impels the something out beyond itself. Thus the point is this dialectic of its own self to become a line, the line the dialectic to become a plane, and the plane the dialectic to become total space.

A second definition is given of line, plane and total space: namely, that the line originates through the movement of the point, the plane through the movement of the line, and so on. But this movement of the point, line and so on, is regarded as something contingent or as only thus imagined.

This point of view is, however, really retracted in so far as the determinations from which the line and so on are supposed to originate are their elements and principles which, at the same time, are nothing else but their limits; and so the origin is not considered as contingent or as only thus imagined.

That point, line and plane by themselves are self-contradictory, are beginnings which spontaneously repel themselves from themselves, so that the point, through its Notion, passes out of itself into the line, moves in itself and gives rise to the line, and so on, lies in the Notion of limit which is immanent in the something.

The application itself, however, belongs to the consideration of space; to give an indication of it here, the point is the wholly abstract limit, but in a determinate being; this is taken as still wholly abstract, it is so-called absolute, that is, abstract space, a purely continuous asunderness.

But the limit is not abstract negation, but is in this determinate being, is a spatial determinateness; the point is, therefore, spatial, the contradiction of abstract negation and continuity, and is, therefore, the transition, the accomplished transition into the line, and so on; just as also, for the same reason, there is no such thing as a point, line or plane.

²⁴⁷ Something with its immanent limit posited as the contradiction of itself, through which it is directed and forced out of and beyond itself, is the finite.