former; and which has the same one root with Thought。 As it is not the brute; but only the man that
thinks; he only — and only because he is a thinking being — has Freedom。 His consciousness
imports this; that the individual prehends itself as a person; that is; recognises itself in its single
existence as possessing universality; — as capable of abstraction from; and of surrendering all
speciality; and; therefore; as inherently infinite。 Consequently those spheres of intelligence which lie
beyond the limits of this consciousness are a mon ground among those substantial distinctions。
Even morality; which is so intimately connected with the consciousness of freedom; can be very
pure while that consciousness is still wanting; as far; that is to say; as it expresses duties and rights
only as objective mands; or even as far as it remains satisfied with the merely formal elevation
of the soul — the surrender of the sensual; and of all sensual motives — in a purely negative;
self…denying fashion。 The Chinese morality — since Europeans have bee acquainted with it
and with the writings of Confucius — has obtained the greatest praise and proportionate attention
from those who are familiar with the Christian morality。 There is a similar acknowledgment of the
sublimity with which the Indian religion and poetry; (a statement that must; however; be limited to
the higher kind); but especially the Indian philosophy; expatiate upon and demand the removal and
sacrifice of sensuality。 Yet both these nations are; it must be confessed; entirely wanting in the
essential consciousness of the Idea of Freedom。 To the Chinese their moral laws are just like
natural laws; — external; positive mands; — claims established by force; — pulsory duties
or rules of courtesy towards each other。 Freedom; through which alone the essential;
determinations of Reason bee moral sentiments; is wanting。 Morality is a political affair; and its
laws are administered by officers of government and legal tribunals。 Their treatises upon it (which
are not law books; but are certainly addressed to the subjective will and individual disposition)
read; — as do the moral writings of the Stoics — like a string of mands stated as necessary for
realising the goal of happiness; so that it seems to be left free to men; on their part; to adopt such
mands; — to observe them or not; while the conception of an abstract subject; “a wise man”
'Sapiens' forms the culminating point among the Chinese; as also among the Stoic moralists。 Also
in the Indian doctrine of the renunciation of the sensuality of desires and earthly interests; positive
moral freedom is not the object and end; but the annihilation of consciousness — spiritual and even
physical privation of life。
§ 80
It is the concrete spirit of a people which we have distinctly to recognise; and since it is Spirit it
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