October 11, 2006
the beautiful soul
Thus the “beautiful soul”, being conscious of this contradiction in its unreconciled immediacy, is unhinged, disordered, and runs to madness, wastes itself in yearning, and pines away in consumption.(9) Thereby it gives up, as a fact, its stubborn insistence on its own isolated self-existence, but only to bring forth the soulless, spiritless unity of abstract being.— G.W.F. Hegel, "Conscience: The “Beautiful Soul”: Evil and the Forgiveness of it"
This kind of idealism has a history. To return to it, in discussions of, say, collectivity, or kindness, or "types," is to ignore history altogether — an interesting and perhaps Utopian fantasy, but a fantasy all the same.
Posted by jane at October 11, 2006 11:27 AM | TrackBack