THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

ecomes explicit through the act of synthesis. Similarly, in the development of the
object, the telos only becomes explicit and actual in the process by which the self
assimilates its other. (2) The conception of the whole that emerges from synthesis causes
thought to develop a more explicit conception of the principles of division. This often
leads to revisions or reformulations with regards to the parts. In other words, thought
does not move in a straight line from (a) implicit conception of the whole, to (b) plurality
produced by synthesis, to (c) explicit conception of the whole produces by synthesis of
the parts. The third step leads back to a revised version of first one. Thus thought moves
in a circle, or as Hegel sometimes says, in a circle of circles. In the same way, the object
also develops in a kind of circle. It does not consist in a linear movement from the telos
in its potentiality to the telos in its actuality. As the object becomes increasingly “aware”
of its telos, it becomes increasingly aware of the true nature of the distinction between
itself and its other. As it becomes increasingly aware of the distinction between itself and
its other, it moves more directly towards its telos, thus arriving at a more explicit
awareness or embodiment of its telos. Of course, as with thought, this process may
involve radical upheavals and transformations in the conception of the whole/telos. The
development of the object may not merely consist in the gradual increase in clarity, or in
the gradual increase in the degree to which the telos is embodied and thus actual.
Third, and most importantly, in the same way that the rule governing synthesis and the
rule governing analysis cannot be presented or defined in isolation from one another, so
also the act that divides the self and its other and the act that assimilates the self to the
other can neither exist nor be conceived in isolation from one another. The distinction
between the self and its other always occurs in light of some implicit conception of the
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