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THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

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present various ways of unifying the manifold in relation to the “I.” 255 Stated differently,<br />

the forms of judgment present the various processes by which the “I” unifies the manifold<br />

so as to become aware of its identity with itself as empirically actual. 256<br />

So far we have seen that apperception – the awareness that “I = I” – requires both<br />

identity and difference. In the awareness that, “I see the cup on the table,” and that “I see<br />

the cup is half-full,” we have the identity of the “I” and the difference presented by the<br />

content, the difference between the “cup’s being on the table” and the “cup’s being half-<br />

full.” Hegel argues that we must grasp the essential unity of this identity and these<br />

differences. In order to grasp the nature of the “I,” we must recognize both the sense in<br />

which the “I = I,” and, at the same time, the sense in which the “I ≠ I” or “I = not-I.” The<br />

phrase, “at the same time,” indicates that we must grasp the essential and reciprocal<br />

relation between these two senses or moments.<br />

In one sense, “I = I.” The “I” that sees the cup on the table can recognize itself as<br />

the same “I” that sees that the cup is half full. However, Hegel argues that we cannot<br />

fully abstract the “I” that sees the cup on the table from the representation that the cup is<br />

on the table. Likewise, we cannot fully abstract the “I” that sees that the cup is half full<br />

from the representation that the cup is half full. This is the thought expressed by the<br />

claim “I = not-I.” Here the symbol “=” expresses the fact that the “I” is essentially<br />

255 On Hegel’s interpretation of Kant, the categories or forms of judgment present “the modes” in<br />

which the “I” becomes aware of its own identity amidst the plurality of representations. Speaking of Kant,<br />

Hegel says: “The specific modes by which the Ego refers to itself the multiplicity of sense are the pure<br />

concepts of the understanding, the Categories” (Encyclopedia Logic, paragraph 42). Hegel follows Kant in<br />

this regard.<br />

256 Hegel sees the relationship between the transcendental unity of apperception and the empirical<br />

unity of apperception in terms of the relation between potentiality and actuality, or, metaphorically<br />

speaking, in terms of the relation between the seed and the fully developed plant. The transcendental unity<br />

of apperception presents the implicit basis for the possibility of an empirically developed apperception. If<br />

the “I” were not already implicitly aware of its identity in all of its representations, all of its representations<br />

would not exist for it, and it would therefore not have the ability to explicitly recognize them as its own.<br />

242

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