THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

The following passages summarizes many of the points made thus far about the
parallel structures in the distinctions between the infinite and the finite, between the
indeterminate and the determinate, and between identity and difference. It states Hegel’s
claim that reflection fails to grasp the relation or unity of these moments, his claim that
reflection leads to contradiction or antinomy, and his claim that only a proper conception
of the relation between identity and difference can resolve these contradictions or
antinomies. Hegel says:
Such products of reflection include infinity and finitude, indeterminacy and
determinacy, etc. From infinity there is no transition to the finite, and from
indeterminacy there is no transition to the determinate. The transition, as a
synthesis, becomes an antinomy. 259
Shortly thereafter, he continues:
If an ideal opposition is the work of reflection, which completely abstracts from
absolute identity, it is equally true in contrast to this that a real opposition is the
work of reason, which determines [setzt] identity and difference [Nicht-Identität]
as identical, not only in the form of knowledge, but also in the form of being. 260
Reason grasps the identity of identity and difference as the basic structure of knowledge
and of being. In doing so, it grasps the ultimate means of overcoming the contradictions,
paradoxes, or antinomies that arise from the distinctions between infinity and finitude,
between indeterminacy and determinacy.
If the “I” can be fully abstracted from its different representations, then either (a)
the “I” must itself be a representation or a part of a representation, or (b) it must be a
substance that exists beyond our experience – i.e. a substance that cannot be represented.
transcendent substance and the immanent plurality of experience, this doesn’t necessarily show that such a
relation is impossible in itself.
259 Werke 2, p. 98.
260 Werke 2, p. 98.
246