THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

issues and the views of his two predecessors. While Schelling addresses the relation
between plurality and unity and the relation between difference and identity, he
ultimately reduces plurality to unity and difference to identity. Thus Schelling posits the
absolute unity or the “A = A” as the fundamental and unconditioned principle of reason
and nature of reality. By contrast, Hegel emphasizes the fundamentally irreducible and
equiprimordial nature of identity and difference. Accordingly, Hegel sees the unity of
identity and difference, or the unity of “A = A” and “A ≠ A” as the fundamental principle
of reality.
Jacobi recognizes the problem of the relation of the one and the many, and he uses
these terms to address what he sees as the fatal flaw of Kantian philosophy. Moreover, in
terms that anticipate Hegel, he describes the original connection between the one and the
many as the “substance,” “organism,” and the “individual.” Jacobi argues that this
mysterious relation transcends reason. Hegel endorses a similar position in the
Systemfragment. Starting with the Differenzschrift, however, he claims that reason or
speculation is capable of grasping the essential unity of identity and difference.
In the Differenzschrift and in Glauben und Wissen, Hegel discusses the problem
of the unity of identity and difference in terms of the nature of apperception. The
problem of apperception presents the problem of the unity of identity and difference, and,
according to Hegel, it provides the basic model for the solution to this problem. In the
essay on natural right, Hegel discusses empiricism and the central problems of practical
philosophy in terms of the nature of the relation between the one and the many. This
essay thus provides further examples of the wide range of issues that Hegel considers in
terms of this basic problem.
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