THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

the agent or self in terms of its particularity, finitude, and determinacy. This part
corresponds to the second moment of the will, the moment described in paragraph six.
Finally, in the third section, the section on ethical life, Hegel presents a conception of
politics that unites the one-sided abstractions discussed in “Abstract Right” and
“Morality.” This section presents the culmination of Hegel’s political philosophy, and it
corresponds to the third moment of the will, the moment that unites the structures of the
will discussed in paragraphs five and six.
These parallels demonstrate the importance of paragraphs five through seven for
our interpretation of the Philosophy of Right. In light of these parallels, we face two
distinct tasks. The first task involves the clarification of the terms presented in
paragraphs five through seven, terms such as universality, particularity, infinity, finitude,
indeterminacy, and determinacy. We must determine what Hegel means when he
describes the structure of the will, for instance, as the unity of the universal and the
particular. The second task is more complex. In addition to determining how Hegel
conceives the will, we must also determine why he conceives the will in the manner that
he does. So, for instance, in addition to determining what Hegel means when he
describes the will as the unity of the universal and the particular, we must also determine
why he thinks the will has this particular structure. We must, in other words, determine
and at least begin to evaluate Hegel’s arguments for this particular conception of the will.
Both tasks require an exploration of certain complex metaphysical themes from
the Science of Logic and the Encyclopedia. The guiding insight for this exploration
comes from the recognition that the structure of the will is the structure of the notion. In
Chapter One, I argued that he term “notion” or “Begriff” designates Hegel’s alternative to
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