THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

more developed form of unity. A specimen of gold contains a degree of diversity or
complexity. It possesses various properties – a certain color, malleability, density, tinsel
strength, melting point, capacity to conduct electricity, etc. These properties are not
spatially differentiated or diversified. In other words, in a specimen of pure gold, all of
the properties exist equally at all points. The unity or identity of the specimen of gold
thus consists in its qualitatively identical, contiguous quantity. This means, among other
things, that a particular specimen of gold ceases to be that specimen of gold if loses a
small part of itself. At the same time, this loss doesn’t change the other parts of the
specimen, since the nature and function of its parts are not essentially related. This
shows the relatively undeveloped nature of the unity of gold according to criterion 2a.
A specimen of gold also has a relatively undeveloped unity when judged
according to criterion 2b. A specimen of gold can resist certain external forces. The
melting point, malleability, and tinsel strength measure the ability of gold to resist these
changes. However, gold can’t control its own motion. It can’t regenerate and grow. It
can’t respond to other threats the surrounding environment might pose to its structural
integrity – i.e. to its contiguous spatial existence.
An oak tree contains a higher degree of complexity in a more developed form of
unity. In Hegel’s terminology, an oak tree is truer than a specimen of gold. An oak tree
unites a host of different elements such as nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It
takes these elements in the form of various compounds from the soil and the air, and it
transforms them into the compounds it requires. It forms these compounds into its roots,
trunk, bark, leaves, etc. Unlike a specimen of gold, an oak tree is spatially differentiated.
Different parts of the tree, like the roots or the leaves, have different properties.
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