ABSTRACT
Addition. In the animal, light has found itself, for the animal checks its
relationship with an other. The animal is the self which is for the self,
it is the existent unity o f differences, and pervades their distinctness. The 10
plant’s tendency towards being-for-self gives rise to the plant and the
bud, which are two independent individuals, and are not o f an ideal
nature. Animal being consists o f these tw o posited in unity. The animal
organism is therefore this duplication o f subjectivity, in which difference
no longer exists as it does in the plant, but in which only the unity o f 15
this duplication attains existence. True subjective unity exists in the animal
therefore; it is an incomposite soul, which contains infinity o f form , and
is deployed into the externality o f the body; what is more, it has a further
relation with an inorganic nature, an external world. Nevertheless,
animal subjectivity consists o f bodily self-preservation in the face o f 20
contact with an external world, and o f remaining w ith itself as the univer
sal. As this supreme point o f nature, animal life is therefore absolute
idealism. This implies that it contains the determinateness o f its corporeal
ity in a completely fluid manner, and that it has incorporated this im
mediacy into subjective being, and continues to do so. 25
It is here therefore that gravity is first truly overcome, for the centre
has been filled, has itself as object, and has therefore initiated its true
being-for-self. T he Sun and the members o f the solar system are indepen
dent, and present us w ith a spatial and temporal interrelatedness, not one
j which accords w ith the physical nature o f these bodies. I f animal being is
now also a sun, then the stars are after all interrelated within it in ac
cordance w ith their physical nature; they are taken back into the sun,
which holds them within itself in a single individuality. In so far as the
animal’s members are simply moments o f its form, and are perpetually
10 negating their independence, and withdrawing into a unity which is the
reality o f the N otion, and is for the Notion, the animal is the existent
Idea. I f a finger is cut off, a process o f chemical decomposition sets in,
and it is no longer a finger. The unity which is produced has being for
the implicit unity o f the animal. This implicit unity is the soul or Notion,
15 which is present in the body in so far as the body constitutes the process
o f idealization. T he subsistence o f the mutual externality o f spatiality has
no significance for the soul. The soul is incomposite and finer than any
point, but incongruously enough, attempts have been made to locate it.
