_a._ As entirely unaffected by “otherness” (or limitation) and entirely undetermined; and this would be pure nothing, for it cannot distinguish itself or be distinguished from pure nothing. _b._ As relating to itself, and hence making itself a duality—becoming its own other; in this case the “other” is a vanishing one, for it is at the same time identical and non-identical—a process in which the essence may be said to appear or become _phenomenal_. The entire process is the absolute or self-related (and hence independent). It is determined, but by itself, and hence not in a finite manner. II. The Phenomenon is thus seen to arise through the self-determination of essence, and has obviously the following characteristics: _a._ It is the “other” of the essence, and yet the own self of the essence existing in this opposed manner, and thus self-nugatory; and this non-abiding character gives it the name of phenomenon (or that which merely _appears_, but is no permanent essence). _b._ If this were simply another to the essence, and not the self-opposition of the same, then it would be through itself, and _itself_ the essence in its first (or immediate) phase. But this is the essence only as negated, or as returned from the otherness. _c._ This self-nugatoriness is seen to arise from the contradiction involved in its being other to itself, i. e. outside of its true being. _Without_ this self-nugatoriness it would be an abiding, an essence itself, and hence no phenomenon; _with_ this self-nugatoriness the phenomenon simply exhibits or “manifests” the essence; in fact, with the appearance and its negation taken together, we have before us a totality of essence and phenomenon. III. Therefore: _a._ The phenomenal is such because it is not an abiding somewhat. It is dependent upon other or essence. _b._ Whatever it posesses belongs to that upon which it depends, i. e. belongs to essence. _c._ In the self-nugatoriness of the phenomenal we have the entire essence manifested. This latter point is the important result, and may-be stated in a less strict and more popular form thus: The real world (so-called) is said to be in a state of change—origination and decay. Things pass away and others come in their places. Under this change, however, there is a permanent called Essence. The imaginative thinking finds it impossible to realize such an abiding as exists through the decay of all external form, and hence pronounces it unknowable. But pure thought seizes it, and finds it a pure self-relation or process of return to itself, which accordingly has duality, thus: _a._ The positing or producing of a somewhat or an immediate, and, _b._ The cancelling of the same. In this duality of beginning and ceasing, this self-relation completes its circle, and is thus, _c._ the entire movement.