The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Religion
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Philosophy; Religion
And it is the loftiest morality that teaches that evil has no existence
and that man is not bound to permit the substantial existence of this
distinction, this negation. Yet it is possible for him to desire to
maintain the difference and even to push it to the point of sheer
opposition to God, who is the universal, self-contained and
self-sufficing. In this case man is evil. But, alternatively, he may
annul this distinction and place his true existence in God alone and in
his aspiration towards Him; and in this case he is good.
In Spinozism there is indeed the difference between good and evil,
opposition between God and man; but side by side with it we have also
the principle that evil is to be deemed a non-entity. In God as God, in
God as substance, there is no distinction. It is for man that the
distinction exists, as also for him exists the distinction of good and
evil.
_V.--THE DETERMINATION OF UNITY_
The superficial method of appraising philosophy is exemplified also in
those who assert that it is a "system of identity." It is perfectly true
that substance is this unity at one with itself, but spirit no less is
this self-identity. Ultimately, all is identity, unity with itself. But
when they speak of the philosophy of identity they have in view abstract
identity or unity in general; and they neglect the essential point, to
wit, the determination of this unity in itself; in other words, they
omit to consider whether this unity is determined as substance or as
spirit. Philosophy from beginning to end is nothing else than the study
of determinations of unity.
In the sphere of the Notion many unities are comprised. The combination
of water and earth is a unity, but this unity is mixture. If we bring
together a base and an acid, we have as the result a crystal; also
water; but water which cannot be discerned and which gives no trace of
humidity. Here the unity of the water and of this matter is a unity
different from the mixture of water and earth. The essential point is
the difference of these determinations. The unity of God is always
unity, but what is of primary importance is to know the modes and forms
of the determination of this unity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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