Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 2 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
Plato further considers the fact that the true is the identity of
opposites, thus. The infinite, as the indeterminate, is capable of
a more or less, it may be more intensive or not; thus colder and
warmer, drier and moister, quicker and slower, &c., are all such.
What is limited is the equal, the double, and every other measure; by
this means the opposite ceases to be unlike and becomes uniform and
harmonious. Through the unity of these opposites, such as cold and
warm, dry and moist, health arises; similarly the harmony of music
takes its origin from the limitation of high tones and deep, of quicker
and slower movement, and, generally speaking, everything beautiful
and perfect arises through the union of opposites. Health, happiness,
beauty, &c., would thus appear to be begotten, in as far as the
opposites are allied thereto, but they are likewise an intermingling
of the same. The ancients make copious use of intermingling,
participation, &c., instead of individuality; but for us these are
indefinite and inadequate expressions. But Plato says that the third,
which is thus begotten, pre-supposes the cause or that from which it is
formed; this is more excellent than those through whose instrumentality
that third arose. Hence Plato has four determinations; first the
unlimited, the undetermined; secondly the limited, measure, proportion,
to which pertains wisdom; the third is what is mingled from both, what
has only arisen; the fourth is cause. This is in itself nothing else
than the unity of differences, subjectivity, power and supremacy over
opposites, that which is able to sustain the opposites in itself;
but it is only the spiritual which has this power and which sustains
opposition, the highest contradiction in itself. Weak corporeality
passes away as soon as ‘another’ comes into it. The cause he speaks
of is divine reason, which governs the world; the beauty of the world
which is present in air, fire, water, and in all that lives, is
produced thereby.[43] Thus the absolute is what in one unity is finite
and infinite.