But the conception of right as the negation of wrong finds its principal
application, and no doubt its origin, in cases in which an attempted wrong
by violence is warded off. This warding off cannot itself be wrong, and
consequently is right, although the violence it requires, regarded in
itself and in isolation, would be wrong, and is here only justified by the
motive, _i.e._, becomes right. If an individual goes so far in the
assertion of his own will that he encroaches upon the assertion of will
which is essential to my person as such, and denies it, then my warding
off of that encroachment is only the denial of that denial, and thus from
my side is nothing more than the assertion of the will which essentially
and originally appears in my body, and is already implicitly expressed by
the mere appearance of this body; consequently is not wrong, but right.
That is to say: I have then a right to deny that denial of another with
the force necessary to overcome it, and it is easy to see that this may
extend to the killing of the other individual, whose encroachment as
external violence pressing upon me may be warded off by a somewhat
stronger counteraction, entirely without wrong, consequently with right.
For all that happens from my side lies always within the sphere of the
assertion of will essential to my person as such, and already expressed by
it (which is the scene of the conflict), and does not encroach on that of
the other, consequently is only negation of the negation, and thus
affirmation, not itself negation. Thus if the will of another denies my
will, as this appears in my body and the use of its powers for its
maintenance, without denial of any foreign will which observes a like
limitation, I can _without wrong_ compel it to desist from such denial,
_i.e._, I have so far a _right of compulsion_.