philosophy of nature-第13节
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muscles。 The digestive system is; however; as a system of glands with skin and cellular tissue;
immediate; vegetative; reproductive; but as part of the actual system of the intestines it is the
mediating reproduction。 The animal thus divides itself in the center (insectum) into three systems;
the head; thorax; and the abdomen; though; on the other hand; the extremities used for mechanical
movement and grasping constitute the moment of the individuality outwardly positing and
differentiating itself。
§ 278。
The idea of the living organism is the manifested unity of the concept with its reality; as the
antithesis of that subjectivity and objectivity; however; this unity exists essentially only as process。
It exists at the same time as the movement of the abstract relation of the living entity to itself which
dissolves itself into particularity; and; as the return into itself it is the negative unity of subjectivity
and totality。 Each of these moments is itself a process; however as a concrete moment of the
living; and the whole is the unity of the three processes。
§ 279。
(1) The abstract process of living individuality is the process of inner formation in which the
organism converts its own members into a inorganic nature; into means; and feeds on itself Thus it
produces precisely this totality of its self…organisation; so that each member is reciprocally the end
and the means; and maintains itself through the others and in opposition to them。 It is the process
which has the simple feeling of self as a result。
§ 280。
(2) The self…feeling of individuality is; in its negative return into itself immediately exclusive and in a
state of tension with inorganic nature as with real and external nature。 (3) Since animal
organisation is immediately reflected into itself in this external relation; this ideal relationship is the
theoretical process and; indeed; the determinate feeling; which differentiates itself into the multiple
sensory qualities of inorganic nature。
§ 281。
The senses and the theoretical processes are therefore: (1) the sense of the mechanical sphere of
gravity; of cohesion and its variation; of heat; and feeling as such; (2) the senses of antithesis; of
the particularised principle of air; and of equally realised neutrality; of water; and of the antitheses
of its dissolution; — smell and taste; (3) the sense of the pure; essential; but exterior identity; of the
side belonging to the materials of gravity: fire; light; and colour; and (4) the sense for the depiction
of subjective reality; or of the independent inner ideality of the body standing in opposition; the
sense of hearing。
The threefold moments of the concept therefore convert here into a fivefold number; because the
moment of particularity or of the antithesis in its totality is itself threefold。 Another reason for the
transition is that the animal organism is the reduction of inorganic nature split apart from itself but at
the same time it is its developed totality。 Because it is still natural subjectivity; the moments of
nature's developed totality exist separately; but as an infinite unity。 The determinations of this
subjectivity; therefore; have the sense of touch as their particular sense; the most fundamental;
general sense; which thus could also better be called feeling。 Particularity is the antithesis; and this
is the identity and the antithesis itself Thus the sense of light belongs to this particularity; an identity
which constitutes one side of the antithesis; as abstract; but precisely therefore determines itself。
Also belonging here are the two senses of the antithesis itself as such; air and water; both like the
others in their embodied specification and individualisation。 To the sense of individuality belongs
that subjectivity which; as purely self…demonstrating subjectivity; is tone。
§ 282。
The real process of inorganic nature begins equally with feeling; namely; the feeling of real
externality; and with this feeling the negation of the subject; which is at the same time the positive
relation to itself and its certainty in contrast to its negation。 It begins with the feeling of a lack; and
the drive to suspend the lack; which is the condition of being stimulated externally。
Only what is living feels a lack; for it alone in nature is the concept; the unity of itself and of its
specific opposite; in this relation it is a subject。 Where there is a limitation; it is a negation only for
a third; an external reflection。 It is lack; however; insofar as in one sense the overcoming of the
lack is also at hand; and the contradiction is posited as such。 A being which is capable of having
and enduring the contradiction of itself in itself is the subject; this constitutes its finitude。 — Reason
proves its infinitude precisely at that point when reference is made to finite reason; since it
determines itself as finite。 For negation is finitude and a lack only for that which is the suspended
being of itself the infinite relation to itself。 Thoughtlessness; however; stops short at the abstraction
of the limitation; and in life; too; where the concept itself enters into existence; it fails to grasp the
concept; but remains fixed on the determinations of representation: drives; instincts; and needs。
An important step towards a true representation of the organism is the substitution of the category
of stimulation by external forces for the category of the intervention of external causes。 This latter
contains the beginning of idealism; the assertion that nothing at all can have a positive relation to
the living if the living being is not in and for itself the possibility of the relation itself that is; not
determined by the concept; and thus in general not immanent to the subject。
But perhaps the most unphilosophical of any such scientific concoctions of the reflective categories
is the introduction of such formal and material relationships into the theory of stimulation; which has
long been regarded as philosophical。 This includes for example the entirely abstract antithesis of
receptivity to active capacity; which supposedly stand to each other as factors in inverse relations
of magnitude。 The result of this is to reduce all differences in the organism to the formalism of a
merely quantitative differentiation; involving increase and decrease; strengthening and weakening;
in other words; removing all possible traces of the concept。 A theory of medicine built on these
and determinations of the understanding is complete in half a dozen propositions; and it is no
wonder that it spread rapidly and found many adherents。
The cause of this philosophical confusion; which initiated the tendency to befriend nature; lay in the
basic error of initially determining the absolute as the absolute indifference of subject and object;
and then treating all determinations as only quantitative differences。 It is the case; rather; that the
absolute form; the concept and the principle of life; has for its soul only the qualitative difference
which consumes itself in itself But because this truly infinite negativity was not recognised; it was
believed that the absolute identity of life; as the attributes and the modes in the external
understanding are for Spinoza; can not be fixed without making the difference into a merely
external difference of the reflection。 In this way; however; life is left altogether lacking the salient
point of selfhood; the principle of self…movement; the differentiation of the self and the principle of
individuality in general。
Another crude and utterly unphilosophical procedure is the one which attempted to give the formal
determinations a real meaning by replacing the conceptual determinations with carbon and
nitrogen; oxygen and hydrogen; and determined the difference previously characterised as
intensive as now more or less of the one or another substance; whereas the active and positive
relation of the external stimulus would be the addition of a lacking substance。 One example is the
assertion that in an asthenia; or a nerve fever; nitrogen has the upper hand in the organism because
the brain and nerves are supposedly in general intensified nitrogen; since chemical analysis has
shown this to be the principal ingredient of these organic structures。 The ingestion of carbon is
therefore supposedly indicated in order to restore the balance of these substances; in other words;
in order to restore health。 The remedies which have been shown to work empirically against nerve
fever are; for this same reason; regarded as belonging to the side of carbon; and this superficial
compilation and opinion are presented as explanation and proof The crudity of this procedure
consists in taking the external Caput mortuum; the dead substance; a dead life which chemistry
has already destroyed a second time; for the essence of a living organ; and indeed; for its concept。
This last argument gives rise to that highly facile formalism which replaces the determinations of the
concept