II. The Doctrine of Essence

The truth of Being is Essence.

Being is that which is immediate. Knowledge seeks to understand that truth which Being is, in and for itself, and therefore, pressing beyond the immediate and its determinations, penetrates further, assuming that behind this Being there is something other than Being itself, and that this background constitutes the truth of Being. This cognition is mediated knowledge, for it is not lodged immediately with and in Essence, but begins at an Other, Being, and has to make a preliminary passage, the passage of transition beyond Being, or rather of entrance into it. Only when knowledge, coming out from the sphere of immediate Being, internalizes itself, does it through this mediation discover Essence.—Language has in the verb Sein (‘’to be”) preserved Wesen (“Essence”) in the past participle gewesen (“been”); for Essence is Being which has passed away, but passed away non-temporally.

When this movement is imagined as the road of knowledge, the beginning, which is made at Being, and the progress which transcends this category and so reaches Essence as something mediated, appear to be an activity of cognition, external to Being and irrelevant to its proper nature.

However, this movement is the movement of Being itself. It was seen in Being that its own nature causes it to internalize itself, and that thus entering into itself it becomes Essence.

If at first, then, the Absolute was determined as Being, it is as Essence that it is now determined. Cognition cannot stand still at the manifold of Determinate Being, nor yet at Being—Pure Being: the reflection immediately asserts itself that this Pure Being, the negation of everything finite, presupposes an internalization and a movement which have purged immediate Determinate Being into Pure Being. Being accordingly is determined as Essence, that is, as such a Being as suffers complete negation of what is determinate and finite. It is thus indeterminate and simple unity, from which whatever is determinate has in an external manner been removed; what is determinate was itself external to this unity, and after this removal has been made it still remains opposed to it; for it has been transcended not in itself but only relatively and with respect to this unity.—It was mentioned above that if pure Essence is defined as the Sum-total of all Realities, then these realities themselves are subject to determinateness and abstracting reflection, and this sum-total reduces itself to empty simplicity. In this manner Essence is only a product or construction. That external negation which is abstraction does no more than lift clear from that which remains as Essence every determinateness of Being; it pushes these, so to speak, from place to place, while they retain the attribute of being. But in this manner Essence is neither in itself nor for itself: it is through an Other, namely external and abstracting reflection, and it is for an Other, namely abstraction, and, generally, for that existent which still stands opposed to it. In its determination, therefore, it is a dead and empty absence of determination.

But Essence as it is now is what it is not by virtue of a negativity foreign to it, but by virtue of its own movement, which is the infinite movement of Being. It is Being-in-and-for-Self:—absolute Being-in-Self, since it is indifferent to every determinateness of Being, and otherness and the relation to other have simply been transcended. But it is not only this Being-in-Self, for as mere Being-in-Self it would be only the abstraction of pure Essence: equally essentially it is Being-for-Self; it is itself that negativity which is the self-transcendence of otherness and determinateness.

So far then Essence, as the complete return of Being upon itself, is Essence indeterminate: in it every determinateness of Being is transcended; it contains these in itself but not as posited in it. In this simple existence with itself absolute Essence has no Determinate Being. Into this, however, it must pass; for it is Being-in-and-for-Self, that is, it differentiates the determinations which in itself it contains. It is self-repulsion or self-indifference, a negative self-relation, and thus opposes itself to itself and is infinite Being-for-Self only in so far as it is self-unity in this its self-differentiation.—This determining is then of a nature different from that of the determining which takes place in the sphere of Being, and a determination of Essence differs in character from a determinateness of Being. Essence is the absolute unity of Being-in and Being-for-Self; its determining power therefore remains confined within this unity and is no Becoming nor transition, while the determinations are neither Other as other nor relations to an other; they are independent, but for this very reason they are such entities only as in their unity are with each other.—At first Essence is simple negativity; now it must posit in its own sphere the determinateness which it contains only in itself, in order to give itself Determinate Being and, next, its Being-for-Self.

Essence in the Whole is what Quantity was in the sphere of Being: absolute indifference to the limit. But Quantity is this indifference in immediate determination, and in it limit immediately is external determinateness; it passes over into Quantum; external limit is necessary to it and in it has being. But determinateness has not being in Essence: by Essence itself it is only posited: it is not free, but exists only in relation to its unity.—The negativity of Essence is Reflection, and the determinations are reflected, posited by Essence itself and remaining in it as transcended.

Essence is midway between Being and Notion: it is the mean between them, and its movement constitutes the transition from Being to Notion. Essence is Being-in-and-for-Self, and that in the determination of Being-in-Self; for its general determination is, that it proceeds out of Being or is the first negation of Being. Its movement is this, that it posits negation or determination in Being, and thus achieves Determinate Being; it becomes as infinite Being-for-Self what it is in itself. Thus the Determinate Being which it achieves is equal to its Being-in-Self; and Essence becomes Notion. For the Notion is the Absolute, absolute or in and for itself as it is in its Determinate Being. But that Determinate Being which Essence achieves is not yet Determinate Being as it is in and for itself, but such as Essence achieves it or as it is posited; so far, therefore, it is different from the Determinate Being of the Notion.

Essence first shows into itself or is Reflection; next it appears; thirdly it manifests itself. In its movement it posits itself in the following determinations:—

1. as simple Essence which is in itself in its determinations within itself;

II. as emerging into Determinate Being, or according to its existence and Appearance;

III. as Essence which is one with its Appearance, that is, as Actuality.