PRIMARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 15 



position of itself; for + is nothing else than self- 

 posited. The positing and posited act are of one kind ; 

 the latter, however, is the Real, the Finite ; the former the 

 Ideal, the Eternal. Both are distinguished from each 

 other through this only, that the Real is the posited, 

 numbered, and consequently determined act ; the ideal, 

 however, the positing, consequently numbering and thus 

 undetermined act. While, however, the + is nothing 

 else than 0, it must necessarily bear a relation to it, and 

 thus retrograde into the 0. This retrogression is an 

 act in the reverse direction, or what is indicated in 

 mathematics by negation. The has been therefore 

 necessarily granted with the +, else the + would not be 

 represented as = to 0. The act of positing is therefore 

 at the same time also an act of negation. So soon as the 

 is or exists, it is = + . The realization of the Eter- 

 nal is accordingly a complete antagonism of itself. For 



is equal to -j , not simply = + or = to . 



60. The being of the Eternal is therefore a self -mani- 

 festation. Every Singular is nothing but a self-mani- 

 festation ; since all numbers are only positions of zero or 

 of +, which can never be without . In every essence 

 there are two, but the two are the one essence itself, 

 which posits itself by division. The Positing of the Eter- 

 nal in the sense in which it has been hitherto adopted, 

 namely, as a realization of the same, is not merely an act 

 of positing, not an indeterminate Positing, but an anta- 

 gonism of itself. The zero is simply the indeterminate 

 Positing, or the negative Positing ; but the number, or the 

 real is the antagonism of zero, the + , or the self- 

 manifestation. The cannot be thought of for itself 

 alone without the -f ; the latter, however, not without 0, 

 as well as the also not without ; for it is the suppres- 

 sion of the posited 0, namely, the +. Every act of 

 self-manifestation is therefore two-fold, a manifestation 

 (= +), but a manifestation of itself, consequently a 

 retrogression into (= ). Through negation the 

 Finite becomes united with the Eternal. Every disap- 

 pearance of the Finite is a retrogression into the Eternal ; 



