know the object as the Other of myself, and consequently know myself by means of the object as limited and finite. We find ourselves to be finite; that is the leading thought here: as to this, there seems to be nothing further to say; everywhere we find an end, the end of one thing is there where an other begins. Already, in virtue of the fact that we have an object, we are finite; where that begins I am not, and thus am finite. We know ourselves to be finite under many and various aspects. In its physical aspect, life is finite; as having life we are externally dependent upon others, we have wants, &c., and have the consciousness of this limitation. We have this feeling in common with the lower animals. Plants, minerals, too, are finite, but these have no feeling of their limitation; it is the prerogative of what is living to know its limitation, and still more is it a prerogative of the Spiritual. What has life has experience of fear, dread, hunger, thirst, &c. There is an interruption in its feeling of self, a negation; and the feeling of this is actually present. If it be said that religion is based upon this feeling of dependence, then the lower animals too must have religion. For man this limitation only exists in so far as he goes above and beyond it; the feeling, the consciousness of limit, implies that he is above and beyond it. This feeling is a comparison of his nature (Natur) with his existence (Dasein) in this moment; his actual existence does not adequately correspond to his nature.
For us who are above and beyond its mode of existence, a stone is limited; for itself, it is not so; it is immediately identical with that which it is. That which constitutes its determinate being is not for it Not-Being. An animal’s feeling of limitation is a comparison of its universality with its actual existence in this definite moment. An animal, as living, is for itself something universal; it feels its limitation as negated universality, as want. In like manner, man is essentially negative unity, identity with himself, and he has the certainty of
