Identität (Identity, Hegel)

Identität is the first of the four Reflexionsbestimmungen in the Doctrine of Essence (GW 11 raw 4574–4634). Hegel's cardinal thesis: "Die Identität ist also an ihr selbst absolute Nichtidentität" (raw 4598) — identity at itself is absolute non-identity. The Wolffian / Kantian Satz der Identität ("A = A") is not analytic but synthetic: it contains the absolute difference within itself.

To say anything — even "die Pflanze ist – eine Pflanze" (raw 4620) — is to promise a determination and then fail to deliver one. The Langeweile (boredom) at "A = A" is the immediate phenomenology of the contradiction the proposition silently enacts.

Key Points

  • Die Identität ist also an ihr selbst absolute Nichtidentität (raw 4598). The cardinal claim: identity at itself is absolute non-identity.
  • The Wolffian "A = A" is empty. To assert pure identity is to draw a distinction against difference — which the assertion of pure identity cannot tolerate.
  • The Langeweile phenomenology. Boredom at the tautology is the phenomenology of the contradiction: the proposition promises a determination and fails to deliver one.
  • The Satz der Identität is synthetic, not analytic. GW 11 Anm. 2 to Identität, raw 4634: "nicht bloß analytischer, sondern synthetischer Natur" — the Satz contains absolute difference within itself.
  • Identity-that-distinguishes-itself-from-difference is already Verschiedenheit. The transition: identity that says "I am not difference" has already committed to a relation with difference that pure identity could not tolerate.
  • Anti-Wolff / anti-Leibniz. The Wolff-Baumgarten treatment of the principium identitatis as analytic a priori law is rejected; Leibniz's principle of indiscernibles is treated in the Verschiedenheit chapter as the post-Cartesian high-water mark of this tradition.

What the Concept Does

  1. It articulates the first Reflexionsbestimmung. Identity is the categorial moment that promises pure self-relation and fails to deliver it.
  2. It refutes the Wolffian / Kantian analytic reading of the Satz der Identität. The Satz is synthetic; it contains absolute difference.
  3. It transitions to Verschiedenheit. Identity-that-distinguishes-itself is already difference; the categorial movement is internal to identity's own structure.
  4. It anchors the Langeweile phenomenology — boredom at "A = A" is the categorial result.

What It Rejects

  • The Wolffian / Kantian analytic reading of the Satz der Identität — the Satz is synthetic.
  • The picture of identity as primitive — identity at itself is absolute non-identity.
  • The pure-self-relation picture — to say anything is to promise determination; pure self-relation is empty.

Connections

  • is the first of the four Reflexionsbestimmungen
  • transitions to Verschiedenheit — identity-that-distinguishes-itself is already difference
  • is operated by Reflexion in its setzende form (positing as identity-with-self)
  • contrasts with Fürsichseyn — Fürsichseyn is pure self-relation in Sein-register; Identität is pure self-relation in Wesen-register (and both turn out to be self-contradictory)
  • rejects Wolff's principium identitatis as analytic a priori law
  • is the categorial home of the Langeweile-as-phenomenology figure (raw 4620 die Pflanze ist – eine Pflanze)

Sources

  • hegel-1813-wdl-objektive-logik — primary locus: GW 11 Zweites Kapitel A Die Identität, raw 4574–4634. Identität ist absolute Nichtidentität at raw 4598. Die Pflanze ist – eine Pflanze at raw 4620. Anm. 2 on synthetic-not-analytic nature of the Satz at raw 4634.