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THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Source: The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1870), pp. 97-111
Published by: Penn State University Press
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THE
JOURNAL
O
SPEOULATIYE
18
IV.
Vol.
PHILOSOPHY.
70.
No.
2.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

The question of Immortality involves the question of Sub
stance. What is Substantial ? If a being can be proved to be
it is of course
substance,
Is the soul substance ?
permanent,
and
cannot
be destroyed.
can be
must ne
destroyed
other potentialities
than the one realized.
possess
cessarily
The destructible
but a mere phase
of
thing is not substance,
in itself the entire round of
it. Substance
contains
possibili
its actuality
ties or potentialities;
and potentiality
are one.
I. The
substance
of that which
individual
Illustrations.?An
be crum
thing?a
stone'?may
bled to dust;
the dust may be pulverized
in water, or chemi
and its being mingled with a score of substan
cally changed,
ces, in which all of its original identity is lost.

A plant
and
it may be cut
grows and possesses
individuality;
and soil, or be
rot, and mingle with the atmosphere
burnt up and its elements unite with others.
A chemical
element
of oxygen,)
even, (e. g. a quantity
will,
if set free, seek some other elements, with which
it soon com
down
bines
and
loses
all
its former
shape
and properties.
A piece of iron rusts or oxydizes until it is a piece of iron
no longer. Water
is potentially
ice or vapor
when
it is liquid,
or when it is ice it is potentially vapor or liquid. Any indi

vidual form of water may be destroyed at once by realizing
either
of its potentialities.
II. Thus so long as a being has potentialities which depend
upon
7
beings
other
than itself, it is destructible.
Allow

a change
98The Immortality of theSoul.

in the totalityof conditions which surround it and you change
it.
Ill: A destructible being, therefore,is limited fromwithout

and finds itself conditioned by others. If there is an inde
structible being or a true Substance, itmust be such a being
as has its limits or determinations within and through its own
act.
IV. A self-determinedbeing is therefore the only immortal

being. It alone possesses individuality independent of other
is a process
Alteration
beings.
If a self-deter
of "othering."
mined being alters, itmust be through its own act.
It is its
own other, its own limit, its own means,

and its own end. All
in a circle, and has itself for a result.
its activity moves
It is,
a
a
and
therefore,
duality.
unity
V.
It is thereforetrue that no substance can exist except a
one.
self-determined
To define more clearly what a self-determined
we must
it in each of its functions ?:
consider
substance
(a)
is5
It is that
which determines, and (6) thatwhich is determined.
the pure active, it is not in anywise

the determiner,
(a) As
no
or nature which
constitution
characterizes
limited, and has
it. It is pure potentiality.
the
pure passive,
characterizes.
The determiner
Ego of a conscious
"
in a
determined
VI.
The
constituted,
the nature,
is not a being
The
being.
"
character."
self-determined
of Consciousness.
Thus we have
(&) But as determined it is the
found
and
in time and
act of this Ego
being
is, as
the substantial,
is that which
space, but is the

"
results as
the
such, only
and
can
in the form
say that it is
conscious
being.
Conscious
is determiner
and determined,
Being, which
and
in
the
and passive,
is
form of a pro
object,
subject
cess of self-identification;
this is an eternal process
for the
reason that this activity creates
its own object, a circle whose
VII.
active
end is its beginning.

It developes
through
the continual
approximation
of its pas
sivity to its activity, through its dissolving of its objectivity

into subjectivity.
stroying
This
individuality
therefore, instead of de
development
as change
is a process
of self
does,

The Immortality of theSoul.

essence
the very
identification,
History.
World
99
of consciousness
itself.
is
It
Historical.
(A Fantasia
Human
history
onHegeVs
divides
ofHistory.)
Philosophy
three great
into
epochs,
when
sidered according to its theory of the nature of the soul.
con
In
be called
the earliest
the foetal life and in

may
stage?what
no
on this sub
find
thereof?we
fancy
developed
conceptions
a
is
as
soul
the
In the second epoch
regarded
ject.
product of
nature and subordinate
thereto. In the third epoch man comes
to assign
to his soul the rank of self-existence,
and accord
ingly he subordinates all else to himself.

These
three
epochs
may
be again
classified,as
the periods
concreteness
of compre
of dominion (a) of the senses?with fancy and imagination;

reflection and abstraction;
(b) of the Understanding?with
?
with
(c) of the Reason

hension.
I. The
simple
sensuous
and
insight
knowing
does
not make
distinction
among the objects of time and space, separating the depend
to it is an immediate
ent from the independent.
Everything
existence
and since immediate
must be causa sui
existence;
or self-determined,
the infant is prone to regard all immediate
and will, so far as these
of intelligence
things as possessed
are implied
in arbitrariness.
The South Sea sava
attributes
ges thought that fire (when Captain Cook firstkindled it on

their island) was a malignant
and bit any one that touched
ers, almost
the whole
demon
it.
of Africa
Like
south
that
fed
on
dry wood,
the South Sea Island
of the Great Desert
is
peopled with human infants. The light of the sun of the phy
sical world glares upon them with unparalleled

but
splendor;
shines as yet only with feeble
the light of inner consciousness
of themselves
as
any knowledge
rays.
They do not possess
to
The
is
a
soul
universal
mere
embodi
beings.
them, hence,
ment
of caprice
and
arbitrariness.
What we find existing inAfrica at the present day, we find

to have been the primeval condition ofmankind in general if
correctly infer from such data as are given us.

All historic certainty ceases when we trace back
the annals
for a comparatively
short period.
of any nation
this
Beyond
we


lies the realm of tradition and mythology, inwhich the typi
cal and historical
are
confounded.
Back
of this we
are able
to trace still a few steps furtherby means of the data derived

lakes
can, for instance, in the Swiss
New
the cypress forests sunk below
the deep
Orleans?in
the remains of mman art there found
along the Nile?in
can trace an approximate
some
that extends
chronology
from natural
?in
mud
?we
science.
We
thousands of years beyond thewritten records. The geologist

the rates of deposit of deltas and of the growth
?considering
and
decay
of forests?affirms
the existence
of the human
race
in theMississippi valley neafly 50,000 years before our time.

Baron Bunsen finds theEgyptians advanced in civilization far
enough
years
Swiss
to manufacture
before
our era.
pottery, from seven to nine thousand

on the
How ancient were
the dwellers
The pre-historic
human be
lakes, we shall not inquire.
same as the unhis
seems
to
have
been
the
substantially
ing
in the dreamy
toric human being of the present. Absorbed

life of the senses,
he lived, and
no sign.
and made
died,
The
absence of objects upon which he has impressed his rational
will
is proof
conclusive
that he had
not attained
to that degree
when advan
which characterizes
of self-knowledge
humanity
sensuousness.
ced beyond
a sensuous
as an individual,
existence?as
immediate
Man
over against
all that is in time and space as a
object?stands
or
within him which
is as
The
Eeason
other
pure
opposite.
can
all
transcend
bounds
in
space.
(undeveloped)
yet potential
and thereby pronounce
the neces
invent Mathematics,
in
the
immediate
universe
of
all
and
conditions
being
sary
man is in the savage
when
all
But
time.
state, he
throughout
It can
of this universal
not yet gained
attribute
of
possession
over
no
master
nature.
Nature
is
to
is
him
therefore
and
his,
and he yields
to external
circum
an overpowering
necessity
He
is very vague.
Of course, his idea of immortality
stances.
or
to
and
tries
raise
and
in
believes
by spells
spectres
ghosts,
as
un
He
is
of
yet
spirits.
departed
allay the demonic power
has
born
from the dominion
of nature
into self-determination
(the
realm of Spirit), and may thereforebe said to be en rapport
Somnambulists
from their bodies, and
is most
mal magnetism,
&c.)
with
duals
nature.
feel
their separation
of phenomena
that class
frequent
among
as indivi
(i.e. ani
the lowest ranks


of humanity.
101
to the separate
Hence, although they hold
of the soul after death, yet as they merely

exist un
so
der the control of natural
in
in
death
the soul
powers
life,
as anything more than a natural
is not conceived
existence?a
existence
has lost some very important

attributes
of advantage
Life's
functions
thereby.
more enjoy
it can eat no more and drink no more?no
ghost?a
body which
and gained
nothing
all gone,
the delights of the body.

In the second
II.
scious
Man
separation
as universal
epoch of History
of the individual
name
entity.
This
belong China, India and the Bud

the Persian,
and Egyp
Phoenician,
tian, inwhich the principle ismodified.
we
into a con
Here
with-
civilizations,
ascends
from the generic

with man as individual.
is contrasted
is transitional.
epoch
dhist
man
this phase
the Oriental.
In one simple word,
The Universal
is distin
guished fromtheParticular; but theUniversal is identifiedas

the negative might of nature, and man
is ever annulled
by it. The Brahmin
from external
forming the act

when he becomes
special
ject,
of absorption
giddy with
consciousness
then he
and
annihilation
like
is Brahm
and
is the Particular
which
can only save himself
into Brahm by per

absorption
himself,
through abstraction;
and loses all
self-contemplation,
the dreamer
and
the mesmeric
blest.
superlatively
Holding
sub
as he
does this absolute abstraction to be theHighest Truth, it is
all that is distinctively

hu
consistent
that he should despise
man. He builds asylums
cows
and monkeys,
but leaves
for old
is
sick humanity miserably
to perish.
The animal
in general
even more
for the
the appearance
than the man,
of Brahm
latter
has
multiplicity
which
consciousness,
of individuals,
while
still in implicit unity.

This
stage
is properly
to be
diffracts
the brute
called
into
prismatically
instinct remains
the Pantheistic
stage.
All is God and God is one. All multiplicity, therefore,is only

or delusion.
Maya
There
is and
can be only One,
the nega
of this fundamental
doctrine
tive unity that absorbs all into it, the Saturn that devours all
children
of Time.
The
varieties
of the Orient may be briefly characterized as follows: they
are
stages
pendent
of ascent
of Nature.
towards
a recognition
of the soul as

inde

(a) First, there is China with its one substance upon which
all depends. The emperor is the visible embodiment of it?
the patriarchal principle, inwhich the individual is themerest
organ of the unity that articulates thewhole as patriarch and
monarch.
blance
vidual,
resem
races
there was
that in the savage
Note,
a
to the vegetable
indi
part
separate
organism?each
was
and no real individuality
particu
anywhere?all
larity. In China there is one organism like that of the lowest

can feel only.
which
to a central point?the
animal?the
polyp,
ence of the whole
Feeling
central
is the refer
self, being
at home in themembers. The plant cannot feel, for each of

its members is a separate individual, and thus there is no
one
return
into
sponds
to feeling.
centre.
So
we
in China
have
corre
what
(6) India seizes this substantial unity as articulated into
members
tinctness.
and we
(castes),
These
thus attain
articulations
one degree more

of dis
of Castes.
the basis
constitute
The spiritual substance is rigid and allows no transitions : the

to the next step;
cannot
ascend
lowest, and
and asso
they must forever remain distinct, in their marriages
from all others.
So, too, the other castes, each exists
ciations,
the Brahmin
in recognizing
in isolation
from the rest. Thus,
are
chandalas
as descended
from the Head
of BrahmS.,
as
and
thereby
pos
sessing in himself the possibility of realizing Brahm in him
the Uni
time places
idea at the same
self, the East Indian
as
law
a
of
wall?a
Nature?around
versal
humanity,
rigid
no freedom at all.
the individual
leaving
(c) The next higher realization is theBuddhistic.
In theLama
all are, or may become, priests?no

rigid caste system
worship
is the possibility
in each one of these priests
restrains?and
But when we come to the Per
the Grand Lama.
of becoming
of
sian and Zend
ideas we note the advent of a new element
Consciousness.
The
extreme
East?China,
India,
and
Thibet
?have
seized trueBeing as one (as completely abstract) and
have regarded this as positive, letting all multiplicity stand
as a mere
negative
delusion.
by
itself.
of the
do not make
any account
They
and
the negative,
seizes
But the Persian
attributes validity to it as the opposite of the positive. He
makes
two principles
: a positive
and
negative;

and
has bro
103

the abstract
ken
unity
of the more
eastern
nations.
He
has
in this seized the nature of spiritmore profoundly, forhe re

cognizes in it the importance of the negative, which is the
source
of all particular
existence.
as the positive?the
as
substantial
as
the universal.
Of course,
particular
is
the negative
is as substantial
(d) The Persian does not seize this thought in all itsbearings,
but
in its most
lets it abide
obvious
in nature?that
realization
of light and darkness.

is
The substance
of the remoter East
related
to the particularity
of man, as a negative
of it. The
of the substance
realization
man's
consciousness,
destroys
as
an
and he perishes
has a dualism
individual.
But Nature
and the Persian
has discovered
it.
The light now comes in through openings at the top of this
cave,
and we
spirit.
With
are
dualism
in a fair way
arises
to escape
the principle
into
the
the con
and
of activity,
of
free air
trast of the negative with the positive leads to a unity quite

as
concrete,
the substance
of all.
(e) This leads to the Phoenician conception, wherein it is
more
developed.
ship. Pain
or Finite
Pain
in this mode
is the chief element
is the feeling of subjectivity.
of wor
The particularity
is itself negative,
and in pain feels itself negated.
Of course, in pain
there is a synthesis
of the finite subject
with what
limits it, and hence where
pain is, there is a tran
mere
of
finitude.
make
To
this an object
of con
scending
in Religion
sciousness
shoWs the further elaboration
of the
new principle
which came in with the Persians.
The Negative
as darkness
is at first seized as coordinate with the Positive
as light, and
in this the Particular
as an essential
is seized
phase.
The
Phoenicians
in their Adonis-worship
seize
the
Negative as related to the Positive in the form of Pain, and

thus develope
a deeper
into the nature
insight
cules is the chief deity of the Phoenicians;

the human
by his own deeds
and becomes
of spirit.
Her
he ascends from
divine,
i. e. he ne
gates his negativity, or cancels his finitude; by renouncing
his ease and
comfort?denying
his "labors"
being?undergoing
manity)?he
determines
himself.
(negating)
(types
as a natural
himself
of the
labors

of hu

Of this transitional phase presented in the
Western-Oriental
is
the
culmination.
Hitherto
theNatural has
History, Egypt
been
spirit, or the soul of Man?his

a phase
the product of Nature,
merely,
the Substantial,
con
and
sciousness?merely
and
no substantial mode. All the Orient, it is true,believes in the

existence
of the
individual
after
death ?
the lowest
savages
do that. But they believe it in the formof demonology and

popular superstition, and all their thought upon the nature of
the Substantial, contradicts the popular belief.
(/) In Egypt this contradiction culminates, and we have the
recurrence
of natural
types with a half symbolic
perpetual
a
This
combination
constitutes
meaning
peering
through.
a problem
to be solved,
riddle:
and the Earth,
Isis is Nature,
and the remains of the Oriental unity. Osiris is the Nile,

and the Sun, and Life. The Nile had its cycle of rise and fall,
sun came and went

of giving
fertility to the land. The
in closest connection with it. The seed had a period of being
as
in the mud
and then of growth, and then appeared
buried
and
seed
again.
All
death.
nature
has
Particular
seems
Life
no
a circle
is this
abiding,
circle.
but
of birth, growth, decay, and

It arises and departs?the
the process
seems
itself
to be
eternal.
This problem fashioned itself in sharpest outlines in the
a rude rock beneath,

a lion's body, a human
head:
Sphinx:
nature
to the
the whole
from
the
of
lowest
range
inorganic
the
what
asked
then
?
It
What
organic.
question:
highest
then ? Does
the circle close upon
itself, or does it develope
? How
large a cycle does man embrace
spirally
comes a fish and rock, in his transmigration
If man
be
he
loses
con
does not
of personal
sciousness
identity, and his immortality
a
mere
wave
mean
of
If
he
the
sub
universal
is
anything.
he
will
be
swallowed
up, and
stance,
again
undoubtedly
naught will remain of him. With

this life is swallowed
termination.
By
death
the belief inBrahm, man in
and
up in Brahm,
he cannot escape
has
no
the same
separate
de
thing.
The Egyptians made the soul's cycle complete itself in three
thousand
years
and
return
to the human
form again.
But
in
its symbols it half expressed a profounder insight into the na

ture of spirit, and again was piqued by this very expression

105

to seize
to endeavor
Thns
the meaning,
it alternately
repeated
the symbol and strove to seize the truth symbolized; and thus
or Pantheistic
the Oriental
regard
stage of the doctrines
nature
of
the
soul.
the
ing
we find a theory that makes
the
consciousness
III. When
we
of
the
of
entire
the
characteristic
Soul,
cycle
permanent
ends
above
have
ascended
point
of view?and
and
the Orient
this begins
taken
with Greece.
the true spiritual
It is the Greek who answers the Sphinx riddle?a
for the cycle that remains

asking
"
ses. Man
is the
solvent word":
self-identical
uknow
in all
thyself"
riddle
its pha
the destiny,
final aim, of spirit. The beginning of this (the final period of
and incomplete
form.
history) presents us with an undeveloped
soul as a conscious
The Greek has found the human
being to
essence
It places
its ideals
of the world.
be the substantial
as fair divinities on Olympus, and itsmythology tells us how

has over
in the form of self-determining
individuality
and the primordial
forms of the
the forces of Nature
In
Titans
elder
of Gods.
with
the
same?the
dynasty
together
Spirit
come
its assertion
as a concrete
of the Substantial
the depths of the human

neglected
the
that
Greek merely asserts
fore,
ner the substantiality
of the soul.
who seizes more
It is the Roman
He
seizes
the realized
Will,
wherein
it has
individual
we
there
may
say,
spirit;
or vague man
in a general
the human
centrally
spirit.
or abiding
the character
I am through general hab
is displayed.
What
individuality
or
the conventionalities
of soci
its,
through blindly
following
a
own
sense
as
so
not
is
in
what I
my
ety,
individuality
high
am through strength of will
to
directed
the
realization
of
long
deeds.
The will, energizing, makes
for itself certain
are
when
and
these
stated
codes of laws.
The Roman
forms,
laws are the. rational
forms in which all modern
have
peoples
rational
(at least
secured
the first stages
of) their freedom.
But this development of spirit, although more central in its
of the true essence,

is still partial.
apprehension
is
self-determination,
only an undeveloped
although
The Will,
form of it.
It always presupposes something opposed to itwhich needs its
action
and modification.
and does
Thus
its act extends
not strictly return into itself.

an uncancelled
not perfect.
It involves
itself,
beyond
Its cycle, therefore, is
In the
externality.


of the Roman
struggle
to complete
consciousness
to a
the will
pure self-determiningBeing itwidens its scope, and, through

its external
conquests
and
and
more
becoming
and more
a totality
and
a resistless might to thewithout-lying territory,it dirempts

itself and becomes despotic (i. e. not finding the external limit
strong enough to trythe strengthof its political will, itwreaks
the surplus upon its own subjects). Its will reacts upon itself,
slavery
oppression
follow.
soon
As
as
antithesis
of
this kind developes, the rational basis of thewill disappears

and arbitrariness takes itsplace. For the opposing parties do
not find their limits
in the Reasonable?or
the Universal?but
each is restrained only through the opposing will of the other

party.
IV.
Under
these
the entire
circumstances,
civilized
world
of
that time lets go itshold of the Substantial which has been em

bodied for it in the state. In this utter ruin of its temporal sub
stance, it turnswithin tofind the deepest of all reconciliations.
At this point the Christian principle enters as the fulfilmentof
(all men) are in essence
is the True, can only be real
The Internal, which
of all naturalness;
naturalness
ized through the renunciation
or of being determined
from with
is the form of dependence,
the desire
the same.
Man
of the world.
as man
we have arrived
at the
standpoint
as
are
substantial.
of
the
Nature
We
complete
now to regard the soul as the final cause of the world, and as
its own reconciliation
eternal through the fact that it produces
alien
to it. Only that
of all that is
renunciation
by voluntary
out.
in
Hence
this new
annulment
which is able to pass through this infinitenegation can be

considered
as abiding.
Paradox
as
itmay
sound:
the product
of its own negation is the only product that can survive the
mutations of time. This is the relation of the Christian idea
to the world
All
it. All
into which
it came
and
took root.
on a form in accordance
took
gradually
and laws and
conventionalities
institutions
institutions
with
of modern
times are direct outgrowths of the doctrine (regarding the
we to set up as a prin
Were
soul) which we have enunciated.
and
draw logical results,
man's
denial
of
the
immortality
ciple
as rational
we should annihilate
all that is regarded
by the
or
the
in
in
modern world, whether
state,
Art, Religion
society
or Philosophy.


To
sum Tip this historic
107
view:
The first epoch (the unhistorical period) of the race, while
of the soul after death,

does not
a
as
to
the
soul
substantial
exist
any
really grant
validity
It
its
in
seizes
believes
but
ence,
sorcery.
idiosyncrasies.
only
existence
after
The second epoch grants also the individual
to the existence
it holds
in conflict with its theoretic tenets concern

death, but comes
existence.
nature
It holds conscious
the
of substantial
ing
ness to be incompatible with Absolute Being.
This is the
the common form of statement

is this:
view,
it is a product
of Nature,
The soul is not an essence;
and re
or ultimately
turns back at death
into Nature
It is a
again.
wave
in the ocean of Being,
and ultimatelly
is swallowed
up,
to true individuality.
in attaining
and never succeeds
and
Pantheistic
third epoch, which culminates

with Christianity,
is that
to spirit. The latter is seized
Nature
is subordinated
as the true universal
essence
whose
form is individuality;
on
while Nature
to be the estrangement
the
held
is,
contrary,
of spirit from itself, and thus a mere becoming
of spirit, and
as
essence
without
when regarded by itself.
consequently
The
in which
as innermost kernel
contain
the true
dogmas
no
matter
of
doctrine
the
how
speculative
soul,
unmeaning
some of those doctrines
are to the sensuous
form of thinking.
All
Christian
a doctrine
for example,
that of total depravity,
growing
some
in
too narrow
directions
because
of
its
inter
unpopular
:
man
states
nature
it
that
is
pretation
by
totally depraved;
that by nature there is no good thing in him. That this is the
Take,
to spirit, all will bear witness

truth with
reference
deepest
as that which
who
is regarded
reflect that Nature
is made
what
it is by an external power;
that it is that which
is ex
one
tended
and Time.
in Space
considers
that
Now,
every
human
or brute
being
as
the lowest who

and
impulses,
formed his character.
who
has
has
not any thing but natural

subdued
them and re
as idiotic him who
despises
not
Everybody
not thought out anything
for himself, but who takes ev
from
others
But even imitation
erything
through imitation.
is impossible
without
a
without
partial
self-determination;
own
course
of
one
one's
of
could
partial
naturalness,
cancelling
never put on the semblance
of another.
Spirit cannot grow
can give another one a truth
No man
by accretion.
except
has


on conditio^ that the latter receive it by thinking it over, and
thus being creatively active. Thus, in the doctrine of total
depravity is stated the great principle that Spirit is a self
activity, and is nothing except through its own mediation.
we may briefly state the grounds
In conclusion,
of the doc
trine of Immortality
freed from historical wrappage.
There
are now, as in all times, three views

extant:
the view origin
sensuous
from
view
from the
ating
thinking?the
originating
reflective intellect?and, thirdly, that taken by theRational
or Speculative
intellect.
the senses,
To
immortality
mere fancy. To the reflective
direction
of natural
science,
be much more
than a
now
in the
active
intellect,
very
it must grow ever more uncertain
cannot
themore it ponders the problem. But as doubt is diffused by

a natural
science,
the manifestations
come in
always
side
of
through
spirit as ex
in the phenomena
hibited
of instinct, somnambulism,
&c. For
a
while
for its
the atomistic
substrate
reflection,
demanding
so
will
and forces,
become
faculties
completely
hypothetical
and mechanical
that the magical
side of spirit must
abstract
natural
reassert
To
clear
the
will
correction
of the natural
and
itself again
again.
insight, however,
speculative
result.
is ever
immortality
The possibility of death can only belong to a being which
is not self-limited.
A being
limited
through another may
A body
has
the
limit.
of
removal
the
always
perish through
causes
the destruc
external
limits, and the removal of these,
abid
The permanent
of that body.
tion of the individuality
ing cannot find a lodgment in any particular body for the

reason.
mentioned
Wherever
is the only permanent
thing
a process
concerned,
must
The Permanent
are
bodies
involved.
have within itself its determining limits; in otherwords, it
must
be
that which
its own
forms or builds
character.
to
But
be this, itmust exist as a pure Negative related to itself. To

think this, requires the thought of an activity without a sub
strate, which is a difficult thought. But Schelling says that
whoever
cannot
cannot
think action
philosophize
at
all.
or antithesis
This
pure
without
negative
a substrate
relation
to
itself is exactly what calls itself "I"?the Ego or subject of all
consciousness.
To be able
to think
itself under

the form of
109
"I
am," a being must be generic and individual at the same
time. But a generic individual is not capable of being de
stroyed by change, for all change only affects it unessentially.
it. This
genus, and there is no transcending
we call personal
In
self-conscious
identity.
and object are the same.
it
In life simply?as
It is the summum
constitutes
ness,
appears
what
subject
in animals?instinct
takes
the place
of the Ego,
and
when this is the case the genus is sundered intomale and fe
male
plete,
so that neither is com

(sex=sect=sundered),
are perishable
in consequence.
This was well
individuals
and both
understood even by Plato, who states the division of the indi

vidual into an antithesis as the characteristic of all therealms
of Nature.
In thefinal epoch ofHistory alone does man recognize fully
his
own
essence.
All
the movements
of civilization
are
the
unfolding into actual realization of his infinite ideal.

Conclusion.
The Speculative
Insight
into Immortality?Its
Outline.
1stPosition.?All being is either dependent or independent;

if the former,then it is a part of the latter.
Sd Position.?Independent
being is either determined (made
what it is) by itself, or by somewhat else; but since deter
mination by another would make it dependent, it follows
that all Independent
is self-determined.
Being
3d Position.?Self-determined
is a subject and object
Being
in one ?
and determined.
determiner
It is Self-conscious
Being.
bih Position.?Original
Pure
Religion?is
or Independent
Self-consciousness,
in
God
Being?called
and this is the Activ
itywhich makes itself its own object.

this implies the externality of Himself to
6thPosition.?But
and
this is Space; and since knowing is a reducing
Himself,
of externality to internality,time is present as the cancelling
of space.
Hence,
too, arise
the kingdoms
of Nature?a
se
ries of ascending degrees which reflectGod more and more
as
they ascend
in the series, by being more
self-determined.
6thPosition.?This
series must end in a being which is God's
or
image
self-object?his thoughtof himself?and thisBeing
must realize in himself the complete ascent beyond Time


And were this not so, there could be no Abso
Space.
and no God?no
and
lute self-determined
substance,
Being
and
consequently no finite or changing being.
is such a being as ends the series of Na

a
man created, were he
suppose
higher than
a
man being
tran
being would
progressive
being,
7th Position.?Man
ture ; for if we
a fixed
scend him; or if that being were a progressive being, he

would only be identical in nature with man after all.
The demand that the reflection intoHimself
God's
plete?that
filled by a Being
and
externality
shall be com
shall actually
exist?can
Image
only be ful
or
that can cut loose entirely from Nature
still preserve
individual
characteristics?can
The self-iden
be fulfilled, in short, only by immortal beings.
are through and by means of self-de
whose
characteristics
tity
is permanent
that identity
termination,
self-identity, whereas
consists
which
alien
to the
in external
marks?conferred
marked?is
subject
the externalities
the moment
ocean.
waves
in the
by existences
and
is destroyed
perishable
are removed,
like individual
of immortal beings
of the existence
is not a
The necessity
but is only His
constraint
(or external
limit) to the Absolute,
or self-determination.
logical necessity
The doctrine of future existence may be held (as it is by
of the doctrine of Immortality.

independent
peoples)
must
in the one
of
Immortality
ground ultimately
proofs
: that the series of nature must end in a
here given, namely
identity, one in whom generic and
Being which has permanent
Oriental
All
is self-made.
character
Man
one, one whose
not as an animal, but only as a thinking
the position,
individual
claims
are
being.
Thus
the seven positions

above
If there
stated:
reversing
individual
is no immortal
from Nature,
being that ascends
which Nature
reflects is nowhere
reflected
then the Absolute
as a Permanent,
and hence His determination
does not return
toHimself; hence He is finite and no Absolute, and thusHe
Thus
there can
sinks into the rank of other natural beings.
no
no
and
hence every
self-determined
be
totalities;
beings
and partialness;
and this dependence
where only dependence
depends not on itself,for thatwould contradict its dependent

Settlementfor all possible Philosophical Disputes.

nor on the Independent,
for that cannot
nature;
no determination,
der this hypothesis.
Therefore,
through itself, or through others, can exist, but each
all is naught.
But if anything
its reflection; and
is, then there must

its reflection implies
exist
un
exist
whether
is naught,
the Absolute
immortal
Ill
beings.
and
And
man fulfils as subject-object (conscious Ego) the conditions,

and
THE
is therefore
immortal.
SETTLEMENT
FOR ALL POSSIBLE

CAL DISPUTES.
PHILOSOPHI
By A. E. KsoKasft.
It certainly is not likely that two persons will ever fall into
unless
dispute about any proposition,
they either hold each
a different interpretation
of one of the words
contained
in that
or
some
unless
is
that
the
assertion
of
proposition
proposition,
to
of course, can and will ever continue
We,
sort
of
for
latter
the
as,
assertions,
instance, by
dispute
whom powder was first invented;
how far the sun is distant
or rather we will not dispute, but simply
from the earth, &c;
on those matters,
the
consent,
disagree
leaving, by mutual
empirical
fact.
about
rectification.
But that we
open to future empirical
questions
can ever
an
not
about
of
char
dispute
propositions
empirical
we
same
have
the
definition
of
acter, provided
every
precisely
seems to be utterly impossible;
word in a proposition,
since
to be reducible
to
every such proposition
ought apparently
A = A, or ? A not = A.
For a non-empirical
proposition
a conception,
and the assertion
involves
of a predicate
as
to it. Now,
if I do not agree to the predicate
as a
belonging
component of the conception, then the difficultyis simply that

I have not defined that conception as my opponent wants it
as to whether
in a word dispute
defined, and we are involved
in ordinary
the
named
conception
language
by him is used as
a
or
not.
One of us will then have
involving such
component
to choose a different, or coin a new, word, and
by so doing our
whole dispute will have been settled.


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THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

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THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

Is the soul substance ?

ces, in which all of its original identity is lost.

A piece of iron rusts or oxydizes until it is a piece of iron

or when it is ice it is potentially vapor or liquid. Any indi

II. Thus so long as a being has potentialities which depend

than itself, it is destructible.

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98The Immortality of theSoul.

Ill: A destructible being, therefore,is limited fromwithout

IV. A self-determinedbeing is therefore the only immortal

mined being alters, itmust be through its own act.

own other, its own limit, its own means,

It is thereforetrue that no substance can exist except a

which determines, and (6) thatwhich is determined.

the pure active, it is not in anywise

it. It is pure potentiality.

(&) But as determined it is the

space, but is the

end is its beginning.

sivity to its activity, through its dissolving of its objectivity

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The Immortality of theSoul.

sidered according to its theory of the nature of the soul.

the foetal life and in

ingly he subordinates all else to himself.

of dominion (a) of the senses?with fancy and imagination;

(c) of the Reason

among the objects of time and space, separating the depend

ges thought that fire (when Captain Cook firstkindled it on

sical world glares upon them with unparalleled

What we find existing inAfrica at the present day, we find

correctly infer from such data as are given us.

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100The Immortality of theSoul.

cal and historical

to trace still a few steps furtherby means of the data derived

thousands of years beyond thewritten records. The geologist

in theMississippi valley neafly 50,000 years before our time.

pottery, from seven to nine thousand

toric human being of the present. Absorbed

absence of objects upon which he has impressed his rational

from the dominion

realm of Spirit), and may thereforebe said to be en rapport

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The Immortality of theSoul.

Hence, although they hold

of the soul after death, yet as they merely

has lost some very important

the delights of the body.

belong China, India and the Bud

tian, inwhich the principle ismodified.

from the generic

In one simple word,

guished fromtheParticular; but theUniversal is identifiedas

forming the act

into Brahm by per

does this absolute abstraction to be theHighest Truth, it is

all that is distinctively

still in implicit unity.

All is God and God is one. All multiplicity, therefore,is only