1.  In the first pattern of active reason, self-consciousness was its own pure individuality and confronting it stood empty universality [V.B.a. Pleasure and necessity §§4.1 ff. M].  ²In the second pattern both sides of this opposition each had both moments – law and individuality – within them.  One, the heart, was their immediate unity, while the other was their opposition.  ³Here in the scenario with virtue and the world's way, each of the two members is unity and opposition of those moments, a motion of law and individuality towards each other, but in opposition too.  ⁴Law is the essential thing for the consciousness of virtue and individuality has to be overcome, which is also true for the way of the world.  ⁵In the case of the consciousness of virtue, its own individuality has to be subjected to discipline [V.B.b. Law of the heart §4.6] under the universal, which is intrinsically, in itself true and good; but it remains in that personal consciousness.  True discipline can only be found in the sacrifice of the entire personality as the guarantee that it really is not still clinging to singularities, details.  ⁶This personal sacrifice also eliminates individuality from the way of the world, for it is the simple, integral moment common to both.

– ⁷In the world's way, individuality behaves in the exact opposite manner to how it operates in virtuous consciousness by making itself the essence and subjugating what is intrinsically good and true.

– ⁸Moreover, the way of the world is likewise for virtue not only this universal inverted by individuality.  In fact, absolute order is just as much a common moment, only not available in the way of the world as given reality for consciousness; here it is the former's inner essence.  ⁹This means it cannot really be produced by virtue, for production is, as action, consciousness of individuality, which is precisely what must overcome.  Overcoming individuality creates more room, as it were, for that in itself of the way of the world to enter into existence in and for itself.

2.  The general content of the actual way of the world has already emerged; looked at more closely it is again nothing other than the two previous motions of self-consciousness.  ²From them the pattern of virtue has emerged, and since they are its origin, virtue has them before it; it sets to work, however, to overcome its origin and to realize itself, to become for itself.  ³The way of the world is then on one side single individuality that seeks its joy and pleasure, but only finds its undoing therein, thereby satisfying the universal.  ⁴This satisfaction is itself, just like the other moments of this scenario, a distorted pattern and motion of the universal.  ⁵Actual reality is now only the singularity of joy and pleasure, while the universal is just the opposite of that, a necessity that is merely the empty form of that pleasure, something that is only a negative backlash and action devoid of content [V.B.a. Pleasure and necessity §§4-7 M].

– ⁶The other moment in the way of the world is the individuality that wants to be law in and for itself and disturbs the prevailing order with this fantasy.  The universal law asserts itself in the face of this conceit, without now appearing to be a dead necessity, something empty confronting consciousness, but as necessity in consciousness itself.  ⁷However, as the conscious relationship of absolute contradictory reality, it is madness.  As objective reality, on the other hand, it is complete distortion, inversion [V.B.b. Law of the heart §8.2-§.11 M].  ⁸The universal thus asserts itself in both sides as the power of their motion, but the existence of this power is only the general distortion.

3.  Consciousness should now obtain its true reality from virtue by overcoming individuality, the principle of the inversion.  Virtue's goal is in this way to invert the inverted way of the world back to its true essence.  ²This true essence in the way of the world is still only its in itself, not yet actual, so it's only a matter of belief for virtue.  ³It moves now to elevate this belief to visual observation, but without enjoying the fruits of its labour and sacrifice.  ⁴For being individuality, virtue is the action of struggle, the struggle it enters into with the way of the world; its goal and true essence, however, is victory over the actual reality of the way of the world.  The good resulting from this is the cessation of its action, of the consciousness of individuality.

– ⁵How the struggle will work out and what virtue experiences in it, whether its sacrifice leads to the way of the world losing and virtue winning – all this can only be decided by the nature of the living weapons used by the participants in the struggle. ⁶For the weapons are nothing other than the essence of the participants themselves, which enters the fray on both sides.  ⁷Their weapons thus emerge from what is implicitly present in this struggle.

4.  The universal lies for virtuous consciousness in belief, i.e. it is in itself true, not yet an actual, but an abstract universal.  In this consciousness it is a goal, while in the way of the world it is something internal.  ²In precisely these terms too the universal presents itself within virtue for the way of the world; for virtue wants to do good and does not claim it is already done.  ³This situation can also be considered in the following terms: the good, in entering the struggle against the way of the world, asserts itself as being for another, something not in and for itself, otherwise it would not see defeating its opponent as vital to realizing its own truth.  ⁴Being only for another amounts to the same thing as what emerged previously about it when we considered it from the opposite standpoint, namely it is as yet only an abstraction whose reality lies in the relation, it is not in and for itself.

5.  The good, the universal, as it enters the field here, is what is called gifts, abilities, powers.  ²It is a mode of spirit/mind in which it is imagined as a universal that needs the principle of individuality for its animation and motion and whose reality lies in individuality.  ³This universal is well applied by the principle when it lies in the consciousness of virtue, but misused by it in the way of the world.  There it is a passive tool indifferent to the use free individuality makes of it when it is firmly in its hand.  The universal can also be misused to produce a reality that amounts to its destruction.  It is a lifeless material lacking its own independence that can be formed this way or that and even for its own ruin.

6.  This universal stands equally under the command of the consciousness of virtue and of the way of the world, it cannot be foreseen whether virtue thus equipped will be victorious over vice.  ²The weapons are the same; they are those abilities and powers.  ³Virtue keeps its belief in the original unity – of its purpose and the essence of the way of the world – lying in wait to attack the enemy from the rear during the struggle to accomplish its purpose itself.  This means that for the knight of virtue his own action and struggle really are a matter of mirror fencing that he can't really take seriously, because he sets his true strength in the fact that the good is in and for itself, i.e. it accomplishes itself.  Clearly, he cannot afford to let his mirror fencing actually get serious.  ⁴For what he turns against the enemy and finds turned against himself, whose wear and tear is risked by both, is not supposed to be the good itself.  He is fighting to preserve the good and to implement it.  In fact, what is risked in the struggle are only the indifferent gifts and abilities.  ⁵These are nothing other than precisely the universal devoid of individuality that is supposed to be preserved and realized by the struggle.

– ⁶In fact, it is already immediately realized by the concept of struggle itself: it is the in itself, the universal, and its realization amounts to nothing more than that it simultaneously exists for another.  ⁷The two sides given above, in each of which it became an abstraction, are no longer separated and it is especially important to understand that in and through the struggle the good is asserted in both modes.

– ⁸Virtuous consciousness enters the struggle against the way of the world opposing what is inimical to the good.  What the way of the world offers it in the struggle is the universal, not only as abstract universal, but as one animated by individuality and existing for another, namely what is actually good.  ⁹Wherever virtue touches the way of the world, it always encounters points where the good itself exists, inseparably interwoven as it is in all appearances of the way of the world as its own in itself.  The good has its existence in the actual reality of the way of the world, which is thus invulnerable to virtue.  ¹⁰All moments that virtue was supposed to set against those points and sacrifice are precisely themselves such existing instances of the good and as such themselves invulnerable relations.  ¹¹Clearly, the struggle can only be a shifting back and forth between saving and sacrificing.  In fact, this actually means that neither sacrifice of one's own nor injuring the enemy can ever really happen.  ¹²Virtue is not only like that participant in the struggle who is only concerned to keep his sword clean, for it started the struggle in order to preserve the weapons.  Not only can virtue not use its own, it must also leave those of the enemy undamaged and protect them from itself, for they are all noble parts of the good for which virtue entered the struggle.

7.  For the enemy, in contrast, individuality is the essence not the in itself.  Its power is thus the negative principle to which nothing is persistent and absolutely sacred, for it risks the loss of everything and could even sustain that.  ²This ensures him victory quite as much as the contradiction his opponent falls into.  ³What virtue is in itself is to the way of the world only for it.  The worldly way is free from each moment that is fixed for virtue and to which it is bound.  ⁴The way only has such a moment in its power when it has the power to either overcome it or leave it in place.  The same holds for the virtuous knight firmly tied to it.  ⁵The knight cannot disengage from that as he would from a cloak wrapped around him and get free from it just by leaving it behind; for it is the essence he cannot abandon.

8.  Finally, as far as the ambush is concerned in which that good in itself is supposed to sneakily attack the way of the world from the rear, this hope is vain.  ²The way of the world is the self-assured, keen awareness that doesn't let itself be approached from behind, but is ready to take on all comers from all sides.  Everything exists for it, everything stands before it.  ³That consciousness is the good in itself for its enemy; that's what it is in the struggle we have been discussing.  When consciousness is not that for him but only in itself, then it is the passive tool of those gifts and abilities; it is material without actual reality.  Considered as existence it would be sleeping consciousness that gets left behind, no one really knows where.

9.  Virtue is thus conquered by the way of the world, because the abstract, unreal essence is in fact virtue's goal and because, in real terms, virtue's action is based on differences that only lie in the words.  ²It wanted to go forward, to bring the good into reality by sacrificing individuality, but the camp of reality is itself nothing other than the camp of individuality.  ³The good was supposed to be in itself and opposed to what is, but it turns out that the in itself, in its reality and truth is simply being itself [§4.1 ff. M].  ⁴The in itself is initially the abstraction of essence against actual reality; but abstraction is what does not truly exist, but is only for consciousness.  This means, however, that the in itself is what is called actual; for the actual is what is essentially for another.  It is being.  ⁵Consciousness of virtue, however, is based on this difference between the in itself and being, which has no truth.

– ⁶The way of the world is supposed to be the inversion of goodness because it has individuality for its principle; but in fact this is the principle of actual reality.  Individuality is the consciousness through which being in itself is just as much for another.  It inverts the unchangeable, but it actually inverts it from out of the nothingness of abstraction into the being of the reality.

10.  The world's way is thus victorious over what virtue is in opposition to it.  It triumphs over the virtue for which abstraction empty of essence is the essence.  ²That way does not, however, win against anything real, but rather over the creation of differences that are none of the kind, over the pompous talk of the best of mankind and its oppression, about sacrifice for the good and the misuse of gifts, talents.  Such ideal essences and goals collapse together as empty words that elevate the heart and leave reason empty-handed.  They edify but are not constructive [Preface (3. Spirit/mind's current standpoint) §7.5 and §9].  Such declamation by the individual apparently acting for noble goals and using excellent language only expresses clearly that the speaker considers himself an excellent person.  This swelling rhetoric enlarges his own head and those of others, but only with an empty self-importance.

– ³Ancient virtue had its very definite and secure meaning, because it had a rich foundation in the substance of the polis and a real pre-existing goodness for its purpose.  For these reasons it was not directed against actual reality as a universal inversion and against a way of the world.  ⁴The virtue we have been considering, however, has departed from substance and is a virtue devoid of essence, now only one of image and word lacking all that content.

– ⁵This emptiness of the language struggling against the way of the world would immediately expose itself if the meaning of its terms were spelled out.  It is to avoid such exposure that they are assumed to be well-known.  ⁶Demands to state explicitly what is known in this way are usually met by one of two responses: another torrent of more of the same or else flat rejection by an appeal to the heart, claiming the heart lets you know within yourself what they all mean.  Of course, this amounts to nothing other than an admission of the inability to explain themselves.

– ⁷The nullity of such talk appears unconsciously to have become a certainty in the education and culture of our time, for all interest has disappeared from the whole mass of such expressions and the manner of puffing oneself up with them.  This loss manifests itself in the boredom they produce.

11.  The result issuing from this antithesis consists in the fact that consciousness lets the image of something good in itself devoid of reality fall like an empty cloak.  ²In its struggle, it has learned through experience that the way of the world is not so bad as it appeared to be; for its reality is the actual reality of the universal.  ³With this experience the means of producing the good through the sacrifice of individuality falls away; for individuality is precisely the realization of being in itself.  Also, the inversion ceases to be seen as an inversion of the good for it is precisely the conversion of that from a mere goal into actual reality.  The motion of individuality is the reality of the universal.

12.  Now what stood as the way of the world against the consciousness of being in itself has equally been defeated here and vanishes.  ²In that antithesis the being for itself of individuality was opposed to essence, the universal, and appeared to be a reality separated from being in itself.  ³It turned out that actual reality stands in inseparable unity with the universal, so the being for itself of the way of the world is, just like the in itself of virtue, merely a perspective and nothing more.  ⁴That individuality in the way of the world may indeed fancy it acts only for itself or in its own self-interest; but it is better than it thinks.  Its action is also universal action that is itself being in itself.  ⁵When it acts in its own self-interest, it doesn't really know what it's doing; and when it gives an assurance that all men act in their own self-interest, what it is in fact saying is that people have no real awareness of what action really is.

– ⁶When virtue acts for itself, this is in fact just a matter of bringing what is only initially being in itself into actual reality, the goal of the being for itself that fancied itself opposed to the in itself.  Its empty cleverness, its fine explanations claiming to reveal self-interest all over the place, all this has vanished just like the purpose of the in itself and all the other big words.

13.  The end in itself is thus just the activity of individuality; using powers, playing with their expressions, this all gives them life.  Without that they would be just the dead in itself.  The in itself is no longer an undeveloped, abstract universal devoid of existence; now it is itself immediately this presence and actual reality of the process of individuality.