1.  Self-consciousness has now grasped the concept of itself.  Initially, it was only our concept of self-consciousness, namely that of being, in its self-certainty, all reality [V. Certainty and Truth of Reason §2.2 and §3.1].  From now on its goal and essence is the automotive, self-propelling interpenetration of the universal – gifts and abilities – and individuality.

– ²The goals previously considered are the individual moments of this filling and interpenetration before they enter into the unity in which they coalesce.  ³Mere abstractions and chimeras, they have now vanished, for they belonged to those first flat patterns of spiritual/mental self-consciousness and their truth lay only in the fancied being of the heart, self-importance and rhetoric, not in reason.  Now certain of its reality in and for itself, reason no longer seeks to generate itself as goal in opposition to immediately given, actual reality, for now it has the category as such [V. Certainty and Truth of Reason §§5 - 8] for the object of its consciousness.

– ⁴That character of self-consciousness existing for itself, negative self-consciousness, in which reason first emerged, has now been overcome.  It found an actual reality before it that would have been its own negative and through the overcoming of which it would first have realized its goal [V.B. Self-realization of rational self-consciousness §13.1 M].  ⁵Since, however, goal and being in itself turned out to be the same as being for another and that pre-existing reality, truth and certainty are no longer separate.  The set goal might now be taken for self-certainty, its realization for the truth, or alternatively the goal for the truth and the reality for the certainty.  But no, the essence and goal in and for itself is the certainty of immediate reality itself, the interpenetration of being in itself and being for itself, of the universal and individuality.  Action is inherently its own truth and reality and the demonstration or the utterance of individuality is its goal, its end in and for itself.

2.  This concept brings self-consciousness out of the opposed terms the category had for it and its behaviour towards the category as observing and then as active self-consciousness, returning it back into itself.  ²It now has the pure category itself for its object, which is as much as to say that self-consciousness is now the category that has become conscious of itself.  ³This closes the account with its previous patterns.  They now lie forgotten behind it and do not stand against it as its pre-existing world; instead they develop only within it as transparent moments.  ⁴Nevertheless, they do separate out in its consciousness as a motion of distinct moments that has not yet consolidated itself in its substantial unity.  ⁵Still, in all this it holds fast to the simple unity of being and self, which is their genus.

3.  Consciousness has divested itself of all opposition to and all conditions on its action.  It starts afresh from itself and not on another but on itself.  ²Since individuality is inherently actual reality, the stuff of its effectiveness and the purpose of its action lie in the action itself.  ³The action thus looks like the motion of a circle, moving itself freely within itself in the emptiness, unhindered, now spreading, now narrowing and perfectly satisfied only to play with itself within itself.  ⁴The element in which individuality demonstrates its form has the significance of a pure acceptance of this form; it is the day as such to which consciousness wants to show itself.  ⁵The action changes nothing and is directed against nothing; it is the pure form of translation from a state of not being seen into one of being seen and the content brought out into the daylight presenting itself is nothing other than what this action already is in itself.  ⁶It is in itself – this is its form as a unity of thought; and it is actual – this is its form as an existing unity.  It is itself content only in these terms as simplicity against its transition and motion.