Three Paragraph Summary of Hegel's Theory of Being

Being is immediacy (stasis, abiding, inoperation). At first, being is (1.) pure, abstract being. If pure being is affected by a negation, then it is (2.) existence. An existent is a qualified being, a quale (Aristotle’s ‘poion’). Every existing being (every tree, rock, person, etc.) is a quale. Insofar as they exist (i.e. have out-being) they are separate from each other and limited by each other. The meadow begins where the forest ends. Existence thus consists in the opposition of something and another, one quale defined negatively in relation to another quale. The sublation (simultaneous transcendence and preservation) of this recalcitrance in existence is (3.) self-existence: infinite being, being self-relation. This is the third to pure being and existence, a return to pure being with limit, finitude, and relative determination sublated. Self-existence thus has the distinct feature of sublating otherness, of taking up all finitude, limit, disunity, etc. and bringing it back into the one (this sublating is Aristotle’s ‘pros hen’). On account of having negativity brought back into it, the one (pure being united to negativity) generates many ones (1, 1, 1). But the being of these ones is just as immediately sublated, and they are reunited in the one. The one multiplies, and its multiplications are accumulated back into the unit again. This is quantity.

Quantity (Aristotle’s ‘poson’) is the unique quale, which has the distinctive feature of surpassing all limitation, going over every boundary, ranging over many ones, and accumulating them back into the unity. First we have (1.) pure quantity. Repetition is the source of discreteness in pure quantity, accumulation the source of continuity. Affected by a negation, pure quantity is (2.) a number, a quantum (e.g. 5, 9). A quantum is implicitly a combination of unit (what is counted) and amount (the count). The course of quantity is that these sides are brought into explicit self-relation. Quantum can be extensive or intensive (e.g. an intense pigment can cover a more extensive surface area). The forms of combination of quanta are the series of ordinary arithmetic operations (+, -, ·, ÷). (The operator actually represents the implicit qualitative element in quantity.) But the connection between quanta (e.g. 5 + 2) is just arbitrary, unless there would be a third quantum to stabilize their relation. This third in which two quanta are held together, is (3.) the ratio (e.g. 10 : 2). One side of the ratio is unit, the other side is amount. The relation is the implicit qualitative element. When division produces infinite decimals (2/7 = 0.2857…) this is because it is an inadequate expression of the qualitative element in quantity, an unquantifiable beyond which can only be held together by the ratio. Ratio comes in three varieties: In the direct ratio (k = x/y), x and y must increase linearly to maintain k. In the inverse ratio (k = x⋅y), when x increases y must decrease, and vice versa. Ratio in general is the self-relation of quantum. But only in the ratio of powers (x = y²) does this self-relation become complete, absolute. In exponentiation the unit and the amount are the same. The square can be analyzed back into its factors through the square root, which is impossible in division, etc. because the quotient or product is only arbitrarily related to its factors. With the ratio of powers quantum has become self-referential, has recaptured its qualitative beyond and we thus circle back to quality.

Measure is the combination of quality and quantity, a quantity with qualitative meaning. If one changes the other changes as well (5 books is a collection but 100 books is a library). In quantity we saw unit and amount become united and self-related; in measure, the same development happens, but with quality and quantity. Measure is first (1.) a specific quantum, in which the quantum is extrinsically united to the quale and thus somewhat arbitrary (100 books in a library, 1000 hairs on a head). These can be compared (1 table : 5 books wide). But in (2.) real measure, the quantum is intrinsic to the quale (e.g. the specific gravity of gold is 19.3). Combination of real measures results in surprising changes (e.g. combining ethylene glycol and water results in an overall reduction of volume in the mixture). Now we see that it is the quantitative element in quality which makes qualia combinable. Without the quantitative side, qualia just destroy each other as we saw in pure quality. In measure, the two qualia (with intrinsic quanta) are combined like the addends of an equation (1 oxygen + 2 hydrogen = water). The estimation of this capacity for combination is elective affinity (e.g. chemical affinity, and also musical harmony). Finally we have the nodal line, in which the sudden jump from quantitative to qualitative change is intrinsic to the quale (e.g. temperature change causes phase change: solid, liquid, gas). With this the alternating determinations of quality and quantity reciprocally sublate each other in a third, which is (3.) the substrate underlying all qualitative and quantitative change. This substrate stands to alternating quality and quantity as the product of the inverse ratio stands to its factors. The substrate is the fixity, the abiding being which is the extrinsic limit which sublates the two terms of the relation. But the substrate is itself this sublation, the infinite retraction of itself into itself and putting itself forth again. This is substance, essence.