Identity

Hegel (Logic of Essence, first determination of reflection)

Identity (A=A) is the first determination of reflection — and at the same time the emptiest. *Abstract* identity is mere tautology: "Being is being." That says nothing. *Concrete* identity is identity with itself *in difference* — it contains negation within itself.

Origin

*Principium identitatis*, a basic principle since Aristotle. Leibniz: identity of indiscernibles. Hegel criticizes abstract identity (empty tautology) and demands concrete identity (mediated through difference).

In Hegel

Enc. §115-116; SL Vol. 2, Essence

Cross-references

Reflection · Unterschied · Opposition · Contradiction · Ground · Logic of Essence · Reflective Determinations

Die pointe (kap. 8.3)

Identity is not the secure beginning it is taken to be. It is empty without difference. A thing is "itself" only by distinguishing itself from another. "I am I" is true only through my otherness (my history, relations, demarcations).

Hegels formel

"Identity of identity and non-identity" — true identity integrates difference instead of excluding it.