Being-with-Itself

Our systematics (terminologized from Hegel's *Encyclopedia*)

Our term for the first dimension of self-relation in life — the inner organization that differentiates itself without losing its unity. The organism is with itself **through** its organs, not despite them. In contrast to mere objecthood (being-for-another — a planet for the gravitational system, salt as a product, a tool for a purpose), life is **self-purpose**, it has a relation to itself.

Origin

In Hegel, "being-with-itself" [*Bei-sich-Sein*] occurs only four times in the *Encyclopedia* (§11, §12, §23, §83), there characterizing the **movement of thought**: the "developed being-with-itself" is the return of the concept to itself (§83). We terminologize this to systematically designate the first form of living self-relation.

In Hegel

*Enz.* §11, §12, §23, §83 (methodological); not a category in the *Science of Logic*

Cross-references

Being-Out-of-Itself · Being-for-Self · Selbstbeziehung · Life · Selbstdifferenzierung

Im buch

Ch. 19.1, 19.2, 19.3.1 (self-differentiation)