Plastic individuality synthesizes universal substance with individual form

Evidence

Psychosomatic unity results from an auto-interpretation independent of any referent. This is shown by the ‘plastic individuals’. The adjective ‘plastic’ indicates the nature of what is at once universal and individual. If Hegel calls spirituality ‘plastic’, it is on the grounds that it is ‘at the same time substance and, within its universality, individual’. Such a synthesis becomes visible in sculpture, which has to present (darstellen) only the permanent (das Bleibende), universal and regular elements in the form of the human body, even if there is a demand so to individualize (individualisieren) this universal element that what is put before our eyes (vor Augen stellen) is not only abstract regularity but an individual figure most closely fused with it. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 583

Categorization

• DEFINE: Fixes the specific Hegelian sense of ‘plastic’ as substance simultaneously universal and individual — the term’s root definition.
• XREF: connects to: Plasticity names the union of universal substance with individual form — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 583; Plasticity names the unity of spontaneity and receptivity in giving and receiving form; Plasticity is the mutual informing of universal and particular in the exemplary individual — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 237 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Plasticity names the union of universal substance with individual form #corroborates (0.98) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 583
• Plasticity is the mutual informing of universal and particular in the exemplary individual #corroborates (0.93) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 237
• Plasticity names the unity of spontaneity and receptivity in giving and receiving form #corroborates (0.85)