The self forms only through engagement with that which denies its unity

Evidence

Life must either produce forms or proceed through forms. But forms belong to a completely different order of being. They demand some content above and beyond life; they contradict the essence of life itself, with its weaving dynamics, its temporal fates, the unceasing differentiation of each of its parts. Life is inseparably charged with contradiction. It can enter reality only in the form of its antithesis, that is, only in the form of form. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 866 (#expands, via linked claim)

The feeling of self itself becomes a personal and specific feeling. Even if there is a possibility of bringing together feeling’s manifold material, that possibility itself becomes part of the objective content. The form needs to be the content of all that it forms: subjectivity does not reside in its own being, it ‘haunts’ itself. The soul is possessed by the possession of itself. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 374 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The self discovers itself only in situation and must alone sustain all values; Self-presence requires an internal separation that is itself nothing; Negation enters being only through human reality, not through being’s own dialectic. (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Life can only enter reality through forms that inherently contradict it #expands (0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 866
• The world reveals itself only through engagement and rejection #expands (0.78)
• Subjectivity cannot reside in its own being but haunts itself #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 374
• The Other exists for consciousness as a prenumerical refused self #expands (0.72)