Universality is the primitive soul’s initial stage, not its final truth

Evidence

Hegel uses the notion of the ‘universal soul’ to designate life in its simplest, most elementary form: an original vitality (prior to the sundering which introduces particular forms) which has not yet arrived at the stage of division which characterizes particular forms. Universality is here in every sense of the word the most primitive stage of the soul; it can only achieve ‘its actual truth as individuality’. For the moment it is simply the ‘sleep of spirit’, the passive νς of Aristotle, which is potentially all things. … The soul as substance is not, however, an empty and formal identity. Nature in the form of soul is already reflected into itself and hence virtually differentiated. Hence the ‘universal soul’ will contain within itself the moment of particularity. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 327

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘universal soul’ as the primitive undifferentiated stage that contains the germ of particularity within itself — a key move in the plasticity concept’s dialectic.
• XREF: The ‘virtually differentiated’ universal substance that can only reach actual truth as individuality maps onto the reader’s neuroplasticity framing: plasticity as potential whose actualization requires particular form. — connects to: Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 753; Universals persist because reality always falls short of possibility — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 741; Abstract universalism fails because every human being is uniquely situated — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 51 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states #corroborates (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 753
• Individual subjectivity emerges through the soul’s progressive self-differentiation from universal nature #expands (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 318
• Universals persist because reality always falls short of possibility #corroborates (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 741
• Abstract universalism fails because every human being is uniquely situated #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 51