state power and negatively to its own selfish purposes, achieves the

heroism of service.
504. The heroism of service endows consciousness with self-respect
and exacts respect from others. But it also is the real, ultimate source
of state power.
505. At first self-consciousness only gives the state power an impersonal
legislative status, not an individual one. The haughty vassal
retains his individuality and offers advice, counsel to the state
powers.
506. The relation of the haughty vassal to the state power is ostensiblynoble
and loyal, even unto death, but is none the less always
ready secretly to conspire against the state for personal ends.
507. A true self-surrender to the state power gives the latter its own
individual will, makes it a monarch.
508. In all cases of self-alienation language plays an operative
role. Through language the individual makes himself universal and
impersonal, and transcends his immediate, changing self. (Of. the
'divine' universality of language in sense-certainty.)
509. Spiritisessentiallysuch as to be one in and throughseparatcd
sides, each of which treats the other as an object excluded from itself.
As such it will itself express itself as an existent object (i.e. a monarch)
distinct from its many sides.
510. The 'universal best' is a poor expression of the profound unity
underlying the various 'sides' in asocicty. An individual, monarchical
will is a better, truer expression.
5 I I. The noble-minded consciousness now develops a language of
flattery to reconcile itself with the supreme monarchical will. The
monarch becomes unlimited and absolute, and is spoken of by his
proper name. The monarch identifies himself with the state power
(L'etat c'est moi).
512. Theilattery of the subjects really creates the monarchical selfconsciousness.
But th~ nobility in practising flattery retains its inner
conscious independence, and turns the monarch into a mere dispenser
of wealth.
5 I 3· The noble-minded consciousness, through its unscrupulous
use of flattery, becomes indistinguishable from the base consciousness.
5 I 4. For the base self-consciousness the monar{,:h becomes a fount
of wealth for which he becomes boundlessly grateful.
5 15· Wealth represents individual satisfaction but not the satisfac ANALYSIS
tion ofa definite individual. It is a form of intrinsic being [Ansichsein]
in which being~for~self is negated.
5 I 6. In the pursuit of wealth the noble~minded individual comes
under the sway of an alien power.
517. In the pursuit of wealth an individual's personaJity becomes
enslaved to the chance personality of another. What he personally
is becomes utterly impersonal, a commodity like others to be bought
and sold. Feeling tha t every thing essen tial is reduced to un essen tiali ty ,
the individual becomes profoundly rebellious.
518. The self, seeing itseJfthus superseded and rejected, supersedes
this supersession and rejects this rejection. It is consciously for itself
in and through them.
5 I g. In its inner independence the self rises above the distinction
of the noble- and base-minded; both become a single attitude. Wealth
in being universally dispensed gives self",conscious independence and
freedom of choice to all, but these are exercised at the expense of
others. An arrogance of wealth arises which generates unbounded
resentment.
520. Self-consciousness uses a language of noble.flattery in dealing
with state power: it employs a language of ignoble flattery in dealing
with wealth. But the language which truly expresses its Zerrissenheit,
its torn state, is one whi(jh makes diremption its essence, which in
all its judgements unites terms in an utterly irre1evant,external
fashion. Its only reason for dealing with things together is that they
ha ve nothing to do with each other.
52 I. The absolute, universal inversion ofreaHty and thought, their
mutual estrangement, is thefinaJ product of culture. Everything
becomes void of substance and confounded with its opposite. All
values become transvalued. Spirit in this phase of culture speaks a
language of utter disintegration, which> takes the novel form of
wit.
522. Wit runs the whole gamut of the serious and the silly! the
trivial and the profound, the lofty and the infamous, with complete
lack of taste and shame (see Diderot's Nephew qf Rameau).
523. Plain sense and sound morality can teach this disintegrated
brilliance nothing that it does not know. It can merely utter some
of the syllables the latter weaves into its piebald discourse.