Seen absolvently, self-consciousness is the middle between consciousness and reason, which, when developed as spirit, is the true absolute. Self-consciousness is the middle with whose help spirit is disclosed in the history of the experiences which knowing undergoes with itself. As this mediating middle, which, sublating itself, is delivered over to spirit as the absolute truth, self-consciousness points not only in the direction of the origin [Herkunft] from out of consciousness but also simultaneously in the direction of the future [Zukunft] which is its due and comes to it as spirit.
