Once more:—the nature of the Absolute State consists herein,—that all individual powers be directed towards the Life of the Race,—in place of which Race the State puts the aggregate of its own Citizens. It therefore becomes necessary, first, that all Individuals, without exception, should be embraced and taken into equal account by the State; and second, that every Individual with all his individual powers, without exception or reserve, should be likewise taken into account. In a State so constituted, where all as Individuals are dedicated to the Race, it follows at the same time, that all the Rights which belong to them as component parts of the Race are dedicated to all the other individual members of the State. For, to what are the powers of all directed?—to the Race. But what does the State hold as the representative of the Race?—all its Citizens, without a single exception. Were there some Individuals either not taken into account at all in the common purpose, or not taken into account with all their powers, while the rest were included,—then the former would enjoy all the advantages of the union without bearing all the attendant burdens, and there would thus be inequality. Only where all without exception are taken into account, is equality the result. Consequently, in this constitution, the individuality of each absolutely disappears in the community of all; and each one receives back his contribution to the common power, strengthened by the united powers of all the rest. The purpose of the isolated Individual is his own enjoyment, and he uses his power as the means of its attainment;—the purpose of the Race is Culture, and the honourable subsistence which is the condition of Culture: in the State, each Individual employs his powers, not for his own immediate enjoyment, but for the purpose of the Race, and he receives in return the whole united Culture of the Race, and therewith his own honourable subsistence. We must guard ourselves, however, against regarding the State as if it
Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/178
