“A human being is a spirit. But what is spirit?”
“Spirit is the self. But what is self?”
“The self is a relation that relates itself to itself or is the relation’s relating itself to itself in the relation; the self is not the relation but is the relation’s relating itself to itself.”
“A human being is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, of the temporal and the eternal, of freedom and necessity, in short, a synthesis.”
“A synthesis is a relation between two. Considered in this way, a human being is still not a self.”
“In the relation between two, the relation is the third as a negative unity, and the two relate to the relation and in the relation to the relation; thus under the qualification of the psychical the relation between psychical and the physical is a relation.”
“If, however, the relation relates itself to itself, this relation is the positive third, and this is the self.”
“Such a relation that relates itself to itself, a self, must either have established itself or have been established by another.”
“If the relation that relates itself to itself has been established by another, then the relation is indeed the third, but this relation, the third, is yet again a relation and relates itself to that which established the entire relation.”
“The human self is such a derived, established relation, a relation that relates itself to itself and in relating itself to itself relates itself to another.”
pp. 13-14