Rights in consciousness and society

Right and wrong as positive ideas cohere in two ways: for society and for consciousness. The latter precedes and makes possible the former, so that a right in and for consciousness subsumes and yet ejaculates a right in and for society — it comprehends it and yet reaches out towards it as something beyond itself. A dialectic is present here, in other words.

This being the case, a mere right for consciousness cannot be divested of its attachment to cultural and social proceedings, or else it is empty. Yet, a right for society cannot be divested of the same for consciousness, or else it is baseless.

Thus, to propose some mere right or wrong over and against society is an empty task, for the social “right” as foreordained demands assent. If one sees in it something “wrong,” he must ask himself if he or she sees it in and for their own consciousness alone, or if (and then where) this consciousness reaches out to society and has its own right and wrong embedded in it. We cannot conceive of any “right” except as society has given it to us, that is. Therefore, if we wish to bring ourselves to bear on it, we must address both ourselves and society—we cannot address either alone, except where we acknowledge each as a moment of the other in infinite concatenation, as follows:

But if this is so, then we can only propose right and wrong (1) in our finitude and (2) as socially possible. No possibility endures except a social possibility, for even the man who leaves society thinks in its terms and lives in its mores.