The individual man is what he is in particular, only in so far as he is before all things a man as man and in general.
 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Science of Logic (1816). copy citation

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Author Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Source Science of Logic
Topic
Date 1816
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by William Wallace
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55108/55108-h/55108-h.htm

Context

“It is evident, however, that the absence of these ear-lobes in one man or another would not affect the rest of his being, character, or capacities: whereas it would be nonsense to suppose that Caius, without being a man, would still be brave, learned, &c. The individual man is what he is in particular, only in so far as he is before all things a man as man and in general. And that generality is not something external to, or something in addition to other abstract qualities, or to mere features discovered by reflection. It is what permeates and includes in it everything particular.” source