the negative image of being

The negative image of its absolute and eternal being which the soul projects into intellectual existence, the artificial world of the city, is precisely the idea of the individual self. Leaving behind the reality of absolute being the soul enters the delusion of intellectual existence. Abjuring the absolute categories of the infinite and the eternal, leaving behind the absolute values of morality, justice, peace and mercy, the fallen soul becomes self-conscious within the relative actualities of existence, affirming its own existence as an individual self, a negative image of being. Whereas the soul is guided by moral values founded on absolute principles the self, an image of non-being projected into intellectual existence, rejects morality and the values of absolute principles, and constructs systems of ethics founded on relative principles.