08c | CR Book III, Chapter 4

come everything as akin, in a welcome of kinship.

(d) If 'self' further sybolises both the extreme
of 'abstraction' and the extreme of 'concretion' this
is not a mere confusion of language, but delibera-
te intention. In speech, 'self' can refer either
to the concrete personality (myself), or to a part
of it (my self). In the course of this treatise, a
number of attempts are made to get at the real
meaning of sentences which contain 'self' in the
concrete sense by reading them as statements a-
bout an abstract and isolated self in me.

At first sight, abstract selfhood would seem
to be the palest conceivable abstraction, on a le-
vel with 'being' and suchlike words. It may seem
absurd that our very being could be found in sear-
ching for such a selfhood. But our being is hidd-
en, and the work of abstraction goes in the same
direction as practical endeavour to do sway with
all impediments to self-realisation. This clears
the way for a majestic concreteness which is not
different from the abstracted selfhood.