ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that one of the reasons for Hegel’s failure in consummating the project of “construct the absolute for consciousness” presented in 1801 in his Writing on Difference consisted in the patent mismatch between the negativity to which the determinations of finitude would be submitted and the conception of the absolute still substantially thought. Precisely, what we call here the archaism of substantiality would set the tone of this mismatch that still entailed the (...) heterogeneity between finitude, with its way of ascending to the absolute, and the absolute itself. Among other things, this will become clearer observing the formalism of the intuitionist proposal that Hegel presents at that time, aiming to safeguard the elevation of consciousness without its intrinsic negativity tainting the absolutity of the principle to which it was elevated. (shrink)