The understanding is in this way an inherently empty form which, on the one hand, obtains reality only by virtue of that given content, and, on the other, abstracts from it, that is to say, discards it as something useless, but useless only for the concept In both operations, the concept is not the one which is independent, is not what is essential and true about that presupposed material; rather, this material is the reality in and for itself, a reality that cannot be extracted from the concept