Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/146

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
118
INSTITUTES OF METAPHYSIC.

PROP. III.————

not in such a manner as to leave it with only one end, either for itself or for cognition. The end removed always is, and must be, replaced by a new end.

Illustrations applied to subject and object.16. So in regard to subject and object. Any given subject may be removed from any given object, and any given object may be removed from any given subject. But the necessary law of every apprehended object is, that an ego or subject must be apprehended along with it; and the necessary law of every apprehended subject is, that an object or thought, of one kind or other, must be apprehended along with it. This is what the law of all intelligence necessitates; in other words, both subject and object are required to make up the unit or minimum of cognition. The object, by itself, is less than this unit or minimum, and the subject, by itself, is less than this unit or minimum; and, therefore, each of them, by itself, is absolutely in-apprehensible. Yet no one is ever so insane as to confound the objective part of his knowledge with the subjective part of it, or to mistake a thing for himself.

Further illustration.17. The circumference of a circle and its centre furnish another example of two elements of cognition, which, though perfectly distinguishable, are altogether inseparable in the mind. The circumference