PROP. XIX.————
—matter can be known only in relation to some correlative "me." The ego can be known only in relation to some correlative—i.e. in relation to the non-ego (some thing or thought). Each of these, therefore, taken singulatim, is the relative in cognition.
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS.
Why the items mentioned in the proposition can be known only as the relative.1. It is obvious that the items here mentioned are the relative in cognition, because each of them can be known or conceived, only when its correlative or counterpart is also known or conceived,—and not because our faculties are incompetent to the apprehension of something absolute; that is, of something known out of relation to everything else. Psychology, however, thinks differently, and hence the following counter-proposition arises. It is a mere repetition, in somewhat different language, of counter-proposition XV.
Nineteenth counter-proposition.2. Nineteenth Counter-proposition.—"The articles specified in the proposition are the relative in cognition, not because each of them can be known only along with its correlative, but because man's faculties are competent to apprehend only what is relative, and cannot expand to the comprehension of anything absolute."
3. But what would happen if we could apprehend