PROP. XX.————
tion does take place. Therefore, something can, and must be known, out of relation, or without any correlative being known along with it; and this, whatever it may be, is the known Absolute conformably to the definition. Consequently there is an Absolute in cognition; in other words, the Absolute is knowable and is known by us.
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS.
Nothing is affired as to the existing Absolute.1. Here, as elsewhere in this section of the science, we are occupied only with the definition and consideration of the known Absolute, and not at all with the definition and consideration of the existing Absolute. Whatever the existing Absolute may be, it is certain, with all the certainty of necessary truth, as this demonstration proves, that there is a known Absolute, or something which can be embraced in cognition, without any correlative being necessarily embraced in cognition along with it.
Comment on definition of the known Absolute.2. The word "absolute" is a term which almost defines itself. By attending to its literal and primitive signification we obtain its exact meaning and force. It signifies the "absolved"—that is, the freed or emancipated in thought from the thought of anything else (quid absolutum, τὸ ἀυτοτελές), the self-complete, the detached, or rounded off, the