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PROPOSITION IX.
THE ORIGIN OF KNOWLEDGE.
Matter is not the cause of our perceptive cognitions; in other words, our knowledge of material things is not an effect proceeding from, and brought about by, material things.
DEMONSTRATION.
Matter is the particular part, or peculiar element of some of our cognitions—of those, viz., which we term perceptions (Prop. VII. Epistemology). But the part of a cognition cannot be the cause of a cognition. Therefore matter is not the cause of our perceptive cognitions; in other words, our knowledge of material things is not an effect proceeding from, and brought about by, material things.
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS.
1. It is at this place that the question as to the
