THEORY OF BEING.
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PROP. IX.————
element of cognition) to the predicament of a contradiction. But the contradictory can have no true or absolute existence; and thus materialism is annihilated. Its whole strength is founded on the assumption that material objects are completed objects of cognition; in other words, that they can be known without anything else being known along with them. This assumption has been found to be false. The materialist is asked where is the matter per se of which you speak? There it is, said Dr Johnson, kicking against a stone. But, good Doctor, that is not matter per se—that is matter cum alio; and this, we need scarcely say, is what no man ever doubted or denied the existence of.
Seventhly: it steers clear of spurious idealism.34. Seventhly. This system steers clear of spurious idealism, or the doctrine which holds that matter, in the supposed withdrawal of all intelligence, is a nonentity. Matter is an element, or half-object of cognition. The withdrawal therefore of the other element or half-object (the ego), cannot have the effect of reducing matter to a nonentity; first, because the whole object of cognition is matter-plus-me, and only half of it has been supposed to be withdrawn; and, secondly, because there are no nonentities any more than there are entities out of relation to some me or mind. Knowable nonentity is always nonentity plus me, just as much as knowable entity is always entity plus me. So