CHAPTER III.

In the first chapter we attained—or at least made the attempt to attain—some insight into the relation which Mind bears to Time and Space. It appeared that Mind is a _Transcendent_, i. e. something which Time and Space inhere in, rather than a somewhat, conditioned by them. Although this result agrees entirely with the religious instincts of man, which assert the immortality of the soul, and the unsubstantiality of the existences within Time and Space, yet as a logical result of thinking, it seems at first very unreliable. The disciplined thinker will indeed find the distinctions “a priori and a posteriori” inadequately treated; but his emendations will only make the results there established more wide-sweeping and conclusive.

In the second chapter we learned caution with respect to the manner of attempting to realize in our minds the results of thought. If we have always been in the habit of regarding Mind as a property or attribute of the individual, we have conceived it not according to its true nature, but have allowed Imagination to mingle its activity in the thinking of that which is of a universal nature. Thus we are prone to say to ourselves: “How can a mere attribute like Mind be the logical condition of the solid realities of Space and Time?” In this we have quietly assumed the whole point at issue. No system of thinking which went to work logically ever proved the Mind to be an attribute; only very elementary grades of thinking, which have a way of assuming in their premises what they draw out analytically in their conclusions, ever set up this dogma. This will become clearer at every step as we proceed.

We will now pursue a path similar to that followed in the first chapter, and see what more we can learn of the nature of Mind. We will endeavor to learn more definitely what constitutes its _a priori_ activity, in order, as there indicated, to achieve our object. Thus our present search is after the “Categories” and their significance. Taking the word category here in the sense of “a priori determination of thought,” the first question is: “Do any categories exist? Are there any thoughts which belong to the nature of mind itself?” It is the same question that Locke discusses under the head of “Innate ideas.”

I.

“Every act of knowing or cognizing is the translating of an unknown somewhat into a known, as a scholar translates a new language into his own.” If he did not already understand one language, he could never translate the new one. In the act of knowing, the object becomes known in so far as I am able to recognise predicates as belonging to it. “This is _red_;” unless I know already what “red” means, I do not cognize the object by predicating _red_ of it. “Red is a color;” unless I know what “color” means, I have not said anything intelligible—I have not expressed an act of cognition. The object becomes known to us in so far as we recognize its predicates—and hence we could never know anything unless we had at least one predicate or conception with which to commence. If we have one predicate through which we cognize some object, that act of cognition gives us a new predicate; for it has dissolved or “translated” a somewhat, that before was unknown, into a known; the “not-me” has, to that extent, become the “me.” Without any predicates to begin with, all objects would remain forever outside of our consciousness. Even consciousness itself would be impossible, for the very act of self-cognition implies that the predicate “myself” is well known. It is an act of identification: “I am myself;” the subject is, as predicate, completely known or dissolved back into the subject. I cognize myself as myself; there is no alien element left standing over against me. Thus we are able to say that there must be an a priori category in order to render possible any act of knowing whatever. Moreover, we see that this category must be identical with the _Ego_ itself, for the reason that the process of cognition is at the same time a recognition; it predicates only what it recognizes. Thus, fundamentally, in knowing, Reason knows itself. Self-consciousness is the basis of knowledge. This will throw light on the first chapter; but let us first confirm this position by a psychological analysis.

II.

What is the permanent element in thought?—It can easily be found in language—its external manifestation. Logic tells us that the expression of thought involves always a subject and predicate. Think what you please, say what you please, and your thought or assertion consists of a subject and predicate—positive or negative—joined by the copula, _is_. “Man lives” is equivalent to “man is living.” “Man” and “living” are joined by the word “is.” If we abstract all content from thought, and take its pure form in order to see the permanent, we shall have “is” the copula,—or putting a letter for subject and attribute, we shall have “_a_ is _a_,” (or “_a_ is _b_,”) for the universal form of thought. The mental act is expressed by “is.” In this empty “is” we have the category of pure Being, which is the “summum genus” of categories. Any predicate other than _being_ will be found to contain being _plus_ determinations, and hence can be subsumed under being. We shall get new light on this subject if we examine the ordinary doctrine of _explanation_.

III.

In order to explain something, we subsume it under a more general. Thus we say: “Horse is an animal;” and, “An animal is an organic being,” &c. A definition contains not only this subsumption, but also a statement of the specific difference. We define _quadruped_ by subsuming it, (“It is an animal”) and giving the specific difference (“which has four feet”).

As we approach the “summum genus,” the predicates become more and more empty; “they become more _extensive_ in their application, and less _comprehensive_ in their content.” Thus they approach pure simplicity, which is attained in the “summum genus.” This pure simple, which is the limit of subsumption and abstraction, is pure Being—Being devoid of all determinateness. When we have arrived at Being, subsuming becomes simple identifying—Being is Being, or _a_ is _a_—and this is precisely the same activity that we found self-consciousness to consist of in our first analysis, (I.) and the same activity that we found all mental acts to consist of in our second analysis, (II.).

IV.

Therefore, we may affirm on these grounds, that the “summum genus,” or primitive category, is the Ego itself in its simplest activity as the “is” (or pure _being_ if taken substantively).

Thus it happens that when the Mind comes to cognize an object, it must first of all recognize itself in it in its simplest activity,—it must know that the object _is_. We cannot know anything else of an object without presupposing the knowledge of its _existence_.

At this point it is evident that this category is not derived from experience in the sense of _an impression from without_. It is the activity of the Ego itself, and is its (the _Ego’s_) first self-externalization (or its first becoming object to itself—its first act of self-consciousness). The essential activity of the Ego itself consists in recognizing itself, and this involves self-separation, and then the annulling of this separation in the same act. For in knowing myself as an object I separate the Ego from itself, but in the very act of _knowing_ it I make it identical again. Here are two negative processes involved in knowing, and these are indivisibly one:—first, the negative act of separation—secondly, the negative act of annulling the separation by the act of recognition. That the application of categories to the external world is a process of self-recognition, is now clear: we know, in so far as we recognize predicates in the object,—we say “The Rose _is_, it is _red_, it is _round_, it is _fragrant_, &c.” In this we separate what belongs to the rose from it, and place it outside of it, and then, through the act of predication, unite it again. “The Rose _is_” contains merely the recognition of being but being is separated from it and joined to it in the act of predication. Thus we see that the fundamental act of self-consciousness, which is a self-separation and self-identification united in one act of recognition,—we see that this fundamental act is repeated in all acts of knowing. We do not know even the rose without separating it from itself, and identifying the two sides thus formed. (This contains a deeper thought which we may suggest here. That the act of knowing puts all objects into this crucible, is an intimation on its part that no object can possess true, abiding being, without this ability to separate itself from itself in the process of self-identification. Whatever cannot do this is no essence, but may be only an element of a process in which it ceaselessly loses its identity. But we shall recur to this again.)

Doubtless we could follow out this activity through various steps, and deduce all the categories of pure thought. This is what Plato has done in part; what Fichte has done in his Science of Knowledge, (“Wissenschaftslehre”) and Hegel in his Logic. A science of these pure intelligibles unlocks the secret of the Universe; it furnishes that “Royal Road” to all knowledge; it is the far-famed Philosopher’s Stone that alone can transmute the base dross of mere talent into genius.

V.

Let us be content if at the close of this chapter we can affirm still more positively the conclusions of our first. Through a consideration of the a priori knowledge of Time and Space, and their logical priority, as conditions, to the world of experience, we inferred the transcendency of Mind. Upon further investigation, we have now discovered that there are other forms of the Mind more primordial than Space and Time, and more essentially related to its activity; for all the categories of pure thought—Being, Negation, &c.,—are applicable to Space and to Time, and hence more universal than either of them alone; these categories of pure thought, moreover, as before remarked, could never have been derived from experience. Experience is not possible without presupposing these predicates. “They are the tools of intelligence through which it cognizes.” If we hold by this stand-point exclusively, we may say, with Kant, that we furnish the subjective forms in knowing, and for this reason cannot know the “thing in itself.” If these categories are merely subjective—i. e. given in the constitution of the Mind itself—and we do not know what the “thing in itself” may be, yet we can come safely out of all skepticism here by considering the universal nature of these categories or “forms of the mind.” For if Being, Negation and Existence are forms of mind and purely subjective, so that they do not belong to the “thing in itself,” it is evident that such an object cannot _be_ or _exist_, or in any way have validity, either positively or negatively. Thus it is seen from the nature of mind here exhibited, that Mind is the _noumenon_ or “thing in itself” which Philosophy seeks, and thus our third chapter confirms our first.

_Note._

The MATERIALISM of the present day holds that thought is a modification of force, correlated with heat, light, electricity, &c., in short, that organization produces ideas. If so, we are placed within a narrow idealism, and can only say of what is held for _truth_: “I am so correlated as to hold this view,—I shall be differently correlated to-morrow, perhaps, and hold another view.” Yet in this very statement the Ego takes the stand-point of universality—it speaks of possibilities—which it could never do, were it merely a correlate. For to hold a possibility is to be able to annul in thought the limits of the real, and hence to elevate itself to the point of universality. But this is _self_-correlation; we have a movement in a circle, and hence self-origination, and hence a spontaneous fountain of force. The Mind, in conceiving of the possible, annuls the real, and thus creates its own motives; its acting according to motives, is thus acting according to its own acts—an obvious circle again.

In fine, it is evident that the idealism which the correlationist logically falls into is as strict as that of any school of professed idealism which he is in the habit of condemning. The _persistent force_ is the general _idea_ of force, not found as any _real_ force, for each _real_ force is individualized in some particular way. But it is evident that a particular force cannot be correlated with _force in general_, but only with a special form like itself. But the general force is the only abiding one—each particular one is in a state of transition into another—a perpetual losing of individuality. Hence the true abiding force is not a _real_ one existing objectively, but only an _ideal_ one existing subjectively in thought. But through the fact that thought can seize the true and abiding which can exist for itself nowhere else, the correlationist is bound to infer the transcendency of Mind just like the idealist. Nay, more, when he comes to speak considerately, he will say that Mind, for the very reason that it thinks the true, abiding force, cannot be correlated with any determined force.