Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/150

122PROP. IV.————

1. At this stage light begins to break in upon the great controversy between idealism and materialism. This is the point at which the controversy branches off from the main stem of speculation. Idealism, rightly understood, is founded on this fourth proposition, which again is founded on our third or second, which again are firmly rooted in our first. Materialism—that is, the doctrine which advocates the absolute Being, the existence per se of matter—is founded on the following counter-proposition, which, it will be observed, rests upon the third or second counter-proposition, which again are supported by the first, and have no other stay when this ground is cut away from them.

2. Fourth counter-proposition.—"The material universe per se is not of necessity absolutely unknowable. It may be, and it is, the object of our knowledge."

3. There can be no doubt that this counter-proposition expresses the natural opinion of all mankind respecting our knowledge of material things. In our ordinary moods we conceive that we know material things by themselves. When we gaze on rivers, woods, and mountains, or handle stocks and stones, we think that we are apprehending these