Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/457

RhPROP. VI.———— epistemology; so this proposition is the obverse of the sixth of the epistemology. It excludes from our ignorance the universal and the particular elements of cognition, when unaccompanied by each other—just as Proposition VI. of the epistemology excluded them from our knowledge.

2. Sixth Counter-proposition.—"We can be ignorant of the universal element of cognition per se, and also of the particular element per se."

3. Like Counter-proposition VI. of the epistemology, this counter-proposition makes no distinction between elements of cognition and kinds of cognition; or rather it mistakes elements for kinds, and hence it falls into a contradiction. If the particular and the universal were kinds of cognition, it would be quite possible for us to be ignorant of either without being ignorant of the other; because, in that case, it would be possible for either to be known without the other being known. But, since the particular and the universal are not kinds, but are mere elements of cognition, it is not possible for us to be ignorant of either without being ignorant of the other, because it is not possible for either to be known without the other being known.