nature of words and sentences, into the real purport conveyed by them,
and into the procedure of sound argumentation, with all its methods
depending on perception and the other instruments of right knowledge.
The theory therefore must needs be rejected by all those who, through
texts, perception and the other means of knowledge--assisted by sound
reasoning--have an insight into the true nature of things.




There is no proof of non-differenced substance.

To enter into details.--Those who maintain the doctrine of a substance
devoid of all difference have no right to assert that this or that is a
proof of such a substance; for all means of right knowledge have for
their object things affected with difference.--Should any one taking his
stand on the received views of his sect, assert that the theory of a
substance free from all difference (does not require any further means
of proof but) is immediately established by one's own consciousness; we
reply that he also is refuted by the fact, warranted by the witness of
the Self, that all consciousness implies difference: all states of
consciousness have for their object something that is marked by some
difference, as appears in the case of judgments like 'I saw this.' And
should a state of consciousness--although directly apprehended as
implying difference--be determined by some fallacious reasoning to be
devoid of difference, this determination could be effected only by means
of some special attributes additional to the quality of mere Being; and
owing to these special qualities on which the determination depends,
that state of consciousness would clearly again be characterised by
difference. The meaning of the mentioned determination could thus only