and that 'difference' cannot be defined because it does not admit of
being set forth in definite alternatives; we point out that these
charges are completely refuted by the fact that the only objects of
perception are things distinguished by generic character and so on, and
that generic character and so on--as being relative things--give at once
rise to the judgment as to the distinction between themselves and the
things in which they inhere. You yourself admit that in the case of
knowledge and in that of colour and other qualities this relation holds
good, viz. that something which gives rise to a judgment about another
thing at the same time gives rise to a judgment about itself; the same
may therefore be admitted with regard to difference [FOOTNOTE 44:1].

For this reason the charge of a regressus in infinitum and a logical
seesaw (see above, p. 32) cannot be upheld. For even if perceptive
cognition takes place within one moment, we apprehend within that moment
the generic character which constitutes on the one hand the difference
of the thing from others, and on the other hand the peculiar character
of the thing itself; and thus there remains nothing to be apprehended in
a second moment.

Moreover, if perception made us apprehend only pure Being judgments
clearly referring to different objects--such as 'Here is a jar,' 'There
is a piece of cloth'--would be devoid of all meaning. And if through
perception we did not apprehend difference--as marked by generic
character, &c., constituting the structure or make of a thing, why
should a man searching for a horse not be satisfied with finding a
buffalo? And if mere Being only were the object of all our cognitions,
why should we not remember, in the case of each particular cognition,
all the words which are connected with all our cognitions? And further,
if the cognition of a horse and that of an elephant had one object only,