difference manifests itself as well as the things that differ.]




Plurality is not unreal.

Next as to the assertion that all difference presented in our
cognition--as of jars, pieces of cloth and the like--is unreal because
such difference does not persist. This view, we maintain, is altogether
erroneous, springs in fact from the neglect of distinguishing between
persistence and non-persistence on the one hand, and the relation
between what sublates and what is sublated on the other hand. Where two
cognitions are mutually contradictory, there the latter relation holds
good, and there is non-persistence of what is sublated. But jars, pieces
of cloth and the like, do not contradict one another, since they are
separate in place and time. If on the other hand the non-existence of a
thing is cognised at the same time and the same place where and when its
existence is cognised, we have a mutual contradiction of two cognitions,
and then the stronger one sublates the other cognition which thus comes
to an end. But when of a thing that is perceived in connexion with some
place and time, the non-existence is perceived in connexion with some
other place and time, there arises no contradiction; how then should the
one cognition sublate the other? or how can it be said that of a thing
absent at one time and place there is absence at other times and places
also? In the case of the snake-rope, there arises a cognition of
non-existence in connexion with the given place and time; hence there is
contradiction, one judgment sublates the other and the sublated
cognition comes to an end. But the circumstance of something which is
seen at one time and in one place not persisting at another time and in