The grand law which Hamilton generalizes from the above is, "that the conceivable is in every relation bounded by the inconceivable." Or, again, "The conditioned or the thinkable lies between two extremes or poles; and these extremes or poles are each of them unconditioned, each of them inconceivable, each of them exclusive or contradictory of the other." [298] This is the celebrated "Law of the Conditioned."
[Footnote 295: ][ (return) ] "Discussions," p. 21.
[Footnote 296: ][ (return) ] Ibid., p. 28.
[Footnote 297: ][ (return) ] "Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. ii. pp. 368, 373.
[Footnote 298: ][ (return) ] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 373.
In attempting a brief criticism of "the Philosophy of the Conditioned," we may commence by inquiring:
I. What is the real import and significance of the doctrine "that all human knowledge is only of the relative or phenomenal?"
Hamilton calls this "the great axiom" of philosophy. That we may distinctly comprehend its meaning, and understand its bearing on the subject under discussion, we must ascertain the sense in which he uses the words "phenomenal" and "relative." The importance of an exact terminology is fully appreciated by our author; and accordingly, in three Lectures (VIII., IX., X.), he has given a full explication of the terms most commonly employed in philosophic discussions. Here the word "phenomenon" is set down as the necessary "correlative" of the word "subject" or "substance." "These terms can not be explained apart, for each is correlative of the other, each can be comprehended only in and through its correlative. The term 'subject' is used to denote the unknown (?) basis which lies under the various phenomena or properties of which we become aware, whether in our external or internal experience." [299] "The term 'relative' is opposed to the term 'absolute;' therefore, in saying that we know only the relative, I virtually assert that we know nothing absolutely, that is, in and for itself, and without relation to us and our faculties." [300] Now, in the philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, "the absolute" is defined as "that which is aloof from relation"--"that which is out of all relation." [301] The absolute can not, therefore, be "the correlative" of the conditioned--can not stand in any relation to the phenomenal. The subject, however, is the necessary correlative of the phenomenal, and, consequently, the subject and the absolute are not identical. Furthermore, Hamilton tells us the subject may be comprehended in and through its correlative--the phenomenon; but the absolute, being aloof from all relation, can not be comprehended or conceived at all. "The subject" and "the absolute" are, therefore, not synonymous terms; and, if they are not synonymous, then their antithetical terms, "phenomenal" and "relative," can not be synonymous.
[Footnote 299: ][ (return) ] "Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. i. p. 148.