that is, a series of phenomena sufficiently coherent to afford a basis for inference, but not necessarily or energically connected. Hume and others have conclusively proved that such phenomena are not causally related.
Finally there is
Causation—
in the proper sense of the word, that is, the relation between energic mind and its effects. This is the category of human affairs generally, and of all the Cosmic that we explain by analogy with the Human. It is the only exhaustive explanation of phenomena, and so is the category which philosophy would substitute for the rest. When we can truly resolve things into effects analogous to human actions, we have reached the highest standpoint from which they can be viewed. Realistic anthropomorphism is the first and rudest explanation of things: idealistic anthropomorphism is the last and most refined.
The artificial categories are all formed on analogies supplied by the natural, since the intellect is incapable of imagining anything absolutely original.
Each category may include judgments of other categories in a subordinate relation. Inherence and concretion enter to some extent as auxiliaries into all the others. A group category may be treated as an individual object for certain purposes, and an individual as a group of properties. In the one case a fictitious unity is created, in the other a real unity is imaginatively dissolved. But in general the categories are sufficiently distinct and may be considered as mutually exclusive. They will be separately analysed and exemplified.
The term category is used in common logic to signify the final classes into which judgments can be arranged. To this minor use only is the category applied. It does not either denote a classification of arguments or a distinct province of ideas whose origin and validity should be a matter of investigation. In Greek and modern logic arguments are distinguished solely by their verbal expression—never by the character of the judgment that enters into them. Treated in this superficial and haphazard way, the categories necessarily play a quite insignificant part in philosophy.
The oldest known set of categories is that quoted by Aristotle in his Metaphysic as being held by a sect of Pythagoreans. It consists of the following series of contraries—
| Bound. Odd. Unity. Right. Male. | Infinity. Even. Plurality. Left. Female. | Rest. Straight. Light. Good. Square. | Motion. Crooked. Darkness. Bad. Oblong. |
Aristotle's own categories are the following:—