________________
THE DOCTRINE OF THE
THING BY ITSELF'.
Cognition, Touch does serve as a 'Cause'; the only difference is that while one (Colour) is a direct cause, the other (Touch) is only an indirect one.
Further, mere negation (Absence) is not regarded by us as determining the causal relation;" what then ?"-It is a particular kind of absence that is so regarded ; for instance, when it is found that, even though other efficient agents are present, yet in the absence of some one agent, the thing in question is not produced, then this latter agent is regarded as the Cause of that thing: and not when there is simple negation in the form that it is not produced while the other is absent. Otherwise (if such mere negation were to determine the causal relation) the Date growing in the country where one's mother may have been married would not be produced if the mother's marriage had not been there [as ex hypothesi, by mere negation the 'Mother's Marriage' would be the 'Cause of the growth of the Date].
The negative Premiss in the qualified form that we have shown is not * fallible' (untrue) in regard to Touch. For, if it could be shown that, even in the presence of Colour and other conditions (of visibility), there is no Visual Cognition on account of the absence of Touch alone,-then there might be 'fallibility in our premiss. Nothing like this however can be shown. Hence there can be no 'fallibility in the definition of the Causal Relation (as stated by us).-(113-114)
It is not only such things as the Seed of the rest that are definitely known as the 'Cause of things; even particular points of Place and Time are definitely known as such Causes' ;this is what the Author shows in the following Text:
TEXTS (115-116).
PARTICULAR POINTS OF PLACE AND TIME ALSO ARE RELATED (AS CAUSE) TO THINGS.-"How so?"-IF THE SAID POINTS WERE NOT THE CAUSE OF THINGS, THESE WOULD BE PRODUCED
EVERYWHERE AND AT ALL TIMES.-(115)
AS A MATTER OF FACT HOWEVER THINGS ARE FOUND TO BE PRODUCED SPECIFICALLY AT A CERTAIN PLACE, AT A CERTAIN TIME AND IN CERTAIN RECEPTACLES, BEING DEPENDENT UPON THESE
AND INDEPENDENT OF ALL OTHERS. (116)
COMMENTARY.
If tho Lotus, etc. did not have them-i.e. the particular points of place and time,- for their Cause', then such phenomena as their production only in a particular Place, like Water and things like it, and not in other places like Stone,—and only at the particular point of time like the Summer, and not at other points of time like the Winter, -would not be possible ; in fact, the Lotus and other things would come into existence at all places and at all times, as they would be independent of the peculiarities of place
