Thus, we assume that every predicate can be either truly
affirmed or truly denied of any subject, and that 'triangle' means
so and so; as regards 'unit' we have to make the double assumption
of the meaning of the word and the existence of the thing. The
reason is that these several objects are not equally obvious to us.
Recognition of a truth may in some cases contain as factors both
previous knowledge and also knowledge acquired simultaneously with
that recognition-knowledge, this latter, of the particulars actually
falling under the universal and therein already virtually known. For
example, the student knew beforehand that the angles of every triangle
are equal to two right angles; but it was only at the actual moment at
which he was being led on to recognize this as true in the instance
before him that he came to know 'this figure inscribed in the
semicircle' to be a triangle. For some things (viz. the singulars
finally reached which are not predicable of anything else as
subject) are only learnt in this way, i.e. there is here no
recognition through a middle of a minor term as subject to a major.
Before he was led on to recognition or before he actually drew a
conclusion, we should perhaps say that in a manner he knew, in a
manner not.
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