Thirdly, the first is the only figure which enables us to
pursue knowledge of the essence of a thing. In the second figure no
affirmative conclusion is possible, and knowledge of a thing's essence
must be affirmative; while in the third figure the conclusion can be
affirmative, but cannot be universal, and essence must have a
universal character: e.g. man is not two-footed animal in any
qualified sense, but universally. Finally, the first figure has no
need of the others, while it is by means of the first that the other
two figures are developed, and have their intervals closepacked
until immediate premisses are reached.
Clearly, therefore, the first figure is the primary condition of
knowledge.
15
Just as an attribute A may (as we saw) be atomically connected
with a subject B, so its disconnexion may be atomic. I call 'atomic'
connexions or disconnexions which involve no intermediate term;
since in that case the connexion or disconnexion will not be
mediated by something other than the terms themselves. It follows that
if either A or B, or both A and B, have a genus, their disconnexion
cannot be primary.
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