On the other hand, when we know
the fact we ask the reason; as, for example, when we know that the sun
is being eclipsed and that an earthquake is in progress, it is the
reason of eclipse or earthquake into which we inquire.
Where a complex is concerned, then, those are the two questions we
ask; but for some objects of inquiry we have a different kind of
question to ask, such as whether there is or is not a centaur or a
God. (By 'is or is not' I mean 'is or is not, without further
qualification'; as opposed to 'is or is not [e.g.] white'.) On the
other hand, when we have ascertained the thing's existence, we inquire
as to its nature, asking, for instance, 'what, then, is God?' or 'what
is man?'.
2
These, then, are the four kinds of question we ask, and it is in the
answers to these questions that our knowledge consists.
Now when we ask whether a connexion is a fact, or whether a thing
without qualification is, we are really asking whether the connexion
or the thing has a 'middle'; and when we have ascertained either
that the connexion is a fact or that the thing is-i.e. ascertained
either the partial or the unqualified being of the thing-and are
proceeding to ask the reason of the connexion or the nature of the
thing, then we are asking what the 'middle' is.
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