such; the error results from a conclusion from the following major
premise: “If dark grey passes regularly through all shades to white; the
cause is _always_ the light, which strikes differently upon projections
and depressions, _ergo_—.” (2.) “If there is no money in my safe, the
cause is _always_ that my servant has got a key for it: _ergo_—.” (3.) “If
a ray of sunlight, broken through a prism, _i.e._, bent up or down,
appears as a coloured band instead of round and white as before, the cause
must always be that light consists of homogeneous rays, differently
coloured and refrangible to different degrees, which, when forced asunder
on account of the difference of their refrangibility, give an elongated
and variously-coloured spectrum: _ergo—bibamus!_”—It must be possible to
trace every error to such a conclusion, drawn from a major premise which
is often only falsely generalised, hypothetical, and founded on the
assumption that some particular cause is that of a certain effect. Only
certain mistakes in counting are to be excepted, and they are not really
errors, but merely mistakes. The operation prescribed by the concepts of
the numbers has not been carried out in pure intuition or perception, in
counting, but some other operation instead of it.
As regards the _content_ of the sciences generally, it is, in fact, always
the relation of the phenomena of the world to each other, according to the
principle of sufficient reason, under the guidance of the _why_, which has
validity and meaning only through this principle. _Explanation_ is the
establishment of this relation. Therefore explanation can never go further
than to show two ideas standing to each other in the relation peculiar to
that form of the principle of sufficient reason which reigns in the class
to which they belong. If this is done we cannot further be asked the
question, _why_: for the relation proved is that one which absolutely
cannot be imagined as other than it is, _i.e._, it is the form of all
knowledge. Therefore we do not ask why 2 + 2 = 4; or why the equality of
the angles of a triangle determines the equality of the sides; or why its
effect follows any given cause; or why the truth of the conclusion is
evident from the truth of the premises. Every explanation which does not
ultimately lead to a relation of which no “why” can further be demanded,
stops at an accepted _qualitas occulta_; but this is the character of
every original force of nature. Every explanation in natural science must
ultimately end with such a _qualitas occulta_, and thus with complete
obscurity. It must leave the inner nature of a stone just as much
unexplained as that of a human being; it can give as little account of the
weight, the cohesion, the chemical qualities, &c., of the former, as of
the knowing and acting of the latter. Thus, for example, weight is a
_qualitas occulta_, for it can be thought away, and does not proceed as a