‘Sie ayiitth cone omd ni epel duse ce \ A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAVAL UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE oF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Charles R, MacDonald, Fh. lL. ‘LAVAL UNIVERSITY SHE ROLE OF NEGATION IN KNOWLEDGE Québec September, 1964es Bos TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION seceeseceiscsccecscccccceececeseeserees 5 CHAPTER =I, CHAPTER IT. CHAPTER IIT. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. REFERENCES ..... BIBLIOGRAPHY ., The Negative Enuntiation ........0.06 7 Negation in the Knowledge of Sensible Objects: 1. Negation in the Order of ROGLICY ceeeccecccecsceceees eee 29 Negation in the Knowledge of Sensible Objects: 2. How Negations are Known ....... 57 | Negation in Our Knowledge of God .... 74 Negation of the Negation: 1. The Marxist Application ....... 107 Negation of the Negation: 2, The Hegelian Application ...... 125 Some Conclusions ...... seeedeeees 142INTRODUCTION If the serious treatment of any subject requires justification, a discussion of negation could hardly pro- ceed as if it were immediately obvious that the subject merits consideration, The study of negation, of all undertakings, might, with good reason, be put aside as a waste of time. Besides the apparent poverty of the notion, then which no more barren subject of contemplation is con- ceivable, such a study may possibly be rendered fruitless from the beginning, "nam unumquodque, quantum habet de esse, tantum habet de cognoscibilitate"(1). Negation seems to be reducible, in one way or another, to non- being, and, for that very reason, to be beyond the range of things knowable. There is an element of truth in the above ob- servation, and the complete justification of this study can be seen only in the light of the various problems to be touched upon in the chapters to follow. It can be said at the outset, however, that if the study of negation were altogether futile, there would be no understanding this statement from a recent issue of a philosophical journal: "It would be difficult to overemphasize the im- portance of negation, since, by its very nature,