Section 2 - Concerning the principle of the determining ground

Summary

DEFINITION

Proposition IV. To determine is to posit a predicate while excluding its opposite.

That which determines a subject in respect of any of its predicates, is called the ground. Grounds may be differentiated into those which are antecedently determining and those which are consequentially determining. An antecedently determining ground is one, the concept of which precedes that which is determined. That is to say, an antecedently determining ground is one, in the absence of which that which is determined would not be intelligible. A consequentially determining ground is one which would not be posited unless the concept which is determined by it had not already been posited from some other source. You can also call the former the reason why, or the ground of being or becoming, while the latter can be called the ground that, or the ground of knowing.

Proof of the reality of our definition. The concept of a ground, as it is commonly understood, establishes a connection and a conjunction between the subject and some predicate or other. A ground thus always requires a subject; and it also requires a predicate, which it can unite with the subject. If you ask for the ground of a circle I shall not at all understand what you are asking for unless you add a predicate, for example, that it is, of all the figures which have a perimeter of the same length, the one which embraces the greatest area. For example, suppose we seek for the ground of all evils in the world. We thus have the proposition: the world contains a number of evils. What is being sought is not the ground that, in other words, not the ground of knowing, for experience takes its place. What has to be specified is the ground why, that is to say, the ground of becoming.