it.1 THE IDEA OF 'NOTHING' 285 



that it carries with it, whether we will or no, all that we 

 tried to abstract from. Let us compare together the two 

 ideas — the object A supposed to exist, and the same 

 object supposed "non-existent." 



The idea of the object A, supposed existent, is the 

 representation pure and simple of the object A, for we 

 cannot represent an object without attributing to it, 

 by the very fact of representing it, a certain reality. Be- 

 tween thinking an object and thinking it existent, there 

 is absolutely no difference. Kant has put this point 

 in clear light in his criticism of the ontological argument. 

 Then, what is it to think the object A non-existent? To 

 represent it non-existent cannot consist in withdrawing 

 from the idea of the object A the idea of the attribute 

 "existence," since, I repeat, the representation of the 

 existence of the object is inseparable from the representation 

 of the object, and indeed is one with it. To represent the 

 object A non-existent can only consist, therefore, in adding 

 something to the idea of this object: we add to it, in 

 fact, the idea of an exclusion of this particular object by 

 actual reality in general. To think the object A as non- 

 existent is first to think the object and consequently to 

 think it existent; it is then to think that another reality, 

 with which it is incompatible, supplants it. Only, it is 

 useless to represent this latter reality explicitly; we are 

 not concerned with what it is; it is enough for us to know 

 that it drives out the object A, which alone is of interest 

 to us. That is why we think of the expulsion rather than 

 of the cause which expels. But this cause is none the 

 less present to the mind; it is there in the implicit state, 

 that which expels being inseparable from the expulsion 

 as the hand which drives the pen is inseparable from the 

 pen-stroke. The act by which we declare an object 

 unreal therefore posits the existence of the real in general. 



