THE CATEGORIES. 



CATEGORIES seem to have been the cause of very 

 much discussion from very early times. The Hindus 

 lay down six categories. These are called "The Six 

 Categories of Kanada " and are those of substance, 

 quality, action, genus, individuality and concretion. 

 Aristotle gave us ten categories, and the world wants 

 to know why ten and whence did they come. From 

 Aristotle we come to Kant, who made the categories 

 the kernel of German philosophy which Hegel assimi- 

 lated and carried to a higher stage. Then we have 

 Hermann Ulrici working out a system of categories 

 which those of Charles Bernard Renouvier, the able 

 French logician, somewhat resemble. 



Professor G. F. Stout defines categories (Manual of 

 Psychology, vol. n, pp. 12 foil.) as forms of cognitive 

 consciousness, universal principle, or relations pre- 

 supposed either in all cognition, or in all cognition of a 

 certain kind. 



Now in "At the Back of the Black Man's Mind" and 

 " Nigerian Studies " I have tried to show that certain 

 great categories of thought exist. These conclusions 

 I drew from their folklore and primitive form of 



