definable as a full-fledged and then unquestionable individual. For example, if you assume this room as an already known individual, then indeed this observed place in this room gets a perfectly determined individuality, in relation to the rest of the room. Assume that this day as a whole is already known as an individual, and then this moment, timed by my watch, has its place in the day’s wholeness. In general, give me one individual, and I have my ποῦ στῶ, and can know other individuals of the same type to an indefinite extent. Give me, as a supposably fixed point in space, this origin of co-ordinates, and this plane of individually fixed direction, and then I can define, first, all three of my co-ordinate planes, and then the individual position of any point you please in space. But just as I need to assume, as an individual point, my origin of co-ordinates before I can define the place of any other point in space; just as I know not where any here is until you first give me the place of some other here, to which I can relate the first; so, in general, the this of passing experience is a true individual for me only by contagion, so to speak, i.e. in so far as the this catches hold upon individuality through its relation to other presupposed or assumed individuals. In my life, assumed as an individual whole, this experience, in relation to other assumed individual experiences, has its unique place. Nor is it otherwise with any this of experience. The this is not a presented individual, but borrows its individuality from the presupposed individuality of others. To appeal to the this is thus to trade on credit. As we shall later see in this
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SUPPLEMENTARY ESSAY BY PROFESSOR ROYCE
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