Fourth: Absolute existence, absolute essence, and the like may refer to absoluteness in the specific sense, which excludes anything qualified—as when one speaks of “unqualified water.” What is absolute in this sense has no existence outside the intellect and mind, just as general, universal existence and general, universal essence have no external existence. This generality and absoluteness attach to realities only insofar as they are conceived in minds, not insofar as they exist as concrete entities. How, then, can the highest and noblest of sciences have mental representations, rather than actual realities, as its object? These representations merely follow those realities; otherwise, they would constitute ignorance, not knowledge.

Alternatively, these expressions may refer to absoluteness in the general sense, which excludes nothing from its scope: freedom from every qualification, even that of being absolute. Understood in this sense, the absolute does have external existence, according to the correct view. Yet it does not exist as absolute; it exists only as something particular. As for an absolute existent whose absoluteness is stipulated, it has no existence: this is the absolute in the specific sense. Since the absolute in the general sense includes what is qualified, it can indeed exist externally. Thus, if absolute existence and its concomitants do not exist externally as absolute, and nothing exists externally except as something particular, a science whose object exists only in minds, not as concrete entities, cannot be the highest of sciences.

If knowledge of mental representations could be deemed superior to knowledge of external realities, the representations themselves could be deemed superior to the realities. Knowledge of the Lord, the angels, and the prophets would then be superior to the Lord Himself, the angels, and the prophets. No rational person would say this.