2. Analytical Introduction (9)

3. Analysis of the formal object quod of logic
3.1. Formal object quod considered in se
The relations of reason existing among its concepts do not exist outside the act itself of reason. For example, when I say that "Peter is polite", politeness and Peter exist in reality outside the mind, as well as the inherence of polite in Peter; but the bond of attribution through which the predicate 'polite' is referred to the subject 'Peter' exists only through and in the act of thinking 'Peter' as 'polite'(Cf CG I, 58,n. 490: "Propositionis per intellectum componentem et dividentem formatae compositio in ipso intellectu existit, non in re quae est extra animam"; SM 7, lect 17, n. 1658: "Logicus enim considerat modum praedicandi, et non existentiam rei".). Therefore it is said that such conceptual relations are beings of reason (entia rationis). We must now analyze this notion.