In this lecture, Dallas concludes the discussion of being or existence and begins a new major topic in metaphysics, the theory of categories.
In the lecture’s first half, finishing up weeks of talking about existence, Dallas’s topic is objective being and diminished being. For the latter, there is a Latin phrase which started the inquiry, ens diminutum, and students were assigned “Ens Diminutum” by Armand Maurer. As for the theory of categories, it answers the question what sorts of things there are and attempts to determine the ultimate classes of being. This begins around the 45:00 mark and Dallas will continue on it for a few lectures.
If this sounds like something has been skipped since the last lecture, it is because something has been. Dallas required students to read a selection from G.E. Moore’s “The Conception of Reality” and Dallas has a handout “Concluding Lecture on the Conception of Reality” (not currently available digitally) from which he reads some at the beginning of class. The actual lecture on Moore is missing and may be lost to history. This is also the week after the “Six Weeks Exam” on February 23.