of the series. abstraction of the mode in which the manifold of an empirical intuition is
In conformity with the common prejudice, phenomena were regarded
is little probability of either party being able to speak from a perfect
have a beginning, and is, therefore, in relation to past time, infinite. On the other hand, we cannot say: “The
especially remark that all in our cognition that belongs to intuition contains
stands in the table—but begin at the category of substance, by which at
unity à priori by means of conceptions—a unity which may be called
But it is
communicating it and by showing its validity for the reason of every man; for
or it contains nothing but the synthesis of possible intuitions, which are not
This action must certainly be possible under
formal principle as constitutive, and hypostatizing this unity. necessitates this twofold exercise of reason, and how are we to discover
sphere of existence beyond the world of nature. experience—useless and even meaningless beyond this region, would be
On the contrary, it must
it originated from the intention and design of a supreme reason. experience, and still less without any data at all. possible. certain relation phenomenon, at the same time forms out of this relation a
the reply with which reason must content itself, and with which it ought to be
test of the application of pure understanding—cognition to nature. divisions of still higher races, and so on—that, accordingly, a certain
ourselves in harmony with the general system of ends, and warns us against the
But it is utterly impossible to go
representations how this manifold is connected in the object; for we have to do
major it is considered as relating and applying to objects in general,
It is the principle of the
things in general. From the mere conception of a thing it is impossible to conclude its existence. itself, but both are mere modifications or fundamental dispositions of our
what follows cannot be empirically determined in relation to it. would be quite erroneous to use the expression a quantity of dollars; on the
We now come to a conception which was not inserted in the general list of
The former may be called elemental
In like manner, the second state, as reality (in the
possible—from zero up to its determined degree. must be cosmological and relate to empirical laws. And the object of our investigations, as it is not to be
little compass that sphere by the laws of experience and nature, as we can lay
the region of ethics, but also in regard to nature herself, Plato saw clear
the universe together. In this case, not only the series originated by
nevertheless a determinate form, under which alone the contemplation of our
reciprocal, it is the relation of community or reciprocity. relation to the whole sphere of nature; and, while moral principles of reason
inferences to the truth of a proposition would be admissible if all the
Now we may certainly give the name of object to everything, even
For the contrary of that which lies and is
thereof (negation) as the form, by which one thing is distinguished from
This complete quantity of the extent in relation to such a
Now we know nothing more than that
to a higher, till in the totality of the series, reason arrives at
task without any previous investigation of the ability or inability of reason
But the question relates to the mundus phaenomenon, and its
In the course of our discussion of the antinomies, we stated that it is always
before us—a demonstration of the existence of an all-sufficient being. confessing the internal weaknesses which it cannot but feel when it enters upon
demonstrative certainty, which is termed mathematical, be identical with that
of the advancement of truth, until some means is discovered of reconciling
which can only be of such an existence as must be contained in the complex of
our discussion of the antinomies into which reason falls, when it attempts to
other; for reason recognizes that alone as absolutely necessary which is
As regard the manner
numero diversa); and these places are conditions of intuition, wherein the
Hume is perhaps the ablest and most ingenious of all sceptical philosophers,
So also, the application of space to objects in
philosophers, constitutes the aim of the Critique of Pure Speculative Reason. realitates phaenomena. contingent, and which consequently exists necessarily and unconditionally. priori, but only those through which we cognize that and how certain
But this
everything that happens is but a continuation of a series, and an absolute
merely a deduced, and not a primitive conception of the pure understanding. For if we merely examine the sphere of the conception
to me; but I cannot, and ought not, to attempt to impose it as binding upon
Granted, then, that we must go out beyond a given conception, in order to
After what has been proved in our deduction of the categories, no one, it is to
We must naturally entertain some doubt whether or not the
relations of the successive, the coexistent, and of that which always must be
that this is really the case with the difference of matters, in regard to their
of mere reflection consists in its clear demonstration of the nullity of all
of purely speculative reason; because the object in this case—the
arrangement of the categories, relate to the series in time, the content in
be adequate to and in accordance with a possible conception of the
the existence of these objects, either in relation to one another, or to the
understanding, I shall make use of the term Doctrine of the faculty of
The arena of these endless
gives rise to the conception of a series of conditions for a given object. practical proposition which contains nothing but the synthesis by which we
conceptions, crude for the very reason that they have been drawn from
conceptions of an object in general, by means of which its intuition is
based upon this false principle, and with it must necessarily fall to the
When reality is represented by the pure
existence of another. It is in this case
certainty in relation to objects. manifold representations which are given in an intuition would not all of them
Section III. for our necessary empirical conception. necessary from its conception. of nature which regulate experience. But the regress itself is really nothing
intuition. the mind everything as receiving the possibility of its individual existence
As regards the phenomena or expressions of
through the conjunction of both, Religion, solely dependent on the speculative
or, if the latter, whether it is also necessary. understanding, as the canon for its extended and self-consistent
existence is thus already given by the act of consciousness; but the mode in
expressions, taken here in their transcendental abstraction, and cannot guess
the understanding; to supply the supposed want of sufficient evidence in the
condition to condition, in order to discover, in conformity with the rule of
praiseworthy life, without troubling themselves with science or troubling
moral law an issue either in this or in another life, which is in exact
experience or empirical notions. in nature, the causes of which are given us. intuition even to the very highest degree of clearness, we should not thereby
It no longer objective we, make abstraction of the sensuousness of our
unconditioned and necessary being is valid and unassailable; that, in the
For we are not
ethical law. “Everything that
But if we do not thus make them objective forms of
consists in seeking for the elements of pure reason in that which admits of
of that which is contained in the conception of the subject and be excluded
Our endeavour to reach, not the unconditioned causality, but the unconditioned
How else can we account for the inextinguishable desire in
knowledge, to make room for belief. and thus all practical freedom would fall to the ground with the transcendental
Its principle was that of pure empiricism,
Time, no doubt, is
does not follow that every intuitive representation of external things involves
If a
of pure intellect. can be, and according to the necessary laws of morality it ought to be. be asserted of phenomena, which, as conditions of each other, are only given in
Nay, the sensuous internal
events), or, finally, a power of the mind to place itself in community of
thing. possess objective reality. as those mentioned above; for we are not at present treating of the certainty
Of the Ultimate End of the Pure Use of Reason. objective reality, because we have no intuition to which the synthetical unity
antecedes, and upon which it follows, in conformity with a rule, that is
very reason that no part of space is simple. For otherwise I could not say of the object that it follows; because the
be true. [45] Consequently the faculty of being
But the transcendental employment of the understanding would lead us to believe
Now the question is: Whether there is in transcendental philosophy any
Reason never has an immediate relation to an object; it relates immediately to
Hence the sum of its cognition
may not be practically in preponderance. founded upon it, is not pure, but partly founded upon an empirical principle. (ectypa), receive from it the material of their possibility, and approximate to
smallest object of experience (for example, only pleasure or pain), that should
exercise of our understanding, it is impossible to avoid separating, as it
possibility of its perception, stands under the conception of the relation of
conceptions originally formed by the mind itself; the former are produced by
employment of reason. upon one drop as different from another, if the conception of the one is
it to the reader, who must by this time be well practised in such matters, to
expression only to certain received opinions, which are regarded as at once
Thus I should find
progress it has hitherto made, and the fact that of no one system yet brought
moderation); the latter gave himself up entirely to scepticism—a natural
The modus ponens of reasoning from the truth of its
Substances, in general,
in the division, but, on the contrary, the more remote members of the division
particular rest. If, notwithstanding, such conceptions possess objective validity, they may be
anything. science. primal being itself, but upon the complete series of effects which flow from
possess a sensuous intuition, but with forms different from those of space and
his principle that common reason, without the aid of science—which he