Kant's Prolegomena. Immanuel Kant
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Название: Kant's Prolegomena

Автор: Immanuel Kant

Издательство: Public Domain

Жанр: Философия

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СКАЧАТЬ this manifest idealism?

      Idealism consists in the assertion, that there are none but thinking beings, all other things, which we think are perceived in intuition, being nothing but representations in the thinking beings, to which no object external to them corresponds in fact. Whereas I say, that things as objects of our senses existing outside us are given, but we know nothing of what they may be in themselves, knowing only their appearances, i.e., the representations which they cause in us by affecting our senses. Consequently I grant by all means that there are bodies without us, that is, things which, though quite unknown to us as to what they are in themselves, we yet know by the representations which their influence on our sensibility procures us, and which we call bodies, a term signifying merely the appearance of the thing which is unknown to us, but not therefore less actual. Can this be termed idealism? It is the very contrary.

      Long before Locke's time, but assuredly since him, it has been generally assumed and granted without detriment to the actual existence of external things, that many of their predicates may be said to belong not to the things in themselves, but to their appearances, and to have no proper existence outside our representation. Heat, color, and taste, for instance, are of this kind. Now, if I go farther, and for weighty reasons rank as mere appearances the remaining qualities of bodies also, which are called primary, such as extension, place, and in general space, with all that which belongs to it (impenetrability or materiality, space, etc.) – no one in the least can adduce the reason of its being inadmissible. As little as the man who admits colors not to be properties of the object in itself, but only as modifications of the sense of sight, should on that account be called an idealist, so little can my system be named idealistic, merely because I find that more, nay,

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      1

      Prolegomena means literally prefatory or introductory remarks. It is the neuter plural of the present passive participle of προλέγειν, to speak before, i.e., to make introductory remarks before beginning one's regular discourse.

      2

      Mahaffy no

1

Prolegomena means literally prefatory or introductory remarks. It is the neuter plural of the present passive participle of προλέγειν, to speak before, i.e., to make introductory remarks before beginning one's regular discourse.

2

Mahaffy not incorrectly translates "spirals winding opposite ways," and Mr. Bax follows him verbatim even to the repetition of the footnote.

3

The French cento is still in use.

4

κέντρων, (1) one that bears the marks of the κέντρο, goad; a rogue, (2) a patched cloth; (3) any kind of patchwork, especially verses made up of scraps from other authors.

5

Says Horace:

"Rusticus expectat, dum defluat amnis, at ille

Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum;"

"A rustic fellow waiteth on the shore

For the river to flow away,

But the river flows, and flows on as before,

And it flows forever and aye."

6

Nevertheless Hume called this very destructive science metaphysics and attached to it great value. Metaphysics and morals [he declares in the fourth part of his Essays] are the most important branches of science; mathematics and physics are not nearly so important. But the acute man merely regarded the negative use arising from the moderation of extravagant claims of speculative reason, and the complete settlement of the many endless and troublesome controversies that mislead mankind. He overlooked the positive injury which results, if reason be deprived of its most important prospects, which can alone supply to the will the highest aim for all its endeavor.

7

The term Anschauung here used means sense-perception. It is that which is given to the senses and apprehended immediately, as an object is seen by merely looking at it. The translation intuition, though etymologically correct, is misleading. In the present passage the term is not used in its technical significance but means "practical experience." —Ed.

8

The term apodeictic is borrowed by Kant from Aristotle who uses it in the sense of "certain beyond dispute." The word is derived from ἀποδείκνυμι (= I show) and is contrasted to dialectic propositions, i.e., such statements as admit of controversy. —Ed.

9

It is unavoidable that as knowledge advances, certain expressions which have become classical, after having been used since the infancy of science, will be found inadequate and unsuitable, and a newer and more appropriate application of the terms will give rise to confusion. [This is the case with the term "analytical."] The analytical method, so far as it is opposed to the synthetical, is very different from that which constitutes the essence of analytical propositions: it signifies only that we start from what is sought, as if it were given, and ascend to the only conditions under which it is possible. In this method we often use nothing but synthetical propositions, as in mathematical analysis, and it were better to term it the regressive method, in contradistinction to the synthetic or progressive. A principal part of Logic too is distinguished by the name of Analytics, which here signifies the logic of truth in contrast to Dialectics, without considering whether the cognitions belonging to it are analytical or synthetical.

10

This whole paragraph (§ 9) will be better understood when compared with Remark I., following this section, appearing in the present edition on page 40. —Ed.

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