Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future MetaphysicsKant, Immanuel
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Kant, Immanuel
Knowledge, Theory of -- Early works to 1800; Metaphysics -- Early works to 1800
It might at first be thought that the proposition 7 + 5 = 12 is a mere
analytical judgment, following from the concept of the sum of seven
and five, according to the law of contradiction. But on closer
examination it appears that the concept of the sum of 7 + 5 contains
merely their union in a single number, without its being at all
thought what the particular number is that unites them. The concept of
twelve is by no means thought by merely thinking of the combination of
seven and five; and analyse this possible sum as we may, we shall not
discover twelve in the concept. We must go beyond these concepts, by
calling to our aid some concrete image (Anschauung), i.e., either our
five fingers, or five points (as Segner has it in his Arithmetic), and
we must add successively the units of the five, given in some concrete
image (Anschauung), to the concept of seven. Hence our concept is
really amplified by the proposition 7 + 5 = 12, and we add to the
first a second, not thought in it. Arithmetical judgments are
therefore synthetical, and the more plainly according as we take
larger numbers; for in such cases it is clear that, however closely we
analyse our concepts without calling visual images (Anschauung) to our
aid, we can never find the sum by such mere dissection.
All principles of geometry are no less analytical. That a straight
line is the shortest path between two points, is a synthetical
proposition. For my concept of straight contains nothing of quantity,
but only a quality. The attribute of shortness is therefore altogether
additional, and cannot be obtained by any analysis of the concept.
Here, too, visualisation (Anschauung) must come to aid us. It alone
makes the synthesis possible.
Some other principles, assumed by geometers, are indeed actually
analytical, and depend on the law of contradiction; but they only
serve, as identical propositions, as a method of concatenation, and
not as principles, e.g., a = a, the whole is equal to itself, or a + b
> a, the whole is greater than its part. And yet even these, though
they are recognised as valid from mere concepts, are only admitted in
mathematics, because they can be represented in some visual form
(Anschauung). What usually makes us believe that the predicate of such
apodeictic{8} judgments is already contained in our concept, and that
the judgment is therefore analytical, is the duplicity of the
expression, requesting us to think a certain predicate as of necessity
implied in the thought of a given concept, which necessity attaches to
the concept. But the question is not what we are requested to join in
thought to the given concept, but what we actually think together with
and in it, though obscurely; and so it appears that the predicate
belongs to these concepts necessarily indeed, yet not directly but
indirectly by an added visualisation (Anschauung).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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