Thinkers may to-day be divided into two classes: those who date from
before Kant, and those who have received the initiation and, so to
speak, the philosophical baptism of his critique. These two classes of
minds will always have much ado to understand each other. The first
are dogmatists or Pyrrhonists. The second no longer comprehend either
dogmatism or Pyrrhonism. For them, the point of view has been
displaced. Thanks to Kant, we judge both our knowledge and our faculty
of knowing; we give an account to ourselves of the conditions in which
it performs its functions, of the forms which determine it, and of the
limits that it cannot pass. Kant compared, without exaggeration, the
revolution which he effected in philosophy to that which the discovery
of Copernicus effected in the system of the world. In philosophy also
the sun has ceased to move round the earth, and the ancient illusion
has been vanquished and dispersed. The idea and the reality no longer
coincide; they are disjoined. The intelligible no doubt is real; but
it is not certain that all the real is intelligible. Reality appears
to us now as surpassing not only our knowledge, but our means of
knowing. The religious notion of mystery has entered into
consciousness. Man has attained to intellectual humility. Like his
body, his mind is a mean between the infinitely great and the
infinitely little, between nothing and everything. The deductive
philosophy of the unity and necessary and continuous unfolding of an
eternal substance, gives place to the philosophy of observation, which
will be found to be that of the antinomies whose permanent conflict
produces the ascensional progress of the world and of life.
To make Kantism end in scepticism shows a lack of intelligence. His
system enables us, on the contrary, to form the _scientific_ theory of
science. The truth is to be found neither in dogmatism nor in
Pyrrhonism, both of which Pascal combated with equal vigour. In modern
science there is a certitude invincible to the subtlest Pyrrhonism; but
there is also in it a sense of the limits of our knowing faculty and of
the relative character of our most solid constructions which forbids
man ever to be puffed up to the point of believing himself to be God.
To be in this mean is to be in the truth. The same critique which
establishes the validity of human knowledge lays down the limits beyond
which it cannot go. We have come to know ourselves better, and that is
the mark of all true progress in philosophy. _Know thyself_ is always
its first rule and its final fruit.
The Kantian theory of knowledge, while satisfying the mind, at the same
time sets forth the essential antinomies whose normal play constitutes
the very life of the ego and explains its multiple manifestations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account