Causation; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy, German; Reason
The conception of a cubic foot of space, however I may think it,
is in itself completely identical. But two cubic feet in space are
nevertheless distinct from each other from the sole fact of their
being in different places (they are numero diversa); and these places
are conditions of intuition, wherein the object of this conception is
given, and which do not belong to the conception, but to the faculty
of sensibility. In like manner, there is in the conception of a thing
no contradiction when a negative is not connected with an affirmative;
and merely affirmative conceptions cannot, in conjunction, produce any
negation. But in sensuous intuition, wherein reality (take for example,
motion) is given, we find conditions (opposite directions)—of which
abstraction has been made in the conception of motion in general—which
render possible a contradiction or opposition (not indeed of a logical
kind)—and which from pure positives produce zero = 0. We are therefore
not justified in saying that all reality is in perfect agreement
and harmony, because no contradiction is discoverable among its
conceptions.[39] According to mere conceptions, that which is internal
is the substratum of all relations or external determinations. When,
therefore, I abstract all conditions of intuition, and confine myself
solely to the conception of a thing in general, I can make abstraction
of all external relations, and there must nevertheless remain a
conception of that which indicates no relation, but merely internal
determinations. Now it seems to follow that in everything (substance)
there is something which is absolutely internal and which antecedes
all external determinations, inasmuch as it renders them possible; and
that therefore this substratum is something which does not contain any
external relations and is consequently simple (for corporeal things
are never anything but relations, at least of their parts external to
each other); and, inasmuch as we know of no other absolutely internal
determinations than those of the internal sense, this substratum is not
only simple, but also, analogously with our internal sense, determined
through representations, that is to say, all things are properly
monads, or simple beings endowed with the power of representation. Now
all this would be perfectly correct, if the conception of a thing were
the only necessary condition of the presentation of objects of external
intuition. It is, on the contrary, manifest that a permanent phenomenon
in space (impenetrable extension) can contain mere relations, and
nothing that is absolutely internal, and yet be the primary substratum
of all external perception. By mere conceptions I cannot think anything
external, without, at the same time, thinking something internal, for
the reason that conceptions of relations presuppose given things,
and without these are impossible. But, as an intuition there is
something (that is, space, which, with all it contains, consists of
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