Causation; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy, German; Reason
We showed in the introduction to this part of our work, that all
transcendental illusion of pure reason arose from dialectical
arguments, the schema of which logic gives us in its three formal
species of syllogisms—just as the categories find their logical schema
in the four functions of all judgements. The first kind of these
sophistical arguments related to the unconditioned unity of the
subjective conditions of all representations in general (of the subject
or soul), in correspondence with the categorical syllogisms, the major
of which, as the principle, enounces the relation of a predicate to a
subject. The second kind of dialectical argument will therefore be
concerned, following the analogy with hypothetical syllogisms, with the
unconditioned unity of the objective conditions in the phenomenon; and,
in this way, the theme of the third kind to be treated of in the
following chapter will be the unconditioned unity of the objective
conditions of the possibility of objects in general.
But it is worthy of remark that the transcendental paralogism produced
in the mind only a one-third illusion, in regard to the idea of the
subject of our thought; and the conceptions of reason gave no ground to
maintain the contrary proposition. The advantage is completely on the
side of Pneumatism; although this theory itself passes into naught, in
the crucible of pure reason.
Very different is the case when we apply reason to the objective
synthesis of phenomena. Here, certainly, reason establishes, with much
plausibility, its principle of unconditioned unity; but it very soon
falls into such contradictions that it is compelled, in relation to
cosmology, to renounce its pretensions.
For here a new phenomenon of human reason meets us—a perfectly natural
antithetic, which does not require to be sought for by subtle
sophistry, but into which reason of itself unavoidably falls. It is
thereby preserved, to be sure, from the slumber of a fancied
conviction—which a merely one-sided illusion produces; but it is at the
same time compelled, either, on the one hand, to abandon itself to a
despairing scepticism, or, on the other, to assume a dogmatical
confidence and obstinate persistence in certain assertions, without
granting a fair hearing to the other side of the question. Either is
the death of a sound philosophy, although the former might perhaps
deserve the title of the euthanasia of pure reason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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