Causation; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy, German; Reason
[8] The only addition, properly so called—and that only in the method
of proof—which I have made in the present edition, consists of a new
refutation of psychological _Idealism_, and a strict demonstration—the
only one possible, as I believe—of the objective reality of external
intuition. However harmless idealism may be considered—although in
reality it is not so—in regard to the essential ends of metaphysics,
it must still remain a scandal to philosophy and to the general human
reason to be obliged to assume, as an article of mere belief, the
existence of things external to ourselves (from which, yet, we derive
the whole material of cognition for the internal sense), and not to be
able to oppose a satisfactory proof to any one who may call it in
question. As there is some obscurity of expression in the
demonstration as it stands in the text, I propose to alter the passage
in question as follows: “But this permanent cannot be an intuition in
me. For all the determining grounds of my existence which can be found
in me are representations and, as such, do themselves require a
permanent, distinct from them, which may determine my existence in
relation to their changes, that is, my existence in time, wherein they
change.” It may, probably, be urged in opposition to this proof that,
after all, I am only conscious immediately of that which is in me,
that is, of my _representation_ of external things, and that,
consequently, it must always remain uncertain whether anything
corresponding to this representation does or does not exist externally
to me. But I am conscious, through internal _experience_, of my
_existence in time_ (consequently, also, of the determinability of the
former in the latter), and that is more than the simple consciousness
of my representation. It is, in fact, the same as the _empirical
consciousness of my existence_, which can only be determined in
relation to something, which, while connected with my existence, is
_external to me_. This consciousness of my existence in time is,
therefore, identical with the consciousness of a relation to something
external to me, and it is, therefore, experience, not fiction, sense,
not imagination, which inseparably connects the external with my
internal sense. For the external sense is, in itself, the relation of
intuition to something real, external to me; and the reality of this
something, as opposed to the mere imagination of it, rests solely on
its inseparable connection with internal experience as the condition
of its possibility. If with the _intellectual consciousness_ of my
existence, in the representation: _I am_, which accompanies all my
judgements, and all the operations of my understanding, I could, at
the same time, connect a determination of my existence by
_intellectual intuition_, then the consciousness of a relation to
something external to me would not be necessary. But the internal
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