Causation; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy, German; Reason
The principal thing we must attend to, in the division of the parts of
a science like this, is that no conceptions must enter it which contain
aught empirical; in other words, that the knowledge à priori must be
completely pure. Hence, although the highest principles and fundamental
conceptions of morality are certainly cognitions à priori, yet they do
not belong to transcendental philosophy; because, though they certainly
do not lay the conceptions of pain, pleasure, desires, inclinations,
etc. (which are all of empirical origin), at the foundation of its
precepts, yet still into the conception of duty—as an obstacle to be
overcome, or as an incitement which should not be made into a
motive—these empirical conceptions must necessarily enter, in the
construction of a system of pure morality. Transcendental philosophy is
consequently a philosophy of the pure and merely speculative reason.
For all that is practical, so far as it contains motives, relates to
feelings, and these belong to empirical sources of cognition.
If we wish to divide this science from the universal point of view of a
science in general, it ought to comprehend, first, a Doctrine of the
Elements, and, secondly, a Doctrine of the Method of pure reason. Each
of these main divisions will have its subdivisions, the separate
reasons for which we cannot here particularize. Only so much seems
necessary, by way of introduction of premonition, that there are two
sources of human knowledge (which probably spring from a common, but to
us unknown root), namely, sense and understanding. By the former,
objects are given to us; by the latter, thought. So far as the faculty
of sense may contain representations à priori, which form the
conditions under which objects are given, in so far it belongs to
transcendental philosophy. The transcendental doctrine of sense must
form the first part of our science of elements, because the conditions
under which alone the objects of human knowledge are given must precede
those under which they are thought.
I. TRANSCENDENTAL DOCTRINE OF ELEMENTS.
FIRST PART. TRANSCENDENTAL ÆSTHETIC.
§ I. Introductory.
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