Causation; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy, German; Reason
By means of the external sense (a property of the mind), we represent
to ourselves objects as without us, and these all in space. Herein
alone are their shape, dimensions, and relations to each other
determined or determinable. The internal sense, by means of which the
mind contemplates itself or its internal state, gives, indeed, no
intuition of the soul as an object; yet there is nevertheless a
determinate form, under which alone the contemplation of our internal
state is possible, so that all which relates to the inward
determinations of the mind is represented in relations of time. Of time
we cannot have any external intuition, any more than we can have an
internal intuition of space. What then are time and space? Are they
real existences? Or, are they merely relations or determinations of
things, such, however, as would equally belong to these things in
themselves, though they should never become objects of intuition; or,
are they such as belong only to the form of intuition, and consequently
to the subjective constitution of the mind, without which these
predicates of time and space could not be attached to any object? In
order to become informed on these points, we shall first give an
exposition of the conception of space. By exposition, I mean the clear,
though not detailed, representation of that which belongs to a
conception; and an exposition is metaphysical when it contains that
which represents the conception as given à priori.
1. Space is not a conception which has been derived from outward
experiences. For, in order that certain sensations may relate to
something without me (that is, to something which occupies a different
part of space from that in which I am); in like manner, in order that I
may represent them not merely as without, of, and near to each other,
but also in separate places, the representation of space must already
exist as a foundation. Consequently, the representation of space cannot
be borrowed from the relations of external phenomena through
experience; but, on the contrary, this external experience is itself
only possible through the said antecedent representation.
2. Space then is a necessary representation à priori, which serves for
the foundation of all external intuitions. We never can imagine or make
a representation to ourselves of the non-existence of space, though we
may easily enough think that no objects are found in it. It must,
therefore, be considered as the condition of the possibility of
phenomena, and by no means as a determination dependent on them, and is
a representation à priori, which necessarily supplies the basis for
external phenomena.
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