The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. I, Nos. 1-4, 1867Various
Philosophy
The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. I, Nos. 1-4, 1867
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
But the problem demands only the explanation of that agreement
generally, and leaves it entirely undecided where the explanation shall
begin, what it shall make its first, and what its second. Moreover, as
the two opposites are mutually necessary to each other, the result of
the operation must be the same, from whichever point it sets out.
To make the objective the first, and derive the subjective from it, is,
as has just been shown, the task of natural philosophy.
If, therefore, there is a transcendental philosophy, the only course
that remains for it is the opposite one, namely: to set out from the
subjective as the first and the absolute, and deduce the origin of the
objective from it.
Into these two possible directions of philosophy, therefore, natural and
transcendental philosophy have separated themselves; and if all
philosophy must have for its aim to make either an Intelligence out of
Nature or a Nature out of Intelligence, then transcendental philosophy,
to which the latter task belongs, is the other necessary fundamental
science of philosophy.
II.—COROLLARIES.
In the foregoing we have not only deduced the idea of transcendental
philosophy, but have also afforded the reader a glance into the whole
system of philosophy, composed, as has been shown, of two principal
sciences, which, though opposed in principle and direction, are
counter-parts and complements of each other. Not the whole system of
philosophy, but only one of the principal sciences of it, is to be here
discussed, and, in the first place, to be more clearly characterized in
accordance with the idea already deduced.
1. If, for transcendental philosophy, the subjective is the starting
point, the only ground of all reality, and the sole principle of
explanation for everything else, it necessarily begins with universal
doubt regarding the reality of the objective.
As the natural philosopher, wholly intent upon the objective, seeks,
above all things, to exclude every admixture of the subjective from his
knowledge, so, on the other hand, the transcendental philosopher seeks
nothing so much as the entire exclusion of the objective from the purely
subjective principle of knowledge. The instrument of separation is
absolute scepticism—not that half-scepticism which is directed merely
against the vulgar prejudices of mankind and never sees the
foundation—but a thorough-going scepticism, which aims not at individual
prejudices, but at the fundamental prejudice, with which all others must
stand or fall. For over and above the artificial and conventional
prejudices of man, there are others of far deeper origin, which have
been placed in him, not by art or education, but by Nature itself, and
which pass with all other men, except the philosopher, as the principles
of knowledge, and with the mere self-thinker as the test of all truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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