The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
Our experience of millenniums suffices to prove that the laws of formal
thought agree with the laws of actual existence, and Kant’s view to
consider them as merely subjective and not objective appears to me
untenable. We may fairly consider Kant’s subjectivism as a thing of the
past. And the agreement of the forms of objectivity with the forms of
subjectivity is easily explained when we bear in mind that the thinking
subject is a part of the objective world. It is but natural that the
forms of existence are impressed upon the thinking subject as forms of
thought.
Yet the question of the necessity and universality of the laws of form
remains. Can we comprehend why the form of objective reality as well as
of subjective thought must be such as they are, and might they not just
as well be different? Is this question legitimate and can it be answered?
We say Yes, the question is legitimate and can be answered.
All the laws of formal thought are products of thought-operations which
are based on no other principle than that of identity (_A_ = _A_). As
soon as thinking beings have developed to that degree of thought-ability
in which they are able to deal with the abstract idea of pure form, they
can make constructions of pure forms. So long as these constructions
of pure forms are made consistently and correctly (i. e. in strict
agreement with the principle of identity), they will be found to hold
good in reality and we can _a priori_—before we have made the actual
experience—rely on their applicability.
The laws of pure forms (forms of thought as well as forms of existence)
can satisfactorily be proved to anyone who acknowledges the principle
of identity. The principle of identity is not an assumption but it is
the generalised statement of the simplest thought-operation, which, if
employed with consistency, can serve as a rule for other and more complex
thought-operations. Consistency is the condition of thought. Consistency
produces order, and order is the most characteristic feature of thought.
We create some pure form in some definite way, for instance in counting
we posit a unit (we call it “one”). Now we create in the same definite
way again a pure form, we again posit a unit (we again call it “one”).
In so far as these two “ones” are the product of the same operation they
will be the same and we express this truth in the sentence 1 = 1 or _A_ =
_A_.
When, for the sake of assistance in the process of abstract thought, we
use real objects to represent our pure forms, similarly as an abacus is
employed for assisting the young mind of a child in learning arithmetic,
the dissimilarity of the objects is of no account. The proposition of
their identity has no reference to the material objects, but to the
operation. Two operations being according to some special and definite
method exactly the same, their products are also exactly the same,
and the rest is not to be minded, because we have in our abstraction
purposely excluded everything else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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