The Philosophy of Immanuel KantLindsay, A. D. (Alexander Dunlop)
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
Lindsay, A. D. (Alexander Dunlop)
Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804
We shall follow Kant’s argument more easily if we take his account of
one of these principles--the principle of causation. For what is said
of that will hold, with necessary changes, of the others, and, as we
have noticed, it was Hume’s criticism of causation which first led Kant
to formulate the critical problem. Hume had pointed out that we had
never such insight into causal connection as to be able, from mere
inspection of a cause, to foretell the effect without any reference to
experience. He declared, on the contrary, that there was no difference
between observed succession and causation so far as concerned the
objects observed. In each case we see first one thing and then another.
The difference, then, between mere succession and causal connection can
only be in us, in the way we come to feel about certain successions we
observe. In technical language, the necessity of causation is
subjective.
How does Kant answer this position? He begins, as is usual with him, by
taking the problem a little further back. Causation is a connection we
predicate between what we see at one time, and what we see at another.
Now if we take into account only the fact that we see one thing at one
time and another thing at another, there is no difference between what
we see when we successively see two things which we judge to co-exist,
and when we see two things one of which we judge to have succeeded the
other in time. Hume, therefore, proved too much. His argument would
show that we have no grounds for distinguishing between apprehension of
succession and succession in apprehending, but such a distinction is the
basis of our apprehension and understanding of change or movement. If,
then, we examine how we distinguish between apprehension of succession
and succession in apprehending, we may see on what the principle of
causation is based.
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