A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' — Kant — John Shaqi
A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'
Kant · en
Kant was not, of course, so blind to the real bearing of his principles
as to fail to recognise that they have logical implications.[157] He
speaks of the new metaphysics which he has created as being a
transcendental logic. It is very clear, however, that even while so
doing he does not regard it as in any way alternative to the older
logic, but as moving upon a different plane, and as yielding results
which in no way conflict with anything that formal logic may teach.
Indeed Kant ascribes to the traditional logic an almost sacrosanct
validity. Both the general framework of the _Critique_ and the
arrangement of the minor subdivisions are derived from it. It is
supposed to afford an adequate account of discursive thinking, and such
supplement as it may receive is regarded as simply an extension of its
carefully delimited field. There are two logics, that of discursive or
analytic reasoning, and that of synthetic interpretation. The one is
formal; the other is transcendental. The one was created by Aristotle,
complete at a stroke; Kant professes to have formulated the other in an
equally complete and final manner.
This latter claim, which is expressed in the most unqualified terms in
the _Prefaces_ to the first and second editions, is somewhat startling
to a modern reader, and would seem to imply the adoption of an
ultra-rationalistic attitude, closely akin to that of Wolff.
“In this work I have made completeness my chief aim, and I venture
to assert that there is not a single metaphysical problem which has
not been solved, or for the solution of which the key at least has
not been supplied. Reason is, indeed, so perfect a unity that if
its principle were insufficient for the solution of even a single
one of all the questions to which it itself gives birth, we should
be justified in forthwith rejecting it as incompetent to answer,
with perfect certainty, any one of the other questions.”[158]
“Metaphysics has this singular advantage, such as falls to the lot
of no other science which deals with objects (for _logic_ is
concerned only with the form of thought in general), that should
it, through this _Critique_, be set upon the secure path of
science, it is capable of acquiring exhaustive knowledge of its
entire field. It can finish its work and bequeath it to posterity
as a capital that can never be added to. For metaphysics has to
deal only with principles, and with the limits of their employment
as determined by these principles themselves. Since it is a
fundamental science, it is under obligation to achieve this
completeness. We must be able to say of it: _nil actum reputans, si
quid superesset agendum_.”[159]