I find, however, in the writings of modern authors, an entirely
different use of the expressions, mundus sensibilis and intelligibilis,
which quite departs from the meaning of the ancients—an acceptation in
which, indeed, there is to be found no difficulty, but which at the
same time depends on mere verbal quibbling. According to this meaning,
some have chosen to call the complex of phenomena, in so far as it is
intuited, mundus sensibilis, but in so far as the connection thereof is
cogitated according to general laws of thought, mundus intelligibilis.
Astronomy, in so far as we mean by the word the mere observation of the
starry heaven, may represent the former; a system of astronomy, such as
the Copernican or Newtonian, the latter. But such twisting of words is
a mere sophistical subterfuge, to avoid a difficult question, by
modifying its meaning to suit our own convenience. To be sure,
understanding and reason are employed in the cognition of phenomena;
but the question is, whether these can be applied when the object is
not a phenomenon and in this sense we regard it if it is cogitated as
given to the understanding alone, and not to the senses. The question
therefore is whether, over and above the empirical use of the
understanding, a transcendental use is possible, which applies to the
noumenon as an object. This question we have answered in the negative.
When therefore we say, the senses represent objects as they appear, the
understanding as they are, the latter statement must not be understood
in a transcendental, but only in an empirical signification, that is,
as they must be represented in the complete connection of phenomena,
and not according to what they may be, apart from their relation to
possible experience, consequently not as objects of the pure
understanding. For this must ever remain unknown to us. Nay, it is also
quite unknown to us whether any such transcendental or extraordinary
cognition is possible under any circumstances, at least, whether it is
possible by means of our categories. Understanding and sensibility,
with us, can determine objects only in conjunction. If we separate
them, we have intuitions without conceptions, or conceptions without
intuitions; in both cases, representations, which we cannot apply to
any determinate object.