Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Remarks
cied motion of this point generates a line of only one dimension ( a thing equally impossible to the world of sensations ) ; but as the motion must occupy time , this element comes into the process . And thus carving the field of space with motion or time , he proceeds by separation and division , by means ofthe mental categories , to form all species of figures , and to discover their properties and their relations to each other . The science presents characters presented only by metaphysics and itself ,
and differing totally from all empirical sciences , which are always imperfect ; those on the other are perfect , and admit of no disputation or difference of opinion . In nature the mason can cut no perfect square , nor can the draughtsman design a true circle ; but the mind forms
them entire . Not only are the twelve categories named pure conceptions , but all the thoughts they frame from the intuitions , time , and space , are also pure conceptions , such as weight , solidity , & c . The division into pure and empirical conceptions has been long acknowledged ; the pure conception being usually termed an abstraction , or abstract ideas * Now *> ve hasten to the concluding part of . this system . Kant was the
first to observe that the mind , in addition to other powers , is capable of forming notions having no reference to space or time , and which , therefore , he denominated ideas . These are God , spirit , and the human soul . That such ideas have taken possession of men ' s minds is undeniable ; the question to be solved is , how were they generated ? did they arrive by accident , by error of reasoning , through education , or are they inevitable consequences of the exercise of the intellect ? Kant shows that
the last is the case ; and that any mind , capable of thinking and rea- soning , must generate these ideas , and the others of which they are composed . Without entering into the proof of this , we content ourselves with the general fact . Men speak of the existence of immaterial agents in all ages , even with the first dawn of civilization . They have all conceived the idea of a presiding power , infinite , eternal , all-powerful for
good or evil . Such ideas are simple , they cannot be analysed or explained by any reference to sensual objects ; but they are not , therefore , difficult , since every one understands at once what is meant by the terms we use to express them . For a long period , however , mankind have endeavoured to subject them to the action of the understanding , in the same way as if they had been objects of sense . First , they clothed tlie pure idea of the immortal and perfect but unknown One with the human form , furnished him with raiment , with arms , married him to a capricious and jealous Juno , and invested him with the lusts and the passions of man . Sometimes he has inhabited a cow , a bird , or even a
beetle . These follies Christianity swept clearly and perfectly away at the instant of its promulgation ; but afterwards its purity became corrupted , and idolatry re-appeared . The Reformation restored to us the pure ideas of a just , all-wise , and omnipotent Creator and Ruler of the universe , unmixed with and beyond all sense-derived conceptions . But still when fancy ceased to soar into the region of ideas , a false philosophy endeavoured to give habitation and form to God and to the soul , madly endeavouring to pass the impenetrable barrier that he has placed to the further exertion of the intellect . Hence one asserted that God must exist , because there must be a first cause ; and another , that
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Remarks
cied motion of this point generates a line of only one dimension ( a thing equally impossible to the world of sensations ) ; but as the motion must occupy time , this element comes into the process . And thus carving the field of space with motion or time , he proceeds by separation and division , by means ofthe mental categories , to form all species of figures , and to discover their properties and their relations to each other . The science presents characters presented only by metaphysics and itself ,
and differing totally from all empirical sciences , which are always imperfect ; those on the other are perfect , and admit of no disputation or difference of opinion . In nature the mason can cut no perfect square , nor can the draughtsman design a true circle ; but the mind forms
them entire . Not only are the twelve categories named pure conceptions , but all the thoughts they frame from the intuitions , time , and space , are also pure conceptions , such as weight , solidity , & c . The division into pure and empirical conceptions has been long acknowledged ; the pure conception being usually termed an abstraction , or abstract ideas * Now *> ve hasten to the concluding part of . this system . Kant was the
first to observe that the mind , in addition to other powers , is capable of forming notions having no reference to space or time , and which , therefore , he denominated ideas . These are God , spirit , and the human soul . That such ideas have taken possession of men ' s minds is undeniable ; the question to be solved is , how were they generated ? did they arrive by accident , by error of reasoning , through education , or are they inevitable consequences of the exercise of the intellect ? Kant shows that
the last is the case ; and that any mind , capable of thinking and rea- soning , must generate these ideas , and the others of which they are composed . Without entering into the proof of this , we content ourselves with the general fact . Men speak of the existence of immaterial agents in all ages , even with the first dawn of civilization . They have all conceived the idea of a presiding power , infinite , eternal , all-powerful for
good or evil . Such ideas are simple , they cannot be analysed or explained by any reference to sensual objects ; but they are not , therefore , difficult , since every one understands at once what is meant by the terms we use to express them . For a long period , however , mankind have endeavoured to subject them to the action of the understanding , in the same way as if they had been objects of sense . First , they clothed tlie pure idea of the immortal and perfect but unknown One with the human form , furnished him with raiment , with arms , married him to a capricious and jealous Juno , and invested him with the lusts and the passions of man . Sometimes he has inhabited a cow , a bird , or even a
beetle . These follies Christianity swept clearly and perfectly away at the instant of its promulgation ; but afterwards its purity became corrupted , and idolatry re-appeared . The Reformation restored to us the pure ideas of a just , all-wise , and omnipotent Creator and Ruler of the universe , unmixed with and beyond all sense-derived conceptions . But still when fancy ceased to soar into the region of ideas , a false philosophy endeavoured to give habitation and form to God and to the soul , madly endeavouring to pass the impenetrable barrier that he has placed to the further exertion of the intellect . Hence one asserted that God must exist , because there must be a first cause ; and another , that