HKB
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Often appears with: necessary being · logic, method, and demonstration · first cause vs no first cause · fate, destiny, and necessity · dialectical reasoning from different standpoints · cosmological antinomy
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1)
“The very same grounds of proof which established in the thesis the existence of a supreme being, demonstrated in the antithesis—and with equal strictness—the non-existence of such a being.” Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason · observation
Kant argues that the antinomy about a first cause arises from considering the series of conditions from incompatible standpoints, yielding both thesis (necessary being) and antithesis (no necessary being).
from the contingency of the cosmical state—a contingency alleged to arise from change—does not justify us in accepting a first cause, that is, a prime originator of the cosmical series. The reader will observe in this antinomy a very remarkable contrast. The very same grounds of proof which established in the thesis the existence of a supreme being, demonstrated in the antithesis—and with equal strictness—the non-ex…