HKB
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Often appears with: fate, destiny, and necessity · logic, method, and demonstration · world as whole (finite or infinite) · transcendental ideality of phenomena · transcendental fallacy · skepticism vs critical method · phenomena as empirical syntheses · perception and the senses · necessary being · limits of reason · illusion in reasoning · first cause vs no first cause
Usually: detachment (3) · argument (2) · skepticism (2) · commentary or gloss (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
“Therefore the world—the content of all phenomena—is not a whole existing in itself.” Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason · insight
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…
Kant presents the structure of the cosmological antinomy, then explains the fallacy: the major treats the conditioned as a thing in itself, while the minor treats it as a phenomenon given only through successive empirical synthesis.
The antinomy of pure reason is based upon the following dialectical argument: “If that which is conditioned is given, the whole series of its conditions is also given; but sensuous objects are given as conditioned; consequently...” This syllogism, the major of which seems so natural and evident, introduces as many cosmological ideas as there are different kinds of conditions in the synthesis of phenomena, in so far a…
Kant argues the cosmological antinomy vanishes because its contradiction arises from treating the idea of absolute totality as applying to phenomena, then shows this yields an indirect proof that phenomena have transcendental ideality.
as a series of subordinate representations, it subsists only in the dynamical regress and cannot be regarded as existing previously to this regress, or as a self-subsistent series of things. Thus the antinomy of pure reason in its cosmological ideas disappears. For the above demonstration has established the fact that it is merely the product of a dialectical and illusory opposition, which arises from the applicatio…