HKB
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Often appears with: theoretical vs practical reason · the nature and attributes of God · postulation of a supreme being · necessity vs contingency · limits of speculative cognition · justice as a virtue
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1) · skepticism (1)
He distinguishes theoretical cognition (what is) from practical cognition (what ought to happen), arguing morality postulates a Supreme Being, while speculative theoretical cognition cannot derive an absolutely necessary cause from experience.
the theist in a living God (summa intelligentia). We shall now proceed to investigate the sources of all these attempts of reason to establish the existence of a Supreme Being. It may be sufficient in this place to define theoretical knowledge or cognition as knowledge of that which is, and practical knowledge as knowledge of that which ought to be. In this view, the theoretical employment of reason is that by which…