HKB
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Often appears with: reason and the intellect · language, naming, and meaning · fate, destiny, and necessity · the passions and the emotions · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · matter, motion, and cause · logic, method, and demonstration · education and the training of the young · the nature and attributes of God · memory and imagination · justice as a virtue · will, choice, and freedom
Usually: argument (610) · detachment (391) · curiosity (309) · skepticism (282) · reflection (117) · narrative (111) · wonder (93) · crisis of belief (69) · confronting death (56) · exhortation (54)
“O, how accursed is that system, which entombs the godlike mind of man, defaces the divine image, reduces those who by creation were crowned with glory and honor to a level with four-footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh above all that is called God!” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“But, of all recognitions, the best is that which arises from the incidents themselves, where the startling discovery is made by natural means.” Aristotle, The Poetics of Aristotle · precept
“That we have not been accustomed to regard the world in this sense as a four-dimensional continuum is due to the fact that in physics, before the advent of the theory of relativity, time played a different and more independent rôle, as compared with the space coordinates.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · insight
“For, in fine, whether awake or asleep, we ought never to allow ourselves to be persuaded of the truth of anything unless on the evidence of our reason.” René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's · precept
“For the body which is large when seen near, appears small when seen at a distance; True. And the same object appears straight when looked at out of the water, and crooked when in the water; and the concave becomes convex, owing to the illusion about colours to which the sight is liable.” Plato, The Republic · vivid
“Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice in an age of science and history.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · observation
“The mind does not err in the mere act of imagining, but only in so far as it is regarded as being without the idea, which excludes the existence of such things as it imagines to be present to it.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 2 · insight
“Memory is simply a certain association of ideas involving the nature of things outside the human body, which association arises in the mind according to the order and association of the modifications (affectiones) of the human body.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 2 · observation
“It is in the nature of reason to perceive things truly, namely (I. Ax. vi.), as they are in themselves—that is (I. xxix.), not as contingent, but as necessary.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 2 · insight
“Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same, and everywhere one and the same in her efficacy and power of action.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 3 · insight
“we are in many ways driven about by external causes, and that like waves of the sea driven by contrary winds we toss to and fro unwitting of the issue and of our fate.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 3 · observation
“Is it possible that all this time thou hast been going about with me thou hast never found out that all things belonging to knights-errant seem to be illusions and nonsense and ravings, and to go always by contraries? And not because it really is so, but because there is always a swarm of enchanters in attendance upon us that change and alter everything with us, and turn things as they please,” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · observation
Douglass describes shifting from odd jobs in New Bedford to steady work at Mr. Richmond’s brass foundry, where he reads newspapers while operating bellows and avoids abuse from hostile coworkers.
of work that came to hand. I sawed wood, shoveled coal, dug cellars, moved rubbish from back yards, worked on the wharves, loaded and unloaded vessels, and scoured their cabins. I afterward got steady work at the brass-foundry owned by Mr. Richmond. My duty here was to blow the bellows, swing the crane, and empty the flasks in which castings were made; and at times this was hot and heavy work. The articles produced …
Margoliouth weighs Muhammad’s sincerity, suggesting Muhammad was neither simple impostor nor merely rational author, but driven by faith, self-deception, persecution at Mecca, and escalating violence at Medina.
the proclaimer of a doctrine of the Divine Unity, held and taught by the Patriarchs, especially by Abraham-a doctrine that should present to mankind Judaism divested of its Mosaic ceremonial, and Christianity divested of the Atonement and the Trinity14-doctrine, as he might have believed, fitted and destined to absorb Judaism, Christianity, and Idolatry; and this persuasion, once admitted into his mind as a convictio…
This passage continues the same interpretive thesis about Muhammad’s sincerity, faith, persecution, self-deception, and belief in receiving a divine call, repeating earlier argumentation rather than adding new claims.
Koran without argeeing with that motto from St. Augustin, which Sale has prefixed to his title page, "Nulla falsa doctrina est, quæ non aliquid veri permisceat." Qu‘st. Evang. ii. 40. The Arabic text from which this translation has been made is that of Fluegel. Leips. 1841. The translations of Sale, Ullmann, Wahl, Hammer von Purgstall in the Fundgruben des Orients, and M. Kasimirski, have been collated throughout; a…
The author argues Muhammad sincerely sought to end Mecca’s idolatries and teach God’s unity, while also being influenced by self-deception and possible hallucinations, contrasting Mecca persecution with Medina tyranny, and discussing early adoption of Islam by enslaved Christians.
his opponent, Abu Jahl, who had threatened to set his foot on the Prophet's neck when prostrate in prayer. But the whole passage admits of application to mankind in general. 5 That is Muhammad. Nöldeke, however, proposes to render "a slave." And it is certain that the doctrines of Islam were in the first instance embraced by slaves, many of whom had been carried away from Christian homes, or born of Christian parent…
The translator argues Muhammad’s Qur’an-building reflects sincerity mixed with self-deception, then presents Meccan oaths and resurrection judgments, including warnings to the unbelievers and stories such as Thamud’s rejected message and punishments.
BY the heaven, and by the NIGHT-COMER! But who shall teach thee what the night-comer is? 'Tis the star of piercing radiance. Over every soul is set a guardian. Let man then reflect out of what he was created. He was created of the poured-forth germs, Which issue from the loins and breastbones: Well able then is God to restore him to life,- On the day when all secrets shall be searched out, And he shall have …
The translator/annotator argues that Muhammad sought to end idolatry and teach God’s unity, but also claims persecution at Mecca and later success fostered self-deception and escalating violence, then appends Qur’an Sura 51’s warnings and end-times judgment.
We had surely seized him by the right hand, And had cut through the vein of his neck.5 Nor would We have withheld any one of you from him. But, verily, It (the Koran) is a warning for the God-fearing; And we well know that there are of you who treat it as a falsehood. But it shall be the despair of infidels, For it is the very truth of sure knowledge. Praise, then, the name of thy Lord, the Great. ___________…
After a night at Windsor’s Carteret chamber, Pepys surveys the surroundings, travels by water at night fearing plague corpses, and observes coffins and unburied plague bodies watched by guards.
So to sleep; being very well, but weary, and, the better by having carried with me a bottle of strong water; whereof now and then a sip did me good. 20th. I up and to walk forth to see the place; and I find it to be a very noble seat in a noble forest, with the noblest prospect towards Windsor, and round about over many countys, that can be desired; but otherwise a very melancholy place, and little variety save onl…
Pepys dines with the Spanish ambassador’s circle and uses his French and Spanish, then on 7th talks with Sir W. Coventry; on 8th he works on instructions for ship commanders and receives instruments and papers related to his Addresse to the Duke of York.
defending Cambridge against Oxford; and I made much use of my French and Spanish here, to my great content. But the dinner not extraordinary at all, either quantity or quality. 7th. Up, and by coach to Sir W. Coventry's; and there to talk with him a great deal with great content. And so to the Duke of York, having a great mind to speak to him about Tangier; but when I came to it, his interest for my Lord Middleton…
Pepys records Commons debate around an Act of Indemnity, then describes the King’s birthday celebrations at Whitehall (Whitsunday events, church music) and social outings to Hyde Park, ending with concern over his failing eyesight and changing how he keeps his diary.
respected therein: and so without further discourse we parted upon very good terms of respect, and with few words, but my mind not fully satisfied about the monies they mean. 29th. The King's birth-day. To White Hall, where all very gay; and particularly the Prince of Tuscany very fine, and is the first day of his appearing out of mourning since he came. I heard the Bishop of Peterborough [Joseph Henshaw. Ob. 16…
It reiterates that the spelling ‘Peyps’ and ‘Peaps’ likely represented the sound ‘Pepes,’ and contrasts editor research with the Diary’s more vivid presentation of Pepys’s true character.
pronunciation of the name was fixed, but there is every reason to suppose that the spellings of Peyps and Peaps were intended to represent the sound Pepes rather than Peeps. In spite of all the research which has brought to light so many incidents of interest in the life of Samuel Pepys, we cannot but feel how dry these facts are when placed by the side of the living details of the Diary. It is in its pages that the…
On January 5th–7th Pepys manages excise money and officer payments, writes to his superior with parliamentary news about discharged members and calling new writs, consults a doctor about his nose from cold, hosts games and music, and communicates via the post.
Mr. Hawly at cards till ten at night, and was much made of by them. Home and so to bed, but much troubled with my nose, which was much swelled. 5th. I went to my office, where the money was again expected from the Excise office, but none brought, but was promised to be sent this afternoon. I dined with Mr. Sheply, at my Lord's lodgings, upon his turkey-pie. And so to my office again; where the Excise money was br…
Athenian ships at Sestos slip out at night, but are pursued by Mindarus off Elaeus; both sides reposition for battle, then fight as fleets extend flanks near Cynossema with an eventual Athenian rout of the Peloponnesians.
as they were, and, hugging the shore of the Chersonese, coasted along to Elaeus, in order to sail out into the open sea away from the fleet of the enemy. After passing unobserved the sixteen ships at Abydos, which had nevertheless been warned by their approaching friends to be on the alert to prevent their sailing out, at dawn they sighted the fleet of Mindarus, which immediately gave chase. All had not time to get …
Odysseus proves himself by describing a scar and the exact number of trees Laertes gave him, then Minerva helps Laertes regain a youthful, imposing appearance as the family gathers to eat and greet him.
“If you really are my son Ulysses,” replied Laertes, “and have come back again, you must give me such manifest proof of your identity as shall convince me.” “First observe this scar,” answered Ulysses, “which I got from a boar’s tusk when I was hunting on Mt. Parnassus. You and my mother had sent me to Autolycus, my mother’s father, to receive the presents which when he was over here he had promised to give me. Furt…
After supper and sleep, Telemachus questions the swineherd Eumaeus about whether the wooers are still waiting, and Odysseus avoids being recognized as Telemachus smiles and watches while the household prepares for what comes next.
So spake he, and the mighty prince Telemachus smiled, and glanced at his father, while he shunned the eye of the swineherd. Now when they had ceased from the work and got supper ready, they fell to feasting, and their hearts lacked not ought of the equal banquet. But when they had put from them the desire of meat and drink, they bethought them of rest, and took the boon of sleep.
Melanthius the goatherd insults Odysseus-in-disguise and predicts violence against him and the swineherd, then joins the wooers, while Odysseus and Eumaeus reach the hall where Phemius sings and Odysseus tests the company.
two herdsmen bare him company. Now when he saw them he reviled them, and spake and hailed them, in terrible and evil fashion, and stirred the heart of Odysseus, saying: “Now in very truth the vile is leading the vile, for god brings ever like to like! Say, whither art thou leading this glutton,—thou wretched swineherd,—this plaguy beggar, a kill-joy of the feast? He is one to stand about and rub his shoulders agains…
Odysseus tells Eumaeus how to approach the wooers, and they discuss the palace’s defenses and the feast’s sights and sounds; Argos the faithful hunting dog lies in dung, weak but recognizing Odysseus before dying soon after.
of the hollow lyre rang around them, for Phemius was lifting up his voice amid the company in song, and Odysseus caught the swineherd by the hand, and spake, saying: “Eumaeus, verily this is the fair house of Odysseus, and right easily might it be known and marked even among many. There is building beyond building, and the court of the house is cunningly wrought with a wall and battlements, and well-fenced are the f…
He says descent with modification likely covers whole biological classes, argues animals probably share only a few progenitors, and uses analogy plus shared biological features to infer a single primordial origin.
from those who believe in the mutability of species, on their own side they ignore the whole subject of the first appearance of species in what they consider reverent silence. It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct the forms are which we may consider, by so much the arguments fall away in force. But some arguments o…
The passage explains that believers feel the Holy Spirit’s work, endure tribulations with confidence in God’s love through Christ, and that good deeds follow from being freed from the devil’s bondage.
satan, and coupleth us to God and his will thorow strong faith and fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the world, or any creature to lowse them. ((A christen man feeleth the working of the holy ghost in his soul: and in all tribulations and adversities fealeth God a merciful father and a loving.)) And the poor and wretched sinner feeleth so great mercy, love, and kindness in God, that he is sure…
Peter walks on water toward Jesus but sinks in fear; Jesus calms the wind and restores safety, then heals people around Gennesaret, followed by Jesus teaching on uncleanness, tradition, and speech.
they were amazed, saying: it is some spirit, and cried out for fear. And straightway Iesus spake unto them saying: be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. Peter answered, and said: master, and thou be he, bid me come unto thee on the water. and he said come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Iesus. But when he saw a mighty wind, he was afraid. And as he began to sink, h…
Jesus walks on the sea and calms the disciples’ fear, then crowds bring the sick to him around Gennesaret and they are healed when they touch him; afterward Pharisees challenge hand-washing traditions.
And they all ate, and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the gobbets and of the fishes. And they that ate were about five thousand men. And straightway he caused his disciples to go into the ship, and to go over the water before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. And as soon as he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come the ship was in the mids…
Phillips highlights Douglass’s Chesapeake Bay reflections as the narrative’s most moving passage, denounces slavery as entombing the mind and reducing people to beasts, and attacks skepticism that excuses slavery’s atrocities.
perils he encountered in his endeavors to escape from his horrible doom! and how signal have been his deliverance and preservation in the midst of a nation of pitiless enemies! This Narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power; but I think the most thrilling one of them all is the description *Douglass* gives of his feelings, as he stood soliloquizing respecting his fate, a…
Aeneas admires the divinely wrought shield’s scenes even without knowing their names, taking up the fame and fortune it promises for his line and future race.
humbly glides, And there the Rhine submits her swelling tides, And proud Araxes, whom no bridge could bind; The Danes’ unconquer’d offspring march behind, And Morini, the last of humankind. These figures, on the shield divinely wrought, By Vulcan labour’d, and by Venus brought, With joy and wonder fill the hero’s thought. Unknown the names, he yet admires the grace, And bears aloft the fame a…
Sura 23 (The Believers) outlines who the ‘happy believers’ are—humility in prayer, charity, restraint of desire within lawful bounds, and faithfulness to trusts and covenants—then describes human creation stages, resurrection, rain and cultivation signs, and introduces Noah’s preaching to serve God alone.
And we send down water from the Heaven in its due degree, and we cause it to settle on the earth;–and we have power for its withdrawal:– And by it we cause gardens of palm trees, and vineyards to spring forth for you, in which ye have plenteous fruits, and whereof ye eat; And the tree that groweth up on Mount Sinai; which yieldeth oil and a juice for those who eat. And there is a lesson for you in the cattle: We g…
Equiano recounts enslaved people’s beliefs about magic that moves ships, the arrival of another vessel and handshakes between crews, then describes overcrowded conditions causing suffocation, disease, death, chains, and filth.
'and why,' said I, 'do we not see them?' they answered, because they were left behind. I asked how the vessel could go? they told me they could not tell; but that there were cloths put upon the masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then the vessel went on; and the white men had some spell or magic they put in the water when they liked in order to stop the vessel. I was exceedingly amazed at this account, and real…
Equiano explains fearful misunderstandings of Europeans’ talk about eating him, loses a man overboard, interprets fish and calm as magical or divine signs, and then learns the fish would swallow bodies.
He used often to tell him jocularly that he would kill me to eat. Sometimes he would say to me--the black people were not good to eat, and would ask me if we did not eat people in my country. I said, No: then he said he would kill Dick (as he always called him) first, and afterwards me. Though this hearing relieved my mind a little as to myself, I was alarmed for Dick and whenever he was called I used to be very much…
Equiano describes repeated dreams of shipwreck, then when the ship strikes rocks he attempts to save everyone—building a patched boat with pump leather, working the oars while others drink and fail to help.
the surfs, we all said we would remain on the dry part of the vessel, and trust to God till daylight appeared, when we should know better what to do. I then advised to get the boat prepared against morning, and some of us began to set about it; but some abandoned all care of the ship and themselves, and fell to drinking. Our boat had a piece out of her bottom near two feet long, and we had no materials to mend her; …
He records personal attempts to rationally look at supposed celestial and angelic apparitions, and describes how crowds accept visions as real even when he sees only clouds.
So hypochondriac fancies represent Ships, armies, battles in the firmament; Till steady eyes the exhalations solve, And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve. I could fill this account with the strange relations such people gave every day of what they had seen; and every one was so positive of their having seen what they pretended to see, that there was no contradicting them without breach of fri…
In Bishopsgate Churchyard’s narrow passage, a man claims to see a ghost that appears at eleven and frightens people away; Defoe reports he sees nothing yet notes the crowd’s certainty.
the alms-houses are on the left; and a dwarf-wall with a palisado on it on the right hand, and the city wall on the other side more to the right. In this narrow passage stands a man looking through between the palisadoes into the burying-place, and as many people as the narrowness of the passage would admit to stop, without hindering the passage of others, and he was talking mightily eagerly to …
He continues the anecdote of plague-like delirium and fear, describing infected visitors entering homes, families panicking, then surviving after perfumes and fumigation, while Defoe says he cannot recall the outcome for the sick man.
swoon, or in a fit, which, though she recovered a little, yet killed her in a very few days; and I never heard whether she had the plague or no. Another infected person came and knocked at the door of a citizen’s house where they knew him very well; the servant let him in, and being told the master of the house was above, he ran up and came into the room to them as the whole family was at sup…
The narrator explains that infected but unrecognized people—sometimes sweating, fainting, and dying in streets—cannot be distinguished from the healthy, making plague control by vigilance nearly impossible.
nay, their very clothes retained the infection, their hands would infect the things they touched, especially if they were warm and sweaty, and they were generally apt to sweat too. Now it was impossible to know these people, nor did they sometimes, as I have said, know themselves to be infected. These were the people that so often dropped down and fainted in the streets; for oftentimes they would g…
He argues that beliefs about poisoned air lead people to think they can’t avoid contagion, so they go into infected houses, visiting the sick and dying like in Turkey.
and none knows how far to carry that back, or where to stop; for none knows when or where or how they may have received the infection, or from whom. This I take to be the reason which makes so many people talk of the air being corrupted and infected, and that they need not be cautious of whom they converse with, for that the contagion was in the air. I have seen them in strange agitations and surpr…
He describes plague’s hidden timeline: many show no signs until gangrene “tokens” appear and then die within hours, meaning their clothes and breath remained contagious for days beforehand.
in proportion, and neither the person giving the infection or the persons receiving it know anything of it, and perhaps not feel the effects of it for several days after. For example, many persons in the time of this visitation never perceived that they were infected till they found to their unspeakable surprise, the tokens come out upon them; after which they seldom lived six hours; for those spot…
The narrator argues that infected people may be ignorant, even while acting carefully, and he contrasts different plague symptoms (violent fever vs swellings vs silent death) while stressing the stealthy infection of others.
to them at a distance, and all this for fear of giving them the distemper; and without which he knew, as they were kept up, they could not have it. And here I must observe also that the plague, as I suppose all distempers do, operated in a different manner on differing constitutions; some were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came to violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable headaches, pains …
The narrative shifts to the contagion theory that infection can spread from seemingly healthy people, illustrated by panic in Aldgate Church, which made worshipers flee and changed attendance patterns.
namely, that the infection is retained in bodies apparently well, and conveyed from them to those they converse with, while it is known to neither the one nor the other. Great were the confusions at that time upon this very account, and when people began to be convinced that the infection was received in this surprising manner from persons apparently well, they began to be exceeding shy and jealous…
Du Bois continues with New York’s night and Harlem’s dense Black life, then turns to “the Veil” of racial hatred that separates Pale and Colored and Black and White and distorts what people can see and do.
* * * * * New York and twilight, there where the Sixth Avenue "L" rises and leaps above the tenements into the free air at 110th Street. It circles like a bird with heaven and St. John's above and earth and the sweet green and gold of the Park beneath. Beyond lie all the blue mists and mysteries of distance; beneath, the city rushes and crawls. Behind echo all the roar and war and care and maze of the wide city set …
Douglass recounts being led from Tuckahoe to his old master on Wye River, hidden from the full truth by his grandmother, walking twelve miles with her help, and learning that distance and perspective change how things seem.
them, there would, occasionally, come the painful foreboding that I was not long to remain there, and that I must soon be called away to the home of old master. I was A SLAVE—born a slave and though the fact was incomprehensible to me, it conveyed to my mind a sense of my entire dependence on the will of *somebody* I had never seen; and, from some cause or other, I had been made to fear this somebody above all else …
Plutarch shifts into a moral reflection: people should not waste their love of observation on unworthy objects, but should apply intellectual perception to acts of virtue that inspire imitation and betterment.
by expending it on objects unworthy of the attention either of their eyes or their ears, while they disregard such as are excellent in themselves, and would do them good. The mere outward sense, being passive in responding to the impression of the objects that come in its way and strike upon it, perhaps cannot help entertaining and taking notice of everything that addresses it, be it what it will, useful or unuseful…
Plutarch reports Pericles’ careful speech and limited surviving sayings, his views on Aegina and impending war, and then weighs competing claims that his “democratic” rule either corrupted the people through payments or was misunderstood as aristocratic monarchy.
he got that appellation especially from his speaking; they speak of his "thundering and lightning" when he harangued the people, and of his wielding a dreadful thunderbolt in his tongue. A saying also of Thucydides, the son of Melesias, stands on record, spoken by him by way of pleasantry upon Pericles's dexterity. Thucydides was one of the noble and distinguished citizens, and had been his greatest opponent; and, w…
After the assembly rejects him, the actor Satyrus advises Demosthenes to recite Euripides or Sophocles; with improved performance and action, Demosthenes trains in an underground study for months.
through cowardice and meanness of spirit, neither bearing up with courage against popular outcry, nor fitting his body for action, but suffering it to languish through mere sloth and negligence. Another time, when the assembly had refused to hear him, and he was going home with his head muffled up, taking it very heavily, they relate that Satyrus, the actor, followed him, and being his familiar acquaintance, entered…
Demosthenes is said to have fixed stammering with pebbles, strengthened his voice by rehearsing while breathless from running, and used mirrors; anecdotes show his sensitivity to tone and action.
his life and character, and meant to say that one word or nod from a man who was really trusted, would go further than a thousand lengthy periods from others. Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us, that he was informed by Demosthenes himself, now grown old, that the ways he made use of to remedy his natural bodily infirmities and defects were such as these; his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation he overcame and …
Plutarch introduces a lesson about learning from good and bad examples and announces a shift to Demetrius Poliorcetes and Antony the Triumvir, then begins reflecting on art, senses, and judgment.
DEMETRIUS Ingenious men have long observed a resemblance between the arts and the bodily senses. And they were first led to do so, I think, by noticing the way in which, both in the arts and with our senses, we examine opposites. Judgment once obtained, the use to which we put it differs in the two cases. Our senses are not meant to pick out black rather than white, to prefer sweet to bitter, or soft and yielding…
Kant explains his revised proof against psychological idealism by arguing that experience requires something external as a permanent condition of inner temporal determination, and thus connects external and internal sense.
impartial critics, whom I do not here mention with that praise which is their due, but who will find that their suggestions have been attended to in the work itself. [8] The only addition, properly so called—and that only in the method of proof—which I have made in the present edition, consists of a new refutation of psychological *Idealism*, and a strict demonstration—the only one possible, as I believe—of the o…
Kant argues that mathematical propositions are always synthetic, not merely analytic, using examples like 7+5=12 and the geometric idea that a straight line is the shortest.
demurred to, it matters not; I will then limit my assertion to pure mathematics, the very conception of which implies that it consists of knowledge altogether non-empirical and à priori. We might, indeed at first suppose that the proposition 7 + 5 = 12 is a merely analytical proposition, following (according to the principle of contradiction) from the conception of a sum of seven and five. But if we regard it more n…
Kant divides transcendental philosophy into Doctrine of the Elements and Doctrine of the Method, then introduces sensibility and understanding, leading into the Transcendental Aesthetic about pure forms of intuition.
philosophy of the pure and merely speculative reason. For all that is practical, so far as it contains motives, relates to feelings, and these belong to empirical sources of cognition. If we wish to divide this science from the universal point of view of a science in general, it ought to comprehend, first, a Doctrine of the Elements, and, secondly, a Doctrine of the Method of pure reason. Each of these main division…
Kant argues that space and time are not derived from experience but are necessary forms of human intuition, with space grounding external experience and time grounding internal experience.
§ 2. Metaphysical Exposition of this Conception. By means of the external sense (a property of the mind), we represent to ourselves objects as without us, and these all in space. Herein alone are their shape, dimensions, and relations to each other determined or determinable. The internal sense, by means of which the mind contemplates itself or its internal state, gives, indeed, no intuition of the soul as an object…
Kant explains that the imagination’s “figurative synthesis” mediates between categories and sensibility, distinguishing it from purely intellectual synthesis, and clarifies how internal sense is affected by understanding rather than identical with apperception.
(synthesis intellectualis). Both are transcendental, not merely because they themselves precede à priori all experience, but also because they form the basis for the possibility of other cognition à priori. But the figurative synthesis, when it has relation only to the originally synthetical unity of apperception, that is to the transcendental unity cogitated in the categories, must, to be distinguished from the pur…
He argues that geometric and temporal thinking requires drawing images in thought, so time-determinations in internal perception follow the same order as space-experience, making the self a phenomenon.
through consciousness of the determination of the manifold by the transcendental act of the imagination (synthetical influence of the understanding on the internal sense), which I have named figurative synthesis. This we can indeed always perceive in ourselves. We cannot cogitate a geometrical line without drawing it in thought, nor a circle without describing it, nor represent the three dimensions of space without …
Kant distinguishes the “I think” from knowledge of the self as it appears in inner intuition, claiming we cannot know ourselves as we are in ourselves because self-determination is given only through time.
§ 21 On the other hand, in the transcendental synthesis of the manifold content of representations, consequently in the synthetical unity of apperception, I am conscious of myself, not as I appear to myself, nor as I am in myself, but only that “I am.” This representation is a thought, not an intuition. Now, as in order to cognize ourselves, in addition to the act of thinking, which subjects the manifold of every po…
Kant states the first analogy—substance’s permanence—arguing that in all changes substance remains constant in quantity, since time is the form of internal intuition and permanence underlies determinations of succession and simultaneity.
Principle of the Permanence of Substance. In all changes of phenomena, substance is permanent, and the quantum thereof in nature is neither increased nor diminished. PROOF. All phenomena exist in time, wherein alone as substratum, that is, as the permanent form of the internal intuition, coexistence and succession can be represented. Consequently time, in which all changes of phenomena must be cogitated, remains a…
Kant explains accidents as determinations of substance and argues that change is only alternation of determinations in a permanent subject, since origin and extinction of substance would break the unity of time.
[31] Persius, Satirae, iii.83-84. The determinations of a substance, which are only particular modes of its existence, are called accidents. They are always real, because they concern the existence of substance (negations are only determinations, which express the non-existence of something in the substance). Now, if to this real in the substance we ascribe a particular existence (for example, to motion as an accide…
Kant distinguishes successive apprehension from the question of order in the phenomenon itself, arguing that empirical truth requires a necessary rule that makes the object’s connection in time determinate.
of causality, that experience itself, that is, empirical cognition of phenomena, becomes possible; and consequently, that phenomena themselves, as objects of experience, are possible only by virtue of this law. Our apprehension of the manifold of phenomena is always successive. The representations of parts succeed one another. Whether they succeed one another in the object also, is a second point for reflection, whi…
Kant argues that events cannot be perceived as beginnings from void time, so perception of what happens must follow a preceding perception; thus the order in events reflects an objective rule in the phenomenon.
other apprehension, and which renders necessary a mode of connection of the manifold. That in the phenomenon which contains the condition of this necessary rule of apprehension, is the object. Let us now proceed to our task. That something happens, that is to say, that something or some state exists which before was not, cannot be empirically perceived, unless a phenomenon precedes, which does not contain in itself …
Kant claims that because sensibility requires the preceding to determine the succeeding, past phenomena must determine future ones in experience, yielding the principle that an event always follows from conditions in what precedes.
of the existing event which is given—a correlate which itself relates to the event as its consequence, conditions it, and connects it necessarily with itself in the series of time. If then it be admitted as a necessary law of sensibility, and consequently a formal condition of all perception, that the preceding necessarily determines the succeeding time (inasmuch as I cannot arrive at the succeeding except through t…
Kant resolves an apparent problem by saying cause and effect may be simultaneous; we must track the order of time relations even if the time gap vanishes, and he links causality to action, force, and substance.
principle of the relation of causality in the succession of phenomena is therefore valid for all objects of experience, because it is itself the ground of the possibility of experience. Here, however, a difficulty arises, which must be resolved. The principle of the connection of causality among phenomena is limited in our formula to the succession thereof, although in practice we find that the principle applies als…
Kant argues that all change obeys continuity: no smallest degree of reality or time exists, so a new state arises through continuous causal activity (momentum), grounded in how time is internally synthesized.
which, in so far as it is uniform, we call a momentum. The change does not consist of these momenta, but is generated or produced by them as their effect. Such is the law of the continuity of all change, the ground of which is that neither time itself nor any phenomenon in time consists of parts which are the smallest possible, but that, notwithstanding, the state of a thing passes in the process of a change through…
In the Third Analogy, Kant states the principle of coexistence: substances existing together in space must stand in complete reciprocal action, since coexistence cannot be derived from mere temporal order of perceptions.
PROOF. Things are coexistent, when in empirical intuition the perception of the one can follow upon the perception of the other, and vice versa—which cannot occur in the succession of phenomena, as we have shown in the explanation of the second principle. Thus I can perceive the moon and then the earth, or conversely, first the earth and then the moon; and for the reason that my perceptions of these objects can reci…
To justify empirical coexistence, Kant claims each substance must contain causality for determinations in other substances, so that reciprocal influence fixes their temporal positions; isolated substances would not yield objective simultaneity.
determine their existence by means of a following perception, but would be quite unable to distinguish whether the one phenomenon follows objectively upon the first, or is coexistent with it. Besides the mere fact of existence, then, there must be something by means of which A determines the position of B in time and, conversely, B the position of A; because only under this condition can substances be empirically re…
Kant clarifies that subjective apperception requires an objective basis for coexistence: perceptions of one substance must make perception of another possible via reciprocal influence, enabling a real composite from dynamical relations of inherence, consequence, and composition.
[33] German The following remarks may be useful in the way of explanation. In the mind, all phenomena, as contents of a possible experience, must exist in community (communio) of apperception or consciousness, and in so far as it is requisite that objects be represented as coexistent and connected, in so far must they reciprocally determine the position in time of each other and thereby constitute a whole. If this s…
Kant introduces a refutation of idealism by distinguishing Descartes’ problematical idealism from Berkeley’s dogmatical idealism, claiming both mis-handle how external space and objects relate to experience.
be cognized, but still that the object have some connection with a real perception, in accordance with the analogies of experience, which exhibit all kinds of real connection in experience. From the mere conception of a thing it is impossible to conclude its existence. For, let the conception be ever so complete, and containing a statement of all the determinations of the thing, the existence of it has nothing to do…
In the remark, Kant says idealism wrongly assumes internal experience is the only immediate basis, but external experience must be immediate for internal determination of time, since imagining an external sense already presupposes it.
PROOF I am conscious of my own existence as determined in time. All determination in regard to time presupposes the existence of something permanent in perception. But this permanent something cannot be something in me, for the very reason that my existence in time is itself determined by this permanent something. It follows that the perception of this permanent existence is possible only through a thing without me …