Antithetic Of Pure Reason

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC, SECOND DIVISION:
TRANSCENDENTAL DIALECTIC

BOOK II: THE DIALECTICAL INFERENCES OF PURE REASON
Chapter II: THE ANTINOMY OF PURE REASON

Section 2: ANTITHETIC OF PURE REASON (p. 393)

Antitheic: the conflict of the doctrines of dogmatic knowledge in which no one assertion can establish superiority.
- Each side is not only free from contradiction, but finds conditions of its necessity in the very nature of reason.
- They are both pseudo-rational doctrines which try to push the principles of understanding beyond the limits of understanding.
Sceptical Method: method of watching or provoking a conflict of assertions, not for the purpose of deciding in favor of one, but of investigating whether the object of controversy is not perhaps a deceptive appearance.
- Not the same as scepticism.
- Aims at certainty, the point of misunderstanding.
FIRST CONFLICT OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS (p. 396)
- Thesis: The world has a beginning in time and is also limited as regards space.
- Antithesis: The world has no beginning and no limits in space; it is infinite as regards both time and space.
SECOND CONFLICT OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS (p. 402)
- Thesis: Every composite substance in the world is made up of simple parts, and nothing anywhere exists save the simple or what is composed of the simple.
- Antithesis: No composite thing in the world is made up of simple parts, and nowhere exists in the world anything simple.
THIRD CONFLICT OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS (p. 409)
- Thesis: Causality in accordance with the laws of nature is not the only causality from which appearances of the world can one and all be derived. To explain these appearances it is necessary to assume that there is another causality, that of freedom.
- Antithesis: There is no freedom; everything in the world takes place solely in accordance with the laws of nature.
FOURTH CONFLICT OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS (p. 415)
- Thesis: There belongs to the world, either as its part of as its cause, a being that is absolutely necessary.
- Antithesis: An absolutely necessary being nowhere exists in the world, nor does it exist outside the world as its cause.

Section 3: THE INTEREST OF REASON IN THESE CONFLICTS (p. 422)

Assertions of the antithesis are all consistent with empiricism.
Assertions of the thesis are entitled dogmatism.
Common themes of the Thesis:
- A practical interest on the part of man. They support morals and religion.
- Reason has speculative interest on its side, the entire chain of conditions can be derived.
- They are more popular with the common man.
- Human reason is by nature architectonic, but the propositions of the antithesis render the completion of knowledge impossible.

Section 4: THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF A SOLUTION OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL PROBLEMS OF PURE REASON (p. 430)

No question which concerns an object given to pure reason can be insoluable.
- This is unique to transcendental Philosophy.
However, the only questions in transcendental Philosophy to which we have the right to demand a sufficient answer bearing on the constitution of the object are cosmological.
The cosmological ideas presuppose their object and the empirical synthesis required for the object's concept.
- The question is whether the advance of the synthesis should be carried so far as to contain absolute totality.
- The answer must lie in an idea because we have moved beyond possible experience.
If, from our own concepts, we are unable to determine anything certain we cannot blame the object for concealing itself from us, since it comes from our own idea.
The dogmatic answer is uncertain and impossible.
The critical solution, which allows complete certainty, does not consider the question objectively, but in relation to the foundation of the knowledge upon which the question is based.

Back to Chapter II: The Antinomy Of Pure Reason
Forward to Section 5: Sceptical Representation Of The Cosmological Questions In The Four Transcendental Ideas
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