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Third section of Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals.
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This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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the public domain. For more information or a volunteer, please
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visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Drew Moore. Fundamental Principles
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of the Metaphysic of Morals by a Manual Kant, translated
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by Thomas kingsmill Abbot. Third section. Third section transition from
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the Metaphysic of morals to the critique of pure practical reason.
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The concept of freedom is the key that explains the
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autonomy of the will. The will is a kind of
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causality belonging to living beings in so far as they
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are rational, and freedom would be this property of such
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causality that it can be efficient independently of foreign causes
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determining it, just as physical necessity is the property that
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the causality of all irrational beings has of being determined
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to activity by the influence of foreign causes. The preceding
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definition of freedom is negative and therefore unfruitful for the
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discovery of its essence, but it leads to a positive conception,
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which is so much the more full and fruitful, since
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the conception of causality involves that of laws according to
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which by something we call cause something else, namely, the
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effect must be produced. Hence, although freedom is not a
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property of the will depending on physical laws, yet it
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is not for that reason lawless. On the contrary, it
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must be a causality acting according to immutable laws, but
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of a peculiar kind. Otherwise a free will would be
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an absurdity. Physical necessity is a heteronomy of the efficient causes.
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For every effect is possible only according to this law,
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that something else determines the efficient cause to exert its causality.
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What else, then, can freedom of the will be but autonomy,
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That is, the property of the will to be a
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law to itself. But the proposition the will is in
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every action a law to itself, only expresses the principle
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to act on no other maxim than that which can
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also have as an object itself as a universal law. Now,
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this is precisely the formula of the categorical imperative, and
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is the principle of morality, so that a free will
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and a will subject to moral laws are one and
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the same. On this hypothesis, then of the freedom of
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the will morality together with its principle, follows from it
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by mere analysis of the conception. However, the latter is
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a synthetic proposition viz. An absolutely good will is that
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whose maxim can always include itself regarded as a universal law.
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For this property of its maxim can never be discovered
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by analyzing the conception of an absolutely good will. Now,
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such synthetic propositions are only possible in this way that
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the two cognitions are connected together by their union with
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a third in which they are both to be found.
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The positive concept of freedom furnishes this third cognition, which cannot,
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as with physical causes, be the nature of the sensible
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world in the concept of which we find conjoined the
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concept of something in relation as caused to something else
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as effect. We cannot now at once show what this
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third is, to which freedom points, and of which we
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have an idea a priori, Nor can we make intelligible
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how the concept of freedom is shown to be legitimate
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from principles of pure practical reason, and with it the
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possibility of a categorical imperative. But some further preparation is required.
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Freedom must be presupposed as a property of the will
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of all rational beings. It is not enough to predicate
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freedom of our own will from whatever reason, if we
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have not sufficient grounds for predicating the same of all
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rational beings. For as morality serves as a law for
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us only because we are rational beings, it must also
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hold for all rational beings. And as it must be
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deduced simply from the property of freedom, it must be
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shown that freedom also is a
Load full transcript
property of all rational beings.
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It is not enough, then, to prove it from certain
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supposed experiences of human nature, which indeed is quite impossible,
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and it can only be shown a priori. But we
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must show that it belongs to the activity of all
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rational beings endowed with a will. Now I say, every
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being that cannot act except under the idea of freedom
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is just for that reason, in a practical point of view,
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really free. That is to say, all laws which are
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inseparably connected with freedom have the same force for him
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as if his will had been shown to be free
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in itself by a proof theoretically conclusive. Now I affirm
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that we must attribute to every rational being which has
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a will, that it has also the idea of freedom,
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and acts entirely under this idea. For in such a being,
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we conceive a reason that is practical, that is, has
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causality in reference to its objects. Now we cannot possibly
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conceive a reason consciously receiving a bias from any other
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quarter with respect to its judgments, For then the subject
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would ascribe the determination of its judgment not to its
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own reason, but to an impulse. It must regard itself
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as the author of its principles, independent of foreign influences. Consequently,
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as practical reason, or as the will of a rational being,
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it must regard itself as free. That is to say,
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the will of such a being cannot be a will
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of its own except under the idea of freedom. This
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idea must, therefore, in a practical point of view, be
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ascribed to every rational being. I adopt this message of
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assuming freedom merely as an idea which rational beings suppose
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in their actions, in order to avoid the necessity of
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proving it in its theoretical aspect. Also the former is
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sufficient for my purpose, For even though the speculative proof
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should not be made out, yet, a being that cannot
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act except with the idea of freedom is bound by
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the same laws that would oblige a being who is
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actually free. Thus we can escape here from the onus
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which presses on the theory of the interest. Attaching to
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the ideas of morality, we have finally reduced the definite
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conception of morality to the idea of freedom. This latter, however,
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we could not prove to be actually a property of
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ourselves or of human nature. Only we saw that it
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must be presupposed if we would conceive a being as
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rational and conscious of its causality in respect of its
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actions i e. As endowed with a will. And so
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we find that, on just the same grounds we must
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ascribe to every being endowed with reason and will this
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attribute of determining itself to action under the idea of
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its freedom. It resulted, also from the presupposition of these ideas,
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that we became aware of a law that the subjective
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principles of action i e. Maxims must always be so
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assumed that they can also whole as objective, that is,
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universal principles, and so serve as universal laws of our
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own dictation. But why then, should I subject myself to
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this principle, and that simply as a rational being, thus
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also subjecting to it all other being endowed with reason?
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I will allow that no interest urges me to this,
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for that would not give a categorical imperative. But I
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must take an interest in it and discern how this
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comes to pass. For this, properly an I ought is
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properly an I would valid for every rational being, provided
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only that reason determine his actions without any hindrance. But
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for beings that are, in addition, affected as we are,
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by springs of a different kind, namely sensibility, and in
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whose case that is not always done, which reason alone
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would do. For these, that necessity is expressed only as
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an ought, and the subjective necessity is different from the objective.
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It seems then as if if the moral law, that is,
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the principle of autonomy of the will, were properly speaking
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only presupposed in the idea of freedom, and as if
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we could not prove its reality and objective necessity independently.
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In that case, we should still have gained something considerable
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by at least determining the true principle more exactly than
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had previously been done. But as regards its validity and
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the practical necessity of subjecting oneself to it, we should
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not have advanced a step. For if we were asked
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why the universal validity of our maxim as a law
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must be the condition restricting our actions, And on what
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we ground the worth which we assign to this manner
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of acting, a worth so great that there cannot be
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any higher interest. And if we were asked further, how
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it happens that it is by this alone a man
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believes he feels his own personal worth in comparison with
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which that of an agreeable or disagreeable condition is to
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be regarded as nothing. To these questions we could give
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no satisfactory answer. We find, indeed, sometimes that we can
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take an interest in a personal quality which does not
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involve any interest of external condition, provided this quality makes
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us capable of participating in the condition in case reason
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were to affect the allotment. That is to say, if
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mere being worthy of happiness can interest of itself even
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without the modive of participating in this happiness. This judgment, however,
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is in fact only the effect of the importance of
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the moral law which we before presupposed, when by the
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idea of freedom we detach ourselves from every empirical interest,
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but that we ought to detach ourselves from these interests,
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i e. To consider ourselves as free in action, and
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yet as subject to certain laws, so as to find
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a worth simply in our own person, which can compensate
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us for the loss of everything that gives worth to
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our condition. This we are not yet able to discern
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in this way, nor do we see how it is
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possible so to act. In other words, whence the moral
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law derives its obligation, it must be freely admitted that
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there is a sort of circle here from which it
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seems impossible to escape. In order of the efficient causes,
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we assume ourselves free, in order that, in the order
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of ends, we may conceive ourselves as subject to moral laws,
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and we afterwards conceive ourselves as subject to these laws,
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because we have attributed to ourselves freedom of will. For
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freedom and self legislation of will are both autonomy, and
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therefore are reciprocal conceptions. And for this very reason one
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must not be used to explain the other or give
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the reason of it, but at most only logical purposes
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to reduce apparently different notions of the same object to
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one single concept, as we reduce different fractions of the
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same value to the lowest terms, One resource remains to us,
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namely to inquire whether we do not occupy different points
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of view when, by means of freedom, we think ourselves
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as causes efficient a priori, and when we form our
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conception of ourselves from our actions as effects which we
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see before our eyes. It is a remark which needs
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no subtle reflection to make, but which we may assume
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that even the commonest understanding can make, although it be
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after its fashion by an obscure discernment of judgment, which
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it calls feeling, that all the ideas that come to
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us involuntarily as those of the senses, do not enable
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us to know objects otherwise than as they affect us,
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so that what they may be in themselves remains und
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to us. And consequently that as regards ideas of this kind,
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even with the closest attention and clearness that the understanding
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can apply to them, we can buy them only attain
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the knowledge of appearances, never to that of things in themselves.
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As soon as this distinction has once been made, perhaps
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merely in consequence of the difference observed between the ideas
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given us from without and in which we are passive,
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and those that we produce simply from ourselves and in
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which we show our own activity, then it follows of itself,
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that we must admit and assume behind the appearance something
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else that is not an appearance, namely the things in themselves,
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although we must admit that as they can never be
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known to us, except as they affect us, we can
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come no nearer to them, nor can we ever know
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what they are in themselves. This must furnish a distinction, however, crude,
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between a world of sense and the world of understanding,
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in which the former may be different according to the
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difference of the sensuous impressions in various observers, while the second,
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which is its basis, always remains the same. Even as
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to himself, a man cannot pretend to know what he
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is in himself from the knowledge he has by internal sensation,
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for as he does not, as it were, create himself,
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and does not come by the conception of himself after oory,
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but empirically, it naturally follows that he can obtain his
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knowledge even of himself, only by the inner sense, and
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consequently only through the appearances of his nature, and by
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the way in which his consciousness is affected. At the
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same time, beyond these characteristics of his own subject, made
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up of mere appearances, he must necessarily suppose something else
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as their basis, namely his ego, whatever its characteristics in
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itself may be. Thus, in respect to mere perception and
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receptivity of sensations, he must reckon himself as belonging to
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the world of sense. But in respect of whatever there
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may be of pure activity in him, that which reaches
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consciousness immediately and not through affecting the senses, he must
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reckon himself as belonging to the intellectual world, of which, however,
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he has no further knowledge. To such a conclusion, the
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reflecting man must come with respect to all the things
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which can be presented to him. It is probably to
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be met with even in persons of the commonest understanding, who,
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as is well known, are very much inclined to see
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pose behind the objects of the senses something else, invisible
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and acting of itself. They spoil it, however, by presently
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sensualizing this invisible again, that is to say, wanting to
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make it an object of intuition, so that they do
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not become a whit. The wiser now man really finds
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in himself a faculty by which he distinguishes himself from
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everything else, even from himself as affected by objects and
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that is reason this being pure spontaneity, and is even
243
00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:27.200
elevated above the understanding. For although the latter is a
244
00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:30.559
spontaneity and does not, like sense, merely contain intuitions that
245
00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:33.519
arise when we are affected by things, and are therefore passive,
246
00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:36.480
yet it cannot produce from its activity any other conceptions
247
00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:38.639
than those which merely serve to bring the intuitions of
248
00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:42.320
sense under rules, and thereby to unite them in one consciousness.
249
00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:44.799
And without this use of the sensibility, it could not
250
00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:48.000
think at all. Whereas, on the contrary, reason shows so
251
00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:50.399
pure a spontaneity in the case of what I call
252
00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:55.279
ideas ideal conceptions, that it thereby far transcends everything that
253
00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:58.320
the sensibility can give it, and exhibits its most important
254
00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.879
function in distinguishing the world of sen sense from that
255
00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.000
of understanding, and thereby prescribing the limits of the understanding itself.
256
00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:08.960
For this reason, a rational being must regard himself qua
257
00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:12.000
intelligence not from the side of his lower faculties, as
258
00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:13.840
belonging not to the world of sense, but to that
259
00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:16.360
of understanding. Hence he has two points of view from
260
00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:19.080
which he can regard himself and recognize laws of the
261
00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:23.000
exercise of his faculties, and consequently of all his actions. First,
262
00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:25.000
so far as he belongs to the world of sense,
263
00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:28.960
he finds himself subject to the laws of nature heteronomy. Secondly,
264
00:13:29.159 --> 00:13:32.679
as
belonging to the intelligible world, under laws which, being
265
00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:35.519
independent of nature, have their foundation not in experience but
266
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:39.399
in reason alone. As a rational being, and consequently belonging
267
00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:42.360
to the intelligible world, man can never conceive the causality
268
00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.799
of his own will otherwise than on condition of the
269
00:13:44.840 --> 00:13:48.120
idea of freedom. For independence of the determinate causes of
270
00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:51.480
the sensible world, an independence which reason must always ascribe
271
00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:55.360
to itself is freedom. Now the idea of freedom is
272
00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:58.879
inseparably connected with the conception of autonomy, and this again
273
00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:02.559
with the universal prince morality, which is ideally the foundation
274
00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:05.080
of all actions of rational beings, just as the law
275
00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:09.480
of nature is of all phenomena. Now the suspicion is
276
00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:11.919
removed which we raised above, that there was a latent
277
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.759
circle involved in our reasoning from freedom to autonomy and
278
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:17.600
from this to the moral law viz. That we laid
279
00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:19.919
down the idea of freedom because of the moral law,
280
00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:22.480
only that we might afterwards, in turn infer the latter
281
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.279
from freedom, and that consequently we could assign no reason
282
00:14:25.320 --> 00:14:27.440
at all for this law, but could only present it
283
00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.039
as a petitio principi, which well disposed minds would gladly
284
00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:33.639
concede to us, but which we could never put forward
285
00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:36.720
as a provable proposition. For now, we see that when
286
00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:39.559
we conceive ourselves as free, we transfer ourselves into the
287
00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:42.519
world of understanding as members of it, and recognize the
288
00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:46.360
autonomy of the will with its consequence morality. Whereas if
289
00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:49.519
we conceive ourselves as under obligation, we consider ourselves as
290
00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:51.440
belonging to the world of sense and at the same
291
00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:56.840
time to the world of understanding. How is a categorical
292
00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:01.879
imperative possible? Every rational mone being reckons himself qua intelligence
293
00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.679
as belonging to the world of understanding, and it is
294
00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:07.480
simply as an efficient cause belonging to that world, that
295
00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:10.919
he caused his causality a will. On the other side,
296
00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:12.840
he is also conscious of himself as a
part of
297
00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:15.159
the world of sense, in which his actions, which are
298
00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:19.879
mere appearances phenomena of that causality, are displayed. We cannot, however,
299
00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.080
discern how they are possible from this causality which we
300
00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:24.799
do not know. But instead of that, these actions, as
301
00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:27.600
belonging to the sensible world, must be viewed as determined
302
00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:32.120
by other phenomena, namely desires and inclinations. If therefore, I
303
00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:34.480
were only a member of the world of understanding, then
304
00:15:34.519 --> 00:15:36.960
all my actions would perfectly conform to the principle of
305
00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:40.039
autonomy of the pure will. If I were only a
306
00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:42.320
part of the world of sense, that would necessarily be
307
00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.720
assumed to conform wholly to the natural law of desires
308
00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:47.840
and inclinations, in other words, to the heteronomy of nature.
309
00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.519
The former would rest on morality as the supreme principle,
310
00:15:51.720 --> 00:15:55.000
the latter on happiness. Since, however, the world of understanding
311
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.840
contains the foundation of the world of sense and consequently
312
00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:00.480
of its laws, also and accordingly gives the law to
313
00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.720
my will, which belongs wholly to the world of understanding directly,
314
00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:07.480
and must be conceived as doing so. It follows that
315
00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:10.279
although on the one side, I must regard myself as
316
00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:12.360
a being belonging to the world of sense, yet on
317
00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:14.960
the other side, I must recognize myself as subject as
318
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.679
an intelligence to the law of the world of understanding,
319
00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:20.480
i e. To reason, which contains this law in the
320
00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:23.519
idea of freedom, and therefore as subject to the autonomy
321
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:26.159
of the will. Consequently, I must regard the laws of
322
00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.080
the world of understanding as imperatives for me, and the
323
00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:32.840
actions which conform to them as duties. And thus what
324
00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:36.200
makes categorical imperatives possible is this that the idea of
325
00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:38.559
freedom makes me a member of an intelligible world, in
326
00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.279
consequence of which, if I were nothing else, all my
327
00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:43.559
actions would always conform to the autonomy of the will.
328
00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:46.360
But as I at the same time into it myself
329
00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.360
as a member of the world of sense, they ought
330
00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:51.559
so to conform. And this categorical ought implies a synthetic
331
00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.919
a priori proposition, inasmuch as besides my will, as affected
332
00:16:54.919 --> 00:16:57.720
by sensible desires, there is added further the idea of
333
00:16:57.759 --> 00:16:59.639
the same will, but as belonging to the world of
334
00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:03.320
the understanding, pure and practical of itself, which contains the
335
00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:07.160
supreme condition according to reason of the former will. Precisely
336
00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:09.839
as to the intuitions of sense, there are added concepts
337
00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:12.960
of the understanding, which of themselves signify nothing but regular
338
00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.599
form in general, And in this way synthetic a priori
339
00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:19.599
propositions become possible, on which all knowledge of physical nature rests.
340
00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:24.200
The practical use of common human reason confirms this reasoning.
341
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.160
There is no one, not even the most consummate villain,
342
00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:29.359
provided only that he is otherwise accustomed to the use
343
00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:32.559
of reason, who, when we set before him examples of honesty,
344
00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:36.799
of purpose, of steadfastness in following good maxims of sympathy,
345
00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:40.480
and general benevolence, even combined with great sacrifices of advantages
346
00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:43.480
and comfort, does not wish that he might also possess
347
00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:46.920
these qualities. Only on account of his inclinations and impulses.
348
00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:49.160
He cannot attain this in himself, but at the same
349
00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.640
time he wishes to be free from such inclinations which
350
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:54.640
are burdensome to himself. He proves by this that he
351
00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:57.640
transfers himself in thought, with a will, free from the
352
00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.400
impulses of the sensibility, into an order of things wholly
353
00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:02.519
different from that of his desires in the field of
354
00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:05.759
the sensibility, since he cannot expect to obtain by that
355
00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:09.440
wish any gratification of his desires, nor any position which
356
00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:12.880
would satisfy any of his actual or supposable inclinations, for
357
00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.319
this would destroy the pre eminence of the very idea
358
00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:18.559
which wrests that wish from him. He can only expect
359
00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:22.079
a greater intrinsic worth of his own person. This better person, however,
360
00:18:22.119 --> 00:18:24.640
he imagines himself to be when he transfers himself to
361
00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:26.240
the point of view of a member of the world
362
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:29.680
of the understanding, to which he is involuntarily forced by
363
00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:33.400
the idea of freedom, i e. Of independence on determining
364
00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:36.720
causes of the world of sense. And from this point
365
00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:39.039
of view he is conscious of a good will which,
366
00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:41.759
by his own confession constitutes the law for the bad
367
00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:43.680
will that he possesses as a member of the world
368
00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.920
of sense, a law whose authority he recognizes while transgressing it.
369
00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:50.680
What he morably ought is than what he necessarily would
370
00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:53.200
as a member of the world of the understanding, and
371
00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:56.000
is conceived by him as an ought only inasmuch as
372
00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.319
he likewise considers himself as a member of the world
373
00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:05.160
of sense. Of the extreme limits of all practical philosophy,
374
00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:09.759
all men attribute to themselves freedom of will. Hence come
375
00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:12.680
all judgments upon actions as being such as ought to
376
00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:16.440
have been done, although they have not been done. However,
377
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:19.039
this freedom is not a conception of experience, nor can
378
00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:22.359
it be so, since it still remains even though experience
379
00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:25.400
shows the contrary of what on supposition of freedom are
380
00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:28.880
conceived as its necessary consequences. On the other side, it
381
00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:31.480
is equally necessary that everything that takes place should be
382
00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:35.319
fixedly determined according to the laws of nature. This necessity
383
00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:38.799
of nature is likewise not an empirical conception, just for
384
00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:41.319
this reason that it involves the motion of necessity and
385
00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:45.519
consequently of an a priori cognition. But this conception of
386
00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:48.400
a system of nature is confirmed by experience, and it
387
00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:52.799
must be inevitably presupposed if experience itself is to be possible,
388
00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:55.880
that is, a connected knowledge of the objects of sense
389
00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:59.720
resting on general laws. Therefore, freedom is only an idea
390
00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:03.039
of reas reason, and its objective reality in itself is doubtful,
391
00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:06.759
while nature is a concept of the understanding which proves
392
00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:10.920
and must necessarily prove its reality and examples of experience.
393
00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:16.920
There arises from this a dialectic of reason. Since the
394
00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:19.960
freedom attributed to
the will appears to contradict the necessity
395
00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:23.200
of nature, and placed between these two ways, reason for
396
00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:26.519
speculative purposes finds the road of physical necessity much more
397
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:30.240
beaten and more appropriate than that of freedom. Yet for
398
00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:32.960
practical purposes, the narrow footpath of freedom is the only
399
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:34.720
one on which it is possible to make use of
400
00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:38.079
reason in our conduct. Hence, it is just as impossible
401
00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:40.839
for the subtlest philosophy as for the commonest reason of
402
00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:44.480
men to argue away freedom. Philosophy must then assume that
403
00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:47.559
no real contradiction will be found between freedom and physical
404
00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:50.400
necessity of the same human actions, for it cannot give
405
00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:55.039
up the conception of nature any more than that of freedom. Nevertheless,
406
00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:57.119
even though we should never be able to comprehend how
407
00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:59.680
freedom is possible, we must at least remove this apparent
408
00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:02.839
country prediction in a convincing manner. For if the thought
409
00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:06.200
of freedom contradicts either itself or nature, which is equally necessary,
410
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.799
it must, in competition with physical necessity, be entirely given up.
411
00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:13.119
It would, however, be impossible to escape this contradiction if
412
00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:16.880
the thinking subject, which seems to itself free, conceived itself
413
00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:18.960
in the same sense or in the very same relation
414
00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:21.839
when it calls itself free, as when in respect of
415
00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:24.400
the same action it assumes itself to be subject to
416
00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:28.559
the laws of nature. Hence, it is an indispensable problem
417
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:32.319
of speculative philosophy to show that its illusion respecting the
418
00:21:32.359 --> 00:21:35.200
contradiction rests on this that we think of man in
419
00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:37.599
a different sense in relation when we call him free,
420
00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:39.720
and when we regard him as subject to the laws
421
00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.759
of nature, as being part and parcel of nature. It
422
00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:45.799
must therefore show that not only can both these very
423
00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:48.160
well co exist, but that both must be thought as
424
00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:51.680
necessarily united in the same subject, since otherwise no reason
425
00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:54.519
could be given why we should burden reason with an idea, which,
426
00:21:54.759 --> 00:21:57.799
though it may be possibly without contradiction, be
reconciled with
427
00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:01.960
another that is sufficiently established, yet entangles us in a
428
00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:07.359
perplexity which sorely embarrasses reason in its theoretic employment. This duty, however,
429
00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:10.720
belongs only to speculative philosophy. The philosopher then has no
430
00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:13.200
option whether he will remove the apparent contradiction or leave
431
00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:16.000
it untouched, for in the latter case, the theory respecting
432
00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:19.000
this would be bonam Bacon's into the possession, of which
433
00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:21.279
the fatalist would have a right to enter and chase
434
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:23.920
all morality out of its supposed domain, as occupying it
435
00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:27.319
without title. We cannot, however, as yet, say that we
436
00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:30.279
are touching the bounds of practical philosophy, for the settlement
437
00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:32.839
of that controversy does not belong to it. It only
438
00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:35.680
demands from speculative reason that it should put an end
439
00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:38.920
to the discord in which it entangles itself in theoretical questions,
440
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.680
so that practical reason may have rest and security from
441
00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:44.920
external attacks which might make the ground debatable on which
442
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.880
it desires to build. The claims to freedom of will
443
00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.559
made even by common reason are founded on the consciousness
444
00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:54.720
and the admitted supposition that reason is independent of merely
445
00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:59.440
subjectively determined causes, which together constitute what belongs to sensation only,
446
00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:03.160
and which consequently come under the general designation of sensibility.
447
00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:06.920
Man considering himself in this way as an intelligence, places
448
00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:09.279
himself thereby in a different order of things, and in
449
00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:12.240
a relation to determining grounds of a wholly different kind,
450
00:23:12.759 --> 00:23:14.559
when on the one hand, he thinks of himself as
451
00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:17.960
an intelligence endowed with a will and consequently with causality,
452
00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:20.440
and when on the other he perceives himself as a
453
00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:22.880
phenomenon in the world of sense, as he really is,
454
00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:26.960
also and affirms that his causality is subject to external determination.
455
00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:30.000
According to laws of nature. Now he soon becomes aware
456
00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:32.319
that both can hold good, nay must hold good at
457
00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:34.960
the same time. For there is not the smallest contradiction
458
00:23:35.000 -->
00:23:37.279
in saying that a thing in appearance, belonging to the
459
00:23:37.319 --> 00:23:40.000
world of sense is subject to certain laws of which
460
00:23:40.039 --> 00:23:42.279
the very same as a thing or being in itself
461
00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:44.799
is independent, and that he must conceive and think of
462
00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:48.000
himself in this twofold way, rests as to the first,
463
00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:50.720
on the consciousness of himself and as an object affected
464
00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:52.720
through the senses, and as to the second, on the
465
00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:56.240
consciousness of himself as an intelligence, i e. As Independent
466
00:23:56.279 --> 00:23:58.720
on sensible impressions in the employment of his reason, in
467
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:02.039
other words, as belonging to the world of understanding. Hence
468
00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:04.240
it comes to pass that man claims the possession of
469
00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:06.519
a will which takes no account of anything that comes
470
00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:09.720
under the head of desires and inclinations, and on the contrary,
471
00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:13.039
conceives actions as possible to him, nay even as necessary,
472
00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:15.440
which can only be done by discarding all desires and
473
00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:19.440
sensible inclinations. The causality of such actions lies in him
474
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:22.559
as an intelligence, and in the laws of effects and actions,
475
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:26.279
which depend on the principles of an intelligible world, of
476
00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:28.680
which indeed he knows nothing more than that in it
477
00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:33.039
pure reason alone, independent of sensibility, gives the law. Moreover,
478
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.480
since it is only in that world as an intelligence
479
00:24:35.559 --> 00:24:38.440
that he is his proper self, being as man, only
480
00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:41.559
the appearance of himself, those laws apply to him directly
481
00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.680
and categorically, so that the incitements of inclinations and appetites.
482
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:47.559
In other words, the whole nature of the world of
483
00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:51.599
sense cannot impair the laws of his volition as an intelligence. Nay,
484
00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:53.799
he does not even hold himself responsible for the former,
485
00:24:54.039 --> 00:24:56.720
or ascribe them to his proper self i e. His will.
486
00:24:57.160 --> 00:24:59.640
He only ascribes to his will any indulgence which he
487
00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:02.319
might yield them if he allowed them to influence his
488
00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:05.119
maxims to the prejudice of the rational laws of the will.
489
00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:09.880
When practical reason thinks itself into a world of understanding,
490
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:12.720
it does not thereby transcend its own limits, as it
491
00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:15.400
would if it tried to enter it by intuition or sensation.
492
00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:18.599
The former is only a negative thought in respect of
493
00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:20.880
the world of sense, which does not give any laws
494
00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:24.000
to reason in determining the will, and is positive only
495
00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:26.240
in the single point that this freedom as a negative
496
00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:30.079
characteristic is at the same time conjoined with a positive faculty,
497
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:33.519
and even with a causality of reason, which we designate
498
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:36.400
a will, namely, a faculty of so acting that the
499
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:39.480
principle of the actions shall conform to the essential character
500
00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:42.200
of a rational motive, i e. The condition that the
501
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:46.319
maxim have universal validity as a law. But were it
502
00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:48.559
to borrow an object of will, that is, a motive,
503
00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:51.480
from the world of understanding, then it would overstep its
504
00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:53.960
bounds and pretend to be acquainted with something of which
505
00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:56.480
it knows nothing. The conception of a world of the
506
00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:58.839
understanding is then only a point of view which reason
507
00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:02.200
finds itself compelled to take outside the appearances in order
508
00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:05.480
to conceive itself is practical which would not be possible
509
00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:08.839
if the influences of the sensibility had a determining power
510
00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:12.200
on man, but which is necessary unless he is to
511
00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:14.960
be denied the consciousness of himself as an intelligence and
512
00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:19.079
consequently as a rational cause energizing by reason, that is,
513
00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:23.359
operating freely. This thought certainly involves the idea of an
514
00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:25.599
order and a system of laws different from that of
515
00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:28.759
the mechanism of nature, which belongs to the sensible world,
516
00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:32.240
and it makes the conception of an intelligible world necessary,
517
00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:34.559
that is to say, the whole system of rational beings
518
00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:37.119
as things in themselves. But it does not in the
519
00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:39.680
least authorize us to think of it further than as
520
00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:42.640
to its formal condition, only that is the universality of
521
00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:45.960
the maxims of the will as laws, and consequently the
522
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.720
autonomy of the latter, which alone is consistent with its freedom. Whereas,
523
00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:52.119
on the contrary, all laws that refer to a definite
524
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.559
object give heteronomy, which only belongs to laws of nature
525
00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:59.160
and can only apply to the sensible world. But reason
526
00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:01.440
would overstep all all its bounds if it's undertook to
527
00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:04.240
explain how pure reason can be practical, which would be
528
00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:07.440
exactly the same problem as to explain how freedom is possible,
529
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:10.720
For we can explain nothing but that which we can
530
00:27:10.759 --> 00:27:13.200
reduce to laws, the object of which can be given
531
00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:16.279
in some possible experience. But freedom is a mere idea,
532
00:27:16.599 --> 00:27:19.119
the objective reality of which can in no wise be
533
00:27:19.160 --> 00:27:22.039
shown according to laws of nature, and consequently not in
534
00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:25.000
any possible experience. And for this reason it can never
535
00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:27.960
be comprehended or understood, because we cannot support it by
536
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:31.039
any sort of example or analogy. It holds good only
537
00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:33.720
as a necessary hypothesis of reason in a being that
538
00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:35.799
believes itself conscious of a will, that is, of a
539
00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:39.480
faculty distinct from mere desire, namely, a faculty of determining
540
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:42.000
itself to action as an intelligence, in other words, by
541
00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:46.799
laws of reason, independently on natural instincts. Now, where determination
542
00:27:46.839 --> 00:27:50.680
according to laws of nature ceases, there all explanation ceases also,
543
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:53.920
and nothing remains but defense, i e. The removal of
544
00:27:53.960 --> 00:27:56.200
the objections of those who pretend to have seen deeper
545
00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:00.000
into the nature of things, and thereupon boldly declare freedom impossible.
546
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:03.559
We can only point out to them that the supposed
547
00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:06.319
contradiction that they have discovered in it arises only from
548
00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:08.440
this that, in order to be able to apply the
549
00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:11.519
law of nature to human actions, they must necessarily consider
550
00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:15.079
man as an appearance. Then, when we demand of them
551
00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:17.559
that they should also think of him qua intelligence, as
552
00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:20.319
a thing in itself, they still persist in considering him
553
00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:23.440
in this respect, also as an appearance. In this view,
554
00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:26.039
it would no doubt be a contradiction to suppose the
555
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:28.799
causality of the same subject, that is, his will, to
556
00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:31.880
be withdrawn from all the natural laws of the sensible world.
557
00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:35.559
But this contradiction disappears if they would only bethink themselves
558
00:28:35.559 --> 00:28:38.599
and admit, as is reasonable, that behind the appearances, there
559
00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:41.359
must also lie at their route, although hidden, the things
560
00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:44.000
in themselves, and that we cannot expect the laws of
561
00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:46.720
these to be the same as those that govern their appearances.
562
00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:50.039
The subjective impossibility of explaining the freedom of the will
563
00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:53.240
is identical with the impossibility of discovering and explaining an
564
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:56.839
interest which man can take up in the moral law. Nevertheless,
565
00:28:56.839 --> 00:28:59.119
he does actually take an interest in it, the basis
566
00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:01.720
of which in us we call the moral feeling, which
567
00:29:01.799 --> 00:29:04.680
some have falsely assigned as the standard of our moral judgment,
568
00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:08.160
whereas it must rather be viewed as the subjective effect
569
00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:11.279
that the law exercises on the will, the objective principle
570
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:14.920
of which is furnished by reason alone. Interest is that
571
00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:17.960
by which reason becomes practical i e. A cause determining
572
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:20.880
the will. Hence, we say of rational beings only that
573
00:29:20.920 --> 00:29:23.880
they take an interest in a thing. Irrational beings only
574
00:29:23.880 --> 00:29:27.279
feel sensual appetites. Reason takes a direct interest in action,
575
00:29:27.480 --> 00:29:30.440
and only when the universal validity of its maxims is
576
00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:34.200
alone sufficient to determine the will. Such an interest alone
577
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.680
is pure. But if it can determine the will only
578
00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:39.240
by means of another object of desire, or on the
579
00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:42.920
suggestion of a particular feeling of the subject, then reason
580
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:46.160
takes only an indirect interest in the action. And as reason,
581
00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:49.039
by itself without experience, cannot discover either objects of the
582
00:29:49.079 --> 00:29:52.519
will or a special feeling actuating it, this latter interest
583
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:55.319
would only be empirical, and not a pure rational interest.
584
00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:59.519
The logical interest of reason, namely to extend its insight,
585
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:03.400
is no direct, but presupposes purposes for which reason is employed.
586
00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:06.039
In order indeed, that a rational being who is also
587
00:30:06.039 --> 00:30:09.319
affected through the senses should will what reason alone directs
588
00:30:09.319 --> 00:30:11.839
such beings that they ought to will. It is no
589
00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:14.359
doubt requisite that reason should have a power to infuse
590
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:17.279
a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction in the fulfillment of duty.
591
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:19.319
That is to say, that it should have a causality
592
00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:22.880
by which it determines the sensibility according to its own principles.
593
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:25.720
But it is quite impossible to discern i e. To
594
00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:28.839
make it intelligible a priori. How a mere thought which
595
00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:31.880
itself contains nothing sensible, can itself produce a sensation of
596
00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:35.279
pleasure or pain. For this is a particular kind of causality,
597
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:38.240
of which, as every other causality, we can determine nothing
598
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:41.680
whatever a priori, We must only consult experience about it.
599
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:43.920
But as this cannot supply us with any relation of
600
00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:47.119
cause and effect except between two objects of experience. Whereas
601
00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:50.359
in this case, although indeed the effects produced lies within experience,
602
00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:53.839
yet the cause is supposed to be pure reason acting
603
00:30:53.880 --> 00:30:57.559
through mere ideas, which offer no object to experience. It
604
00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:00.440
follows that for us men, it is quite impossible to
605
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:03.000
explain how and why the universality of the maxim is
606
00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:07.119
a law. That is, morality interests This only is certain
607
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:10.240
that it is not because it interests us that it
608
00:31:10.279 --> 00:31:13.720
has validity for us, for that would be a heteronomy
609
00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:17.039
and dependence of practical reason on sensibility, namely on a
610
00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:19.920
feeling that its principle, in which case it could never
611
00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:23.640
give moral laws, but that it interests us because it
612
00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:26.279
is valid for us as men, inasmuch as it had
613
00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:29.440
its source in our will as intelligences, in other words,
614
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:32.200
in our proper self. And what belongs to mere appearances
615
00:31:32.279 --> 00:31:35.119
is necessarily subordinated by reason to the nature of the
616
00:31:35.160 --> 00:31:39.759
thing in itself. The question, then, how a categorical imperative
617
00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:42.839
is possible, can be answered to this extent that we
618
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:45.680
can assign the only hypothesis on which it is possible,
619
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:48.880
namely the idea of freedom. And we can also discern
620
00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:51.960
the necessity of this hypothesis. And this is sufficient for
621
00:31:52.039 --> 00:31:54.680
the practical exercise of reason, that is, for
the conviction
622
00:31:54.759 --> 00:31:56.880
that the validity of this imperative and hence of the
623
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:00.200
moral law. But how this hypothesis itself is possible can
624
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:03.759
never be discerned by any human reason. On the hypothesis, however,
625
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:06.759
that the will of an intelligence is free, its autonomy
626
00:32:06.759 --> 00:32:09.599
as the essential formal condition of its determination, is a
627
00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:13.079
necessary consequence. Moreover, this freedom of will is not merely
628
00:32:13.160 --> 00:32:16.640
quite possible as a hypothesis not involving any contradiction to
629
00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:18.880
the principle of physical necessity in the connection of the
630
00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:22.799
phenomena of the sensible world, as speculative philosophy can show.
631
00:32:23.319 --> 00:32:26.240
But further, a rational being who is conscious of causality
632
00:32:26.279 --> 00:32:28.880
through reason, that is to say, of a will distinct
633
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:31.839
from desires, must of necessity make it practically, that is,
634
00:32:31.880 --> 00:32:35.319
an idea the condition of all his voluntary actions. But
635
00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:38.160
to explain how pure reason can be of itself practical
636
00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:40.480
without the age of any spring of action that could
637
00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:43.039
be derived from any other source, i e. How the
638
00:32:43.079 --> 00:32:45.880
mere principle of the universal validity of all its maxims
639
00:32:45.880 --> 00:32:48.480
as laws, which would certainly be the form of a
640
00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:52.039
pure practical reason, can of itself supply a spring without
641
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.039
any matter object of the will in which one could
642
00:32:55.119 --> 00:32:58.519
antecedently take any interest, and how it can produce an
643
00:32:58.519 --> 00:33:02.279
interest which would be called purely moral, Or in other words,
644
00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:05.000
how pure reason can be practical. To explain this is
645
00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:07.519
beyond the power of human reason, and all the labor
646
00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:12.319
and pains of seeking an explanation of it are lost.
647
00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:14.400
It is just the same as if I sought to
648
00:33:14.400 --> 00:33:17.039
find out how freedom itself is possible as the causality
649
00:33:17.079 --> 00:33:19.599
of a will. For then I quit the ground of
650
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:22.319
philosophical explanation, and I have no other to go upon.
651
00:33:23.079 --> 00:33:26.000
I might, indeed revel in the world of intelligences, which
652
00:33:26.039 --> 00:33:29.039
still remains to me, But although I have an idea
653
00:33:29.079 --> 00:33:31.240
of it which is well founded, yet I have not
654
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:33.519
the least knowledge of it, Nor can I ever attain
655
00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:36.160
to such knowledge which all the efforts of my natural
656
00:33:36.200 --> 00:33:39.799
faculty of reason. It signifies only as something that remains
657
00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:42.160
over when I have eliminated everything belonging to the world
658
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:45.359
of sense from the actuating principles of my will, serving
659
00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:47.920
merely to keep in bounds the principle of motives taken
660
00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:50.799
from the field of sensibility, fixing its limits and showing
661
00:33:50.839 --> 00:33:53.039
that it does not contain all in all within itself,
662
00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:55.559
but that there is more beyond it. But this something
663
00:33:55.640 --> 00:33:58.440
more I know no further of pure reason which frames
664
00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:01.279
this ideal. There remains, after the obstraction of all matter
665
00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:04.519
i e. Knowledge of objects, nothing but the form, namely
666
00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:07.880
the practical law of the universality of the maxims. And
667
00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:10.559
in conformity with this conception of reason in reference to
668
00:34:10.599 --> 00:34:13.679
a pure world of understanding as a possible efficient cause,
669
00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:17.280
that is, a cause determining the will, there must here
670
00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:20.639
be a total absence of springs, unless this idea of
671
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:23.360
an intelligible world is itself the spring or that in
672
00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:26.480
which reason primarily takes an interest. But to make this
673
00:34:26.559 --> 00:34:29.920
intelligible is precisely the problem that we cannot solve. Here
674
00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:32.599
now is the extreme limit of all moral inquiry, and
675
00:34:32.760 --> 00:34:35.039
it is of great importance to determine it even on
676
00:34:35.079 --> 00:34:37.239
this account, in order that reason may not, on the
677
00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:39.800
one hand, to the prejudice of morals, seek about in
678
00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:42.039
the world of sense for the supreme motive and an
679
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:45.199
interest comprehensible but empirical, but on the other hand, that
680
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:47.719
it may not impotently flap its wings without being able
681
00:34:47.719 --> 00:34:51.440
to move in the for it empty space of transcendent concepts,
682
00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:54.480
which we call the intelligible world, and so lose itself
683
00:34:54.519 --> 00:34:58.000
amidst chimeras. For the rest, the idea of a pure
684
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:01.480
world of understanding, as a system of all intelligences, and
685
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:05.239
to which we ourselves, as rational beings, belong, although we are, likewise,
686
00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:08.480
on the other side, members of the sensible world, this
687
00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:11.360
remains always a useful and legitimate idea for the purposes
688
00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:15.480
of rational belief, although all knowledge stops at its threshold, useful,
689
00:35:15.559 --> 00:35:18.159
namely to produce in us a lively interest in the
690
00:35:18.159 --> 00:35:21.159
moral law, by means of the noble ideal of a
691
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:25.280
universal kingdom of ends, in themselves rational beings to which
692
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:27.960
we can belong as members. Then, only when we carefully
693
00:35:27.960 --> 00:35:30.599
conduct ourselves according to the maxims of freedom, as if
694
00:35:30.599 --> 00:35:39.760
they were laws of nature, concluding remark, the speculative employment
695
00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:42.440
of reason with respect to nature leads to the absolute
696
00:35:42.440 --> 00:35:45.800
necessity of some supreme cause of the world. The practical
697
00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:48.599
employment of reason with a view to freedom leads also
698
00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.480
to absolute necessity, but only of the laws of the
699
00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:54.639
actions of a rational being as such. Now it is
700
00:35:54.679 --> 00:35:57.800
an essential principle of reason, however, employed to push its
701
00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:00.719
knowledge to a consciousness of its necessity, without which it
702
00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:04.039
would not be rational knowledge. It is, however, an equally
703
00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:06.800
essential restriction of the same reason, that it can either
704
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:10.280
discern the necessity of what is or what happens, nor
705
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:12.920
of what ought to happen, unless a condition is supposed
706
00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:15.679
on which it is, or happens or ought to happen.
707
00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:19.400
In this way, however, by the constant inquiry for the condition,
708
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:23.039
the satisfaction of reason is only further and further postponed.
709
00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:27.719
Hence it unceasingly seeks the unconditionally necessary, and finds itself
710
00:36:27.800 --> 00:36:30.559
forced to assume it, although without any means of making
711
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:34.000
it comprehensible to itself happy enough, if only it can
712
00:36:34.039 --> 00:36:37.440
discover a conception which agrees with this assumption. It is
713
00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:40.199
therefore no fault in our deduction of the supreme principle
714
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:42.559
of morality. But an objection that should be made to
715
00:36:42.639 --> 00:36:45.159
human reason in general, that it cannot enable us to
716
00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:49.079
conceive the absolute necessity of an unconditional practical law, such
717
00:36:49.079 --> 00:36:52.480
as the categorical imperative must be. It cannot be blamed
718
00:36:52.519 --> 00:36:55.280
for refusing to explain this necessity by a condition, that
719
00:36:55.400 --> 00:36:57.480
is to say, by means of some interest assumed as
720
00:36:57.480 --> 00:36:59.760
a basis, since the law would then cease to be
721
00:36:59.800 --> 00:37:02.599
as supreme law of reason. And thus, while we do
722
00:37:02.679 --> 00:37:06.119
not comprehend the practical unconditional necessity of the moral imperative,
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we yet comprehend its incomprehensibility. And this is all that
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can be fairly demanded of a philosophy which strives to
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carry its principles up to the very limit of human reason.
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The end end of section three recording by Drew More, Chicago, Illinois.
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End of Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by
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a manual account translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbot