Cosmological Dialectic
In the transcendental æsthetic we proved that everything intuited in
space and time, all objects of a possible experience, are nothing but
phenomena, that is, mere representations; and that these, as presented
to us—as extended bodies, or as series of changes—have no
self-subsistent existence apart from human thought. This doctrine I
call Transcendental Idealism.[59] The realist in the transcendental
sense regards these modifications of our sensibility, these mere
representations, as things subsisting in themselves.
[59] I have elsewhere termed this theory formal idealism, to
distinguish it from material idealism, which doubts or denies the
existence of external things. To avoid ambiguity, it seems advisable
in many cases to employ this term instead of that mentioned in the
text.
It would be unjust to accuse us of holding the long-decried theory of
empirical idealism, which, while admitting the reality of space,
denies, or at least doubts, the existence of bodies extended in it, and
thus leaves us without a sufficient criterion of reality and illusion.
The supporters of this theory find no difficulty in admitting the
reality of the phenomena of the internal sense in time; nay, they go
the length of maintaining that this internal experience is of itself a
sufficient proof of the real existence of its object as a thing in
itself.
Transcendental idealism allows that the objects of external
intuition—as intuited in space, and all changes in time—as represented
by the internal sense, are real. For, as space is the form of that
intuition which we call external, and, without objects in space, no
empirical representation could be given us, we can and ought to regard
extended bodies in it as real. The case is the same with
representations in time. But time and space, with all phenomena
therein, are not in themselves things. They are nothing but
representations and cannot exist out of and apart from the mind. Nay,
the sensuous internal intuition of the mind (as the object of
consciousness), the determination of which is represented by the
succession of different states in time, is not the real, proper self,
as it exists in itself—not the transcendental subject—but only a
phenomenon, which is presented to the sensibility of this, to us,
unknown being. This internal phenomenon cannot be admitted to be a
self-subsisting thing; for its condition is time, and time cannot be
the condition of a thing in itself. But the empirical truth of
phenomena in space and time is guaranteed beyond the possibility of
doubt, and sufficiently distinguished from the illusion of dreams or
fancy—although both have a proper and thorough connection in an
experience according to empirical laws. The objects of experience then
are not things in themselves, but are given only in experience, and
have no existence apart from and independently of experience. That
there may be inhabitants in the moon, although no one has ever observed
them, must certainly be admitted; but this assertion means only, that
we may in the possible progress of experience discover them at some
future time. For that which stands in connection with a perception
according to the laws of the progress of experience is real. They are
therefore really existent, if they stand in empirical connection with
my actual or real consciousness, although they are not in themselves
real, that is, apart from the progress of experience.
There is nothing actually given—we can be conscious of nothing as real,
except a perception and the empirical progression from it to other
possible perceptions. For phenomena, as mere representations, are real
only in perception; and perception is, in fact, nothing but the reality
of an empirical representation, that is, a phenomenon. To call a
phenomenon a real thing prior to perception means either that we must
meet with this phenomenon in the progress of experience, or it means
nothing at all. For I can say only of a thing in itself that it exists
without relation to the senses and experience. But we are speaking here
merely of phenomena in space and time, both of which are determinations
of sensibility, and not of things in themselves. It follows that
phenomena are not things in themselves, but are mere representations,
which if not given in us—in perception—are non-existent.
The faculty of sensuous intuition is properly a receptivity—a capacity
of being affected in a certain manner by representations, the relation
of which to each other is a pure intuition of space and time—the pure
forms of sensibility. These representations, in so far as they are
connected and determinable in this relation (in space and time)
according to laws of the unity of experience, are called objects. The
non-sensuous cause of these representations is completely unknown to us
and hence cannot be intuited as an object. For such an object could not
be represented either in space or in time; and without these conditions
intuition or representation is impossible. We may, at the same time,
term the non-sensuous cause of phenomena the transcendental object—but
merely as a mental correlate to sensibility, considered as a
receptivity. To this transcendental object we may attribute the whole
connection and extent of our possible perceptions, and say that it is
given and exists in itself prior to all experience. But the phenomena,
corresponding to it, are not given as things in themselves, but in
experience alone. For they are mere representations, receiving from
perceptions alone significance and relation to a real object, under the
condition that this or that perception—indicating an object—is in
complete connection with all others in accordance with the rules of the
unity of experience. Thus we can say: “The things that really existed
in past time are given in the transcendental object of experience.” But
these are to me real objects, only in so far as I can represent to my
own mind, that a regressive series of possible perceptions—following
the indications of history, or the footsteps of cause and effect—in
accordance with empirical laws—that, in one word, the course of the
world conducts us to an elapsed series of time as the condition of the
present time. This series in past time is represented as real, not in
itself, but only in connection with a possible experience. Thus, when I
say that certain events occurred in past time, I merely assert the
possibility of prolonging the chain of experience, from the present
perception, upwards to the conditions that determine it according to
time.
If I represent to myself all objects existing in all space and time, I
do not thereby place these in space and time prior to all experience;
on the contrary, such a representation is nothing more than the notion
of a possible experience, in its absolute completeness. In experience
alone are those objects, which are nothing but representations, given.
But, when I say they existed prior to my experience, this means only
that I must begin with the perception present to me and follow the
track indicated until I discover them in some part or region of
experience. The cause of the empirical condition of this
progression—and consequently at what member therein I must stop, and at
what point in the regress I am to find this member—is transcendental,
and hence necessarily incognizable. But with this we have not to do;
our concern is only with the law of progression in experience, in which
objects, that is, phenomena, are given. It is a matter of indifference,
whether I say, “I may in the progress of experience discover stars, at
a hundred times greater distance than the most distant of those now
visible,” or, “Stars at this distance may be met in space, although no
one has, or ever will discover them.” For, if they are given as things
in themselves, without any relation to possible experience, they are
for me non-existent, consequently, are not objects, for they are not
contained in the regressive series of experience. But, if these
phenomena must be employed in the construction or support of the
cosmological idea of an absolute whole, and when we are discussing a
question that oversteps the limits of possible experience, the proper
distinction of the different theories of the reality of sensuous
objects is of great importance, in order to avoid the illusion which
must necessarily arise from the misinterpretation of our empirical
conceptions.