302 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



" postulate " being reserved for certain suppositions with 

 regard to contingent constellation in Givenness, as will be 

 shown by analysis later on. 



Categories may also be said to create scientific themes, 

 whether these themes may be solved easily or with difficulty 

 or never. The theory of matter is a good instance of a 

 categorical theme that is, so to speak, half-solved. It will 

 be important for our future discussion to keep well in mind 

 that the existence of categorical themes and their solution 

 are two absolutely different things. But the very nature of 

 the categories implies the confidence that this solution is 

 not impossible. 



The Problem of the System of Categories 



Now the further question arises : Is there any relation 

 discoverable among the single constituents of the categorical 

 system ? In other words : is this system a real " system," 

 is it one whole ? Kant himself did not make any attempt 

 to show that only these kinds of categories can exist and 

 no others. His " deduction " only proves the general fact 

 of their being founded upon the various forms of judgment 

 and their being pre-requisites of ordinary experience. Hegel's 

 system of the categories, on the other hand, founded upon 

 his dialectical method, does not guarantee completeness and 

 does not clearly separate primordial and derived categorical 

 concepts. 1 But, no doubt, it will be the chief task of the 

 philosophy of the future to establish a rational system of 

 the categories in the place of the mere aggregative system- 

 atics of the present day. 



1 The same is true of the categorical systems of Hartmann and Cohen, 

 and of many others of minor importance. 



