i OBJECT AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 71 



way of thinking, which has been called " agnosti- ^ 

 cism," from its profession of an incapacity to 

 discover the indispensable conditions of either 

 positive or negative knowledge, in many pro- 

 positions, respecting which, not only the vulgar, 

 but philosophers of the more sanguine sort, revel 

 in the luxury of unqualified assurance. 



The aim of the " Kritik der reinen Vernunft " 

 is essentially the same as that of the " Treatise of 

 Human Nature," by which indeed Kant was led 

 to develop that " critical philosophy " with which 

 his name and fame are indissolubly bound up: 

 and, if the details of Kant's criticism differ from 

 those of Hume, they coincide with them in their 

 main result, which is the limitation of all knowl- 

 edge of reality to the world of phenomena re- 

 vealed to us by experience. 



The philosopher of ^ Konigsberg epitomises the 

 philosopher of Ninewells when he thus sums up 

 the uses of philosophy: 



" The greatest and perhaps the sole use of all philosophy 

 of pure reason is, after all, merely negative, since it serves, 

 not as an organon for the enlargement [of knowledge], but 

 as a discipline for its delimitation : and instead of discover- 

 ing truth, has only the modest merit of preventing error." * 



^ 



* Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Ed. Hartenstein, p. 

 256. 



