TWO THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 53 



substantial elements or forms by which it is sustained, 

 but on the contrary left their recognition to what he 

 rather vaguely described as common sense. 



Much more influential was the elaborate answer of 

 Kant, which has profoundly affected the course of 

 Metaphysics since its publication. Reverting in 

 principle to the platonic method, Kant again sought 

 the enduring elements, the fundamentals of Science, 

 in the constitution of the cognitive faculty itself. 

 But very differently from Plato he discovered these 

 in the categories or essential forms of intellective 

 action, the category of causality and dependence 

 and the so-called forms of the transcendental 

 sesthetic Time and Space. Under these categories 

 the indefinite data of sensation were thought to be 

 organised into a cognisable system. 



A rapid advance of speculation along the lines 

 signalised by Kant took place after his work was 

 published, and for many years this movement was 

 regarded by a large part of the speculative world 

 as the most hopeful and progressive of philosophic 

 efforts, and by its own votaries as placing them in a 

 position of superiority to all other schools of thought. 

 The thoroughness of their studies and introspective 

 methods to some extent justified, or at least excused 

 the arrogance of their pretensions. 



