THE WONDERS OP LIFE 



ANTITHESIS OF THE TWO WAYS OF ATTAINING 



THE TR\JTU~Continued 



6. The innumerable cells which 



make up the phronema — 

 the phronetal cells — are 

 the elementary organs of 

 the cognitive process: the 

 possibility of knowledge 

 depends on their normal 

 physical texture and chem- 

 ical composition. 



7. The phj^sical process of 



knowledge consists in the 

 combination or associa- 

 tion of presentations, the 

 first sources of which are 

 the impressions transmit- 

 ted to the sense-centres. 



8. Hence all knowledge orig- 



inally comes from ex- 

 perience, by means of the 

 organs of sense; partly 

 directly (direct experi- 

 ence, observation, and ex- 

 periment of the present), 

 partly indirectly (histor- 

 ical and indirectly trans- 

 mitted past experiences). 

 All knowledge (even math- 

 ematical) is of empirical 

 origin and a posteriori. 



The innumerable phronetal 

 cells, as the microscopic 

 elementary parts of the 

 phronema, are, it is true, 

 indispensable instruments 

 of the cognitive process, 

 but not its real factors — 

 merely finer parts of its 

 instrument. 



The metaphysical process of 

 knowledge consists in the 

 combination or association 

 of presentations, which are 

 only partly traceable to 

 sense-impressions, and are 

 partly supersensual, tran- 

 scendental processes. 



Hence knowledge is of two 

 kinds: empirical and a 

 posteriori knowledge, ob- 

 tained by experience, and 

 transcendental a priori 

 knowledge, independent of 

 experience. Mathematics 

 especially belongs to the 

 latter class, its axioms 

 differing from empirical 

 truths by their absolute 

 certainty. 



