THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



will. If we find this threefold superstition still widely 

 prevalent, and even retained by academic philosophers 

 as an unshakable consequence of "critical philosophy," 

 we must trace this remarkable fact chiefly to the great 

 prestige of Immanuel Kant. His so - called critical 

 system — really a hybrid product of the crossing of pure 

 reason with practical superstition — has enjoyed a greater 

 popularity than any other philosophy, and we must stop 

 to consider it for a moment. 



I have described in chapters xiv. and xx. of the Riddle 

 the profound opposition between my monistic system 

 and Kant's dualistic philosophy. In the appendix to 

 the popular edition, especially, I have pointed out the 

 glaring contradictions of his system, which other philos- 

 ophers have often detected and criticised. Whenever 

 there is question of his teaching one must ask: "Which 

 Kant do you mean ? Kant I . , the founder of the raonistic 

 cosmogony, the critical formulator of pure reason; or 

 Kant II., the author of the dualistic criticism of judg- 

 ment, the dogmatic discoverer of practical reason ?" These 

 contradictions are partly due to the psychological meta- 

 morphoses which Kant underwent (Riddle, chapter vi.), 

 partly to the perennial conflict between his scientific 

 bias towards a mechanical explanation of this world and 

 his religious craving (an outcome of heredity and educa- 

 tion) and mystic belief in a life beyond. This culminates 

 in the distinction between the world of sense and the 

 world of spirit. The sense world {mnndtis sensibilis) 

 lies open to our senses and our intellect, and is em- 

 pirically knowable within certain limits. But behind it 

 there is the spiritual world (mundiis intelligihilis) of 

 which we know, and can know, nothing; its existence (as 

 the thing in itself) is, however, assured by our emotional 

 needs. In this transcendental world dwells the power 

 of mysticism. 



It is said to be the chief merit of Kant's system that 



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