XIV ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 



refuted : (i) growth of knowledge is not a growth of 

 ignorance ; (2) explanations are not required ad infini- 

 turn ; (3) a limit does not imply something beyond it ; 

 this is true of (conceptual) space, but not of know- 

 ledge. §§ 8-10. Spencer's indirect arguments from the 

 difficulties of metaphysics should not daunt an evolu- 

 tionist. § 9. The self-existence of God, how tenable. 

 § 10. The infinite regress of causation and the question' 

 as to the cause of the first cause. But this difficulty is 

 one of all causation, extending also to science, and 

 therefore sceptical. Insuperable, if an absolute first 

 cause is meant, but not if only a cause of our world. 



§§ 11-21. Kantian Agnosticism. The defects of our 

 minds preclude us from the knowledge of things as they 

 really are. §§ 12-17. His positive a^'guments examined, 

 § 12. Kant's refutation of his own distinction of things 

 in themselves and appearances. § 13. His claim to 

 have made an exhaustive analysis of the mind. § 14. 

 His distinction of Form and Matter in knowledge. But 

 we cannot know until we try. § 15. The epistemologi- 

 cal standpoint incompatible with the evolution of the 

 mind and the development of its categories. § 16, 

 Epistemology is futile as well as false, (§ 17) if the 

 '^ immane7it criticism of experience'' does not transcend 

 its limits. The ambiguity of " a priori " .• it should be 

 taken logically only, and not of priority in time. 

 §§ 18-21. Indirect ar-gnments from the metapJiysical 

 difficulties of (§ 19) theology, of (§ 20) the antinomies, 

 of (§ 21) psychology. § 19. Kant's claim that of three 

 possible proofs of the existence of God, two are false 

 and the third is inadequate. But if the third can prove 

 a limited God, is not this all that is needed ? § 20. The 

 antinomies, the infinity of Space and Time. The thesis 

 inadequately stated, being supported by science as well 

 as by metaphysics ; the proof of the antithesis holds 

 good only of our ideas of Space and Time, and identifies 

 Space with what fills it. A third alternative in the case 

 of Time, ignored by Kant. § 21. Kant's attack on the 

 reality of the soul ; its assumptions and contradictions. 

 § 22. The origin of agnosticism, a phenomenon of 

 the growth of knowledge. § 23. The transition into 

 Scepticism owing (i) to the impossibility of refuting 

 metaphysics without upsetting science, and § 24 (2) to 

 the self-criticism of Agnosticism. 



