22 ® 
METAPHYSICS. 
TABLE. 
Thesis. 
1. The World has a beginning in Time, and bounds in 
Space; i. e. it is finite. 
Thesis. 
2. Every thing in the World confifts of Simple 
Parts. 
Thesis. 
3. There are Caufes in the World adding Freely. 
.. Thesis. 
4. In the feries of Natural Effects there exifts a Neces¬ 
sary Being. 
Here then is the moil remarkable phenomenon of 
Human Reafon 5 and in no other ufe of Reafon can any 
thing of a fimilar nature be fliown. When we reprefent 
to ourfelves, as is commonly the cafe, the phenomena of 
th.e fenfible world as things in themfelves ; when we take 
the principles of their connexion as univerfally valid of 
the things in themfelves, and not as principles valid of ex¬ 
perience alone, a mode of thinking, no lels frequent, nay, 
unavoidable without our Critic ; this extraordinary 
and unexpected contradiction immediately arifes, which 
can never be fettled, becaufe the Thejis and Antithejis can 
be equally proved by clear and irrefiftible demonftrations, 
for the correCtnefs of w hich I am ready to anfwer. Here 
then we fee Reafon, as it were, divided againlt itfelf; 
which may afford pleafure to the Sceptic, but it fills the 
true Philofopher with the mofl painful reflections. 
It appears then, that we may wander about in Meta- 
phyfics without the leaft fear of being detected in error. 
We have only to take care not to contradict ourfelves, 
which is very eafy in compofing the molt fictitious pofi- 
tions ; for, in putting together mere Ideas, which can 
never be found in experience, we are fure not to be re¬ 
futed by experience. How, for inltance, can experience 
ever inform us whether the world exills from eternity, or 
had a beginning ; whether matter be divifible to infinity, 
or confill of Jimple parts ; fuch conceptions cannot be 
formed even with the greatell poflible experience; and 
therefore the incorreCtnefs of tliefe pofitions, whether af¬ 
firmative or negative, can never be detected by experience. 
The only way in which Reafon can be conceived to 
fall into a contradiction with itfelf, mult be by founding 
an aflertion upon a principle univerfally admitted, and at 
the fame time inferring, from another principle no lefs ac¬ 
credited, a pofition the very reverfe of it. This cafe here 
prefents itfelf in the four Natural Ideas of Reafon, from 
•which arife four aflertions on the one fide, and as many 
counter-afiertions on the other 5 each of which is ftriCtly 
deduced from univerfal principles. This extraordinary 
faCt mull prove to us, without the final left doubt, that 
fome fecret error lies at the foundation in the prefuppofi- 
tions on which thefe contradictions reft, and of which 
Reafon itfelf muft in fome way be guilty. 
i’ therefore wilh the Critical reader to occupy himfelf 
principally with this inconfiftency of Reafon, becaufe 
Nature itfelf has ejlablifived it, in order to make Reafon 
ftartle in its bold prelumptions, and to compel it to J'elfi- 
examination. The proofs which I have given in the Critic 
of Pure Reafon, both of the thejis and .the antithejis, I 
will anfwer for; and they will be found perfectly to 
have ellablifhed this unavoidable antinomy of Reafon. 
If then the reader lhall be induced by this ftrange Phe¬ 
nomenon to go back to the examination of the prejuppoji- 
ticus on which it refts, he will find himfelf compelled to 
inveftigate with me more deeply the firit foundation of all 
knowledge of pure Reafon. 
Two pofitions which contradict each other cannot both 
be falfe, unlefs the conception which lies at the root of 
them is in itfelf contradictory : for inftance, in the two 
pofitions, a Square Circle is round, and a Square Circle is 
not round, both are falfe ; for, with relpeCt to the firft po¬ 
fition, it is falfe to fay that a Circle of this dejcription is 
Round, becaufe it is Square; but it is alio falle to fay 
.that it is not round, that is, that it is fquart, becaufe it is 
Yol. XV. No. 103^, 
Antithesis. 
1. The World, with regard to Time and Space, is in¬ 
finite. , 
Antithesis. 
2. There is nothing Simple, but every thing is Com¬ 
posed. 
Antithesis. 
3. Thefe is no Freedom, but every thing is Nature. 
Antithesis. 
4. In this feries there is nothing Necejj'ary, but every 
thing is Contingent. 
a Circle. For herein exaftly confifts the logical mark of the 
impoffilility,of a Conception ; that, under the prefuppofi- 
tion of this Conception, two contradictory pofitions would 
be falfe at the fame time. Confequently, becaufe no third 
cafe can be thought between them, nothing at all is 
thought by fuch a conception. 
With relpeCt to the two Antinomies which I term ma¬ 
thematical, becaufe they merely add and divide the homo - 
gencal, fuch a contradictory conception actually form* 
their bafis; and therefore, I maintain, that the Thefts and 
Antithejis in both are equally falfe. 
When I fpeak of objeCts in Time and Space, I do not 
fpeak of the things in themfelves, becaule of thefe I know 
nothing; but only of things as phenomena, i. e. as we 
experience them by the faculties exclulively granted to 
Man. But what I think to be in Time and Space ; of this 
I muft not fay, that independent of my fo thinking, and in. 
itfelf, it is in Time and Space; for in that cafe I ihould 
contradict myfelf; becaufe Time and Space, with all that 
they contain, are nothing in themfelves and independent of 
the mind ; for Time and Space are only modes of repre- 
fentation ; and it would be abfurd to fay that a mere mode 
of reprefentation is at the fame time an cxi/ling thing in¬ 
dependent of reprefentation. The objeCts ot the Senles, 
therefore, exifl only in experience; but to attribute to them 
this very exiftence independent of experience, alfo is as 
much as to fay that experience is poflible without ex¬ 
perience. 
In the fame manner with refpeCt to the bounds of the 
univerfe in Time and Space, it is juft as abfurd to fay, 
that it is infinite as to fay that it is finite. For neither of 
thefe pofitions is confident with experience. If I limit 
the world, in my thoughts, by an empty Space furround¬ 
ing it, or by a preceding empty Time ; I can have no ex¬ 
perience either of the infinite empty Space or of the in¬ 
finite elapfedTime. Thefeareonly Ideas 5 and the bounds 
of the world thus attempted to be determined by them, 
can never be the Senfible World, which is nothing but a 
whole of Phenomena, whofe exiftence and connection are 
confined to our Reprefentations, that is, to experience. 
It is perfectly clear therefore, that, as the conception of 
' a fenjible world exciting in itfelf (per-Je) is a contradiction, 
in other words, aJquare circle, the anfwer to the queftjon 
whether fuch a world is limited or not muft be falle, whe¬ 
ther it be given in the affirmative or the negative. 
The fame thing takes place in the fecond Antinomy, 
which regards the divifion of the phenomena. For thefe are 
mere reprefentations, and the parts exift merely in tfte 
reprefentatfbn of them ; they confequently exift in the 
divilion, or in the experience in which they are given $ 
and this divifion goes, therefore, only lb far as experience 
reaches. To fuppofe that a phenomenon, for inftance, 
that of body, contains all its parts in itfelf prior to all ex¬ 
perience, and all thofe parts too which pofjlble experience 
ever can attain, is to give to a mere phenomenon, which can 
only exift in experience, an exiftence of its own alfo prior 
to all experience, which is juft faying that mere repvefen- 
tations exift before they are met with in our reprel’enting 
faculty, which is another Jquare circle; and everythin- 
tion of the unmeaning though feemingly- important quef- 
tion founded upon it, as to bodies confiding of an infinite 
number of parts or of a finite number of Jimple parts, muft 
be equally falfe. 
3 N , Ife 
