METAPHYSICS. 
criteria by which the folution of the Antinomy of Reafon 
is alone poflible will be familiar to him; without which 
I cannot expe6t, even in the moll attentive reader, a per¬ 
fect agreement with me. 
III. Theological Idea. (See Critic, p. 571.) 
The third tranfcendental Idea, which furnifhes matter 
for the moll important ufe of Reafon, but which, when 
treated lpeculatively, is tranfcendent, and therefore dia¬ 
lectic, is the Ideal of Pure Reason. As Reafon does 
not here begin from experience, as in the cafe of the 
pfychological and cofmological Ideas, and is not induced 
by afcending from effect to caiife, to drive after the ab- 
lolute completenefs of their ieries, but breaks off en¬ 
tirely, and proceeds upon the mere conception of that 
which would conllitute the completenefs of a thing in 
general; confequently, upon the Idea of a highly-per- 
left original being, to determine the pollibility and th 
reality of all other things. We may here fee more dif- 
tinftly than in the former cafes the prefuppofition or 
Idea of a being, which, though not confidered as a part 
of the feries of experience, is yet referred to for the pur- 
pofe of experience, and for the fake of the conceiveable- 
nefs of its connexion, order, and unity. In this cafe it 
may eafily be Ihown that the dialeCtical illujion arifes from 
our miltaking the ftibjedive conditions of thought for 
the objective conditions of the things in themjelves, and 
an hypothefis neceffary to the fatisfaftion of reafon for a 
dogma. I need add nothing farther here on the pre- 
fumption of the Tranfcendental Theology, fince what the 
Critic lays on this fubjeft is comprehenfible, evident, 
and decilive. 
General Remarks on the Transcendental Ideas. 
The objects which are given to us by experience are in 
many refpefts inconceivable to us ; and many queltions 
to which the laws of nature lead, when carried to a cer¬ 
tain height, cannot at all be folved; for inltance, why 
there is attrablion in matter. When, however, we quit 
Nature entirely, and occupy ourfelves with mere Ideas, 
we can no longer fay that our objeft is inconceivable to 
us, and that the nature of things lays infolvable pro¬ 
blems before us; for in this cafe we have nothing at all 
to do with nature, or indeed with given objects, but with 
fuch only as have their origin folely in our reafon, with 
mere intelledlual beings; all queltions concerning which 
can certainly be anfwered, becaufe reafon mull undoubt¬ 
edly be able to give a complete account of its own pro¬ 
cedure. 
Plattner, in his “ Aphorifms,” fays, therefore, with 
acutenefs, “ If Human Reafon be a criterion, no concep¬ 
tion can be incomprehenlible to it; it is in the real only 
that incomprehenlibility is to be met with, the inconceiv- 
ablenefs of which arifes from the infufficiency of the ac¬ 
quired Ideas.” It merely founds paradoxical, but is 
really not fo, to fay that in nature many things are in¬ 
comprehenlible; for inltance, the power of generation ; but 
that, when we afeend higher, and proceed beyond nature, 
we find every thing comprehenfible; for then we leave 
entirely the objects which are given to us, and occupy 
ourfelves merely with Ideas. 
Since the Phyliological, Cofmological, and Theological, 
Ideas, are all pure conceptions of Reafon, which never 
can be given in experience; the queltions w’hich reafon 
alks with refpedl to them are not furnilhed by the ob- 
jjedts, but merely by the maxims of Reafon, purely for its 
own fatisfadlion; and mull each of them be fufceptible 
of a fufficient anfwer, which confills indeed in Ihowing 
, that thefe Ideas are principles for bringing the ufe of the 
underftanding to an agreement with itfef, to completenefs, 
and to fynthetical unity; and that they are only in this 
fefpeCt valid of experience, though indeed uniformly. For, 
though; the abfolute whole of experience is impolfible, 
yet the Idea of a whole of Knowledge according to prin¬ 
ciples is that alone which can procure to it a fyllematicai 
231 
unity, without which it would be merely fragmentary, 
and unfit for our highell end, w’hich is indeed the fyltem 
of all ends ; not only of the practical but alfo of the fpe- 
culative ufe of Reafon. 
The tranfcendental Ideas, therefore, exprefs the pecu¬ 
liar character of Reafon as the principle of the fyftematic 
unity of the ufe of underftanding. But, if we confider 
this unity in the form of Knowledge as inherent in ob¬ 
jects, fuppofing it to be confiitutive when it is merely 
regulative, and thus perfuade ourfelves that by means of 
thefe Ideas we can extend our knowledge beyond all 
poflible experience ; this is a mere mifconception of the 
true aim of Reafon and of its principles, and is a dialectic 
which not only confounds Reafon when it is applied to 
experience, but brings it into contradiction with itfelf. 
Of the Bounds of pure Reafon. 
After the clear demonftrations given above, it would 
be abfurd to expeft to know more of any object than can 
enter into our experience of it, or to lay claim to the 
leaft knowledge of any thing that is not an objefl of pof- 
fible experience, or to hope to afeertain its nature as it is 
in itfelf. O11 the other hand, it would be a Hill greater 
abfurdity not to admit the things in themjelves, but to fet 
up our experience as the only poflible mode of know- 
-ledge, our intuitive faculty as the only one, and our dif- 
curlive underftanding as the original model of every 
poflible underftanding; thus implying that the phenomena 
are the things in themfelves, and that no nuumena are 
requifite. 
Scepticifm, and the lawlefs dialectics which originally 
fprang from an erroneous Metaphyiics, maintained, in 
fupport of the ufe of Reafon in experience, that every 
thing beyond this is deceitful and ufelefs : but, when it 
was afterwards perceived that the very fame principles 
a priori, which are made ufe of in experience, lead Rea¬ 
fon imperceptibly, and apparently with the fame right, 
to a region far beyond experience, then doubts began to 
be entertained even of the principles of experience itfelf. 
However, there is no danger to be apprehended from 
this; for Common Sente will always affert its rights. 
Here, however, a remarkable confufion occurs in the 
fcience of Scepticifm; fince it cannot determine how far, 
and why only fo far, and no farther, Reafon is to be 
trailed. This cdfifufion points out the neceflity of a for¬ 
mal determination of the bounds of Reafon, derived from 
principles by which all relapfe into confufion in future 
can alone be prevented. 
It is true we are not able to define what the things are 
in themjelves, independent of all poflible experience; but 
Hill we cannot abftain entirely from the enquiry con¬ 
cerning them; for experience never completely l'atisfies 
our reafon, but, in anfwering its enquiries, refers farther 
and farther back, without end, as is fuificiently feen in 
the Dialectic of pure Reafon, which on that very account 
has its good fubjedtive ground. How is it poftible, -when 
the nature of our Soul leads us to a clear confcioufnefs 
of it, as well as to the convidlion that its phenomena 
cannot be explained by the laws of matter, that we fiiould 
fail to enquire w'hat the Soul really is.; and, when we find 
that no conception of experience can inform us of it, 
how can we avoid adopting the conception of Reafon, 
(namely, that of a.finiple immaterial being,) though we are 
not able to prove its objective reality ? In all cofmolo¬ 
gical queltions we treat of mere knowledge of experience; 
yet w r ho can fatisfy himfelf concerning the duration and 
extent of the World, the liberty or neceftity of Nature ? 
fince every anfwer always begets a new queftion which 
muft equally be anfw’ered ; thus clearly evincing that all 
phyfical explanations are infufficient for the fatisfaftion of 
Reafon. Laftly, who does not perceive, in the thorough 
contingency and dependence of every thing in experience, 
the impoftibility of our relting there ? Who is there that 
does not feel, in fpite of the warning not to lole himfelt 
in tranfcc 7 ident Ideas, that he is ltiil compelled to feek, 
beyond 
