PHILOSOPHY. 
164 
telligibilis, which appeared in the year 1770; but he did 
not complete his fyftem to his entire fatisfaftion till 
feventeen years after this time, when the fecond edition 
of his ‘ Critic’ was publiflied with a new and comprehen- 
five Preface, and other improvements in the text; fo that it 
is to the fecond edition of this work that we mud refer 
for his full meaning: all the fubfequent editions are 
merely repetitions, without the flighted alteration. Ano¬ 
ther remarkable coincidence is obfervable in thefe two 
celebrated characters. In the year 1704, our ingenious 
and excellent countryman paid the debt of nature, and 
exactly one century after that period the renowned philo- 
fopher of Koniglberg departed this life, that is, in 1804. 
The former, confldering the times in which he difplayed 
his intellectual talent, has not only maintained a won¬ 
derful reputation, but has materially aflifted in bringing 
about the New Syjlem, by leading the mind of man to re- 
fled: on its own powers : the latter, by availing himfelf of 
the labours of his predeceflors, has actually difcovered the 
New and True System. 
When the world teems with men of the deeped refearch, 
of the mod patient invefligation, and of indefatigable per- 
feverance in matters of fpeculation, why the talk of tranf- 
lating the “ Critic" ftiould have devolved upon an ob- 
l'cure individual like myfClf I am at a lofs to account. 
If, however, the performance be executed with the fide¬ 
lity it merits, it will afford me a lading fatisfadion to in¬ 
troduce to my countrymen a treafure of indifpenfable 
knowledge which the lated pofterity can never exhauft; 
fori am convinced that the more this Sydem is brought 
into pradical life, the more enlightened, and the more 
truly moral, will be that people who ftridly ad in con¬ 
formity to its divine dictates. 
THOMAS WIRGMAN. 
Timberham Lodge, 
near Reigate, Surrey, 
October 6, 1823. 
GENERAL CONTENTS. 
Reason, the pre-eminent diftindion of Man, progref- 
fively developed in individuals as well as in nations ca¬ 
pable of infinite perfedibility ;—at fird limited to fenfible 
objeds, the formation of fociety contributes to its advance¬ 
ment;—invention of ufeful and pleading arts. Men of 
fuperior minds, reflecting upon the nature and origin of 
all things, on the proper condud of man, as the bed con- 
ditution of civil fociety ; delivered their precepts either in 
verfe or in fliort moral fentences. Thefe men obtained 
the name of Philofophers. At length, and by flow de¬ 
grees, the idea of a Sydem of the ultimate grounds and 
ends of things arofe. 
PART I. Of the Conception of Philosophy; its 
Nature, Origin, and En 1 . 
Seftion I. What is meant by Philofophizing? 
We underdand by it the enquiry refpeCting the imper¬ 
ceptible and merely-conceivable grounds of the percepti¬ 
ble faCts within and without us; or the effort of reafon to 
comprehend the perceptible by means of the merely con¬ 
ceivable. The principal kinds of objeds upon which we 
can philofophize. Difference of the regreffive or analy¬ 
tical from the progre(jive or fynthetical method. 
II. What is PhiloJ'ophy; its fource and end ? 
Philofophy is a fyftem of conceptions and propofitions 
referring to the merely-conceivable grounds of external 
and internal fa ; ds. What is a Sydem ?—Archetype of 
Philofophy.—The ultimate fource of Philofophy is Rea¬ 
fon; and its highed objeCf, Man. —The general end of 
Philofophy is the comprehenfion of the given. —Even a 
falle fyftem, provided it be the production of ferious 
refleClion and not of fancy, deferves the name of Philo¬ 
fophy. 
III. Philofophy is a Rational Science, or more properly an 
aggregate of feveral rational J’ciences. 
The Conception of a Science.—Difference between Sci¬ 
ences of Experience and thofe of Reafon.—Difference be¬ 
tween Philofophy and the Mathematics. 
IV. Dogmatifm, Scepticifm, and Criticifn. Truth of the 
latter of thefe three chief Syftems. 
Dogmatifm pretends to'know the things as they are in 
themlelves, and according to their internal nature.— 
Scepticifm aflerts that Reafon is unable to know any thing 
of the ultimate grounds of things, and of the exiftence or 
non-exiftence of infenfible objeds.— Empirical, Popular, 
Ecledical, Philofophy.— Critical Philofophy inveftigates 
the knowing faculty according to its original powers and 
capacities, and gives as a refult that we do not know the 
things as they are in themfelves, but merely as phenomena .— 
It proves that Practical Reason is of itfelf legiflative. 
—Nearer view of the courfe of the critical invefligation 
of Reafon. 
V. Of the things in themfelves as the imperceptible 
grounds of perception independently of the knowing 
faculty. 
The reprefentation of objects is not conceivable from 
the mere forms of the reprefenting faculty, unlefs fome- 
thing which exifts in itfelf be aflumed as reprefentable un¬ 
der thofe forms; that is, the things in themfelves. —Fur¬ 
ther explanation of this aflertion, and proofs of it.—Dif¬ 
ference between the Transcendental or Critical 
Philofophy, and the Tranfcendent Idealifn. 
VI. Critical Philofophy makes us acquainted with ends, 
efpecially with the higheft end and dedination of man. 
Pre-eminence of pure pradical philofophy above all 
branches of theoretical. 
VII. Philofophy is the Science of all Sciences. 
Since all the Sciences, properly fo called, reft upon prin¬ 
ciples of Reafon, and fince thefe are found by means of 
Philofophy; it is clear that Philofophy renders all other 
Sciences pofiible. 
PART II. Sketch of a perfect System of all Phi¬ 
losophical Sciences. 
I. General Divifon of Philofophy. Formal and Natural. 
■—Pure and Applied.—Theoretical and Practical. 
II. Theoretical, i. e. Formal, Philofophy. 
Formal Philofophy is identical with Logic.—Pure and 
applied Logic.—It is either univerfal or particular.—The 
former is termed Elementary Logic, the latter the Orga¬ 
non of a certain fcience. 
III. Material Philofophy; i. e. Metaphyfics in its mod ex¬ 
tended meaning. 
Metaphyfics, or the fcience of the imperceptible Meta¬ 
phyfics of Nature, and Metaphyfics of Morals.—The for¬ 
mer comprehends Ontology, or Transcendental 
Philosophy, which treats of things in general, and the 
mod: univerfal conceptibns which refer to them.— Rational 
Pf/chology, which is divided into imanent and tranfcendent. 
—'The former comprehends rational Phyfics, or metaphy¬ 
fics of natural philofophy, and rational psychology.—The 
latter confifts of rational Cofnology and Theology. —Ap¬ 
plied or empirical Phyfics or Natural Philofophy, and em¬ 
pirical Pfychology ; Theoretical Anthropology.—Efthe- 
tics, or the Dodrine of Tafte. 
IV. Pradical Philofophy. 
Pure Pradical Philofophy, or Metaphyfics of Morals.— 
Applied practical or Moral Philofophy, Ethics, Virtue, 
Duties.—Afcetics, or exercifers of Virtue.—Pradical A11- 
2 thropology. 
