PHILOSOPHY. 
172 
sjianity may fuffer no detradlion, but every thing be fub- 
jedled to it and co-operate for its attainment. 
Sedh VII. Philosophy is the Science of Sciences. 
As all Sciences, ftridtly fo called, reft upon rational 
principles, and as no rational principle can be eftablilhed 
but by means of philofophy; it is evident that phjiofophy 
alone can furnifh a fecure bafis for all other i'ciences. 
By explaining, for inftance, the nature of Time and Space 
as the necefi'ary conditions of all external and internal 
perceptions, Philofophy eftablifhes beyond difpute the 
principles upon which the Mathematics reft ; and, by 
developing the purely practical faculty of Reafon, it fixes 
the principles of Morality, and exalts it to a Science. 
Philofophy may therefore juftiy be called the Science of. 
Sciences. 
PART II. 
Sketch of a complete System of all Philosophical 
Sciences. 
The value and importance of Philofophy will be belt 
fhown by a fyftematic (ketch of the Philofophical Sciences, 
formed upon the principle of Criticism. This will 
render it at once evident that Philofophy is the bafis of all 
fcientific improvement of the human mind. For this pur- 
pofe, however, Philofophy muft not be confidered as an 
accidental aggregate of knowledge, but as a (yftem, all 
the parts of which (land in a neceilary connexion. 
Sect, I. General Divifion of Philofophy; Formal and 
Material; Pure and Applied; Theoretical and Pradical. 
As Philofophy feeks to difcover why, in all our judg¬ 
ments and conclufions, we cannot adopt or rejedt arbitra¬ 
rily, but are compelled to confider certain politions as 
true and others as falfe; and as it necefiarily attributes 
this to certain original laws of the mind ; it is fo far called 
formal. Philofophy here confiders merely the form and 
the univerfal and neceilary laws of thinking, abftradted 
from all matter of thought. But, when it treats of cer¬ 
tain objedts, (for inftance, of external nature, of the 
faculties of the foul, of the moral law within us,) it bears 
the name of Material Philofophy. 
Pure Philofophy muft be well diftinguifhed from the 
applied. The former furnifhes general refults, without 
enquiring into their utility. The latter (hows the life 
and application which may be made of thofe refults under 
certain prefuppofitions and in certain cafes and relations. 
Nothing can be more perverfe than to confider applied 
philofophy as alone worthy of attention, and to negledl 
pure philofophy as a ufelefs fpeculation ; in other words, 
to occupy one’s felf with the application of philofophical 
principles, without ever inveftigating or eftablifliing their 
validity. 
The whole field of human knowledge divides itfelfinto 
two great departments, Theoretical and Practical. 
The former inveftigates what is, can he, or muft be; the 
latter what ought to be. Philofophy is theoretical, there¬ 
fore, when its objedt is to difcover the fuper-fenfible and 
merely-rational grounds and properties of what is poffible, 
real, and necejfary; Practical Philofophy, on the other 
hand, inveftigates the fuper-fenfible grounds of human 
volition. It not only points out the ground of the ori¬ 
ginal defire for happinefs, but proves that juftice 
and injuftice, good and evil, are principles not 
known empirically, but only conceived by Reafon. In 
the fame manner, in inveftigating the idea of the moral 
law, it (hows the fuper-fenfible ground of the goodnefs and 
badnefs of human fentiments, volitions, and adtions. 
Sedt. II. Theoretical Philofophy ; Formal Philofophy. 
By formal Philofophy is meant Logic, which treats 
merely of the originalconftitution of the thinking faculty, 
or of thofe laws which we muft neceffarily follow in all 
our thoughts, whatever may be their objedts. For, if we 
wi(h to avoid error, and to embrace truth, we muft always 
follow the fame original laws for the corredt formation of 
our conceptions, judgment, and conclufions, whether the 
objedts of our refledtion be hiftorical, phyfical, moral, or 
mathematical. 
Logic is either pure or applied: the former treats of the 
neceilary rules of thinking in general; the latter of their 
ufe under certain circumftances and of theirapplication to 
certain objedts. For, though Logic is not an empirical 
fcience, and though its laws lie originally in the nature of 
every rational being; dill it may become a queftion how 
thefe laws can be applied in the moll effedtual manner to 
the attainment of truth ; efpecially as the human under- 
ftanding is fo clofely connedted with the fenfes, and is 
therefore fo eafily difturbed by the fancy, and led into 
error by the inclinations, defires, and pafiions. 
Sedt. III. Material Philofophy. Metaphyf.es in the widefi 
Signification of the word. 
When Philofophy nolongeroccupiesitfelf with the more 
formal laws of thinking, but proceeds to examine the laft 
grounds of our external and internal perceptions, it is 
called MaterialPhilofopfiy, or Metaphysics in the wideft 
fignification of the word ; that is, the fcience (true or fic¬ 
titious) of the fuper-fenfible, or of that which lies beyond 
the boundaries of poffible perception. 
We diftinguifn the Metaphysics of Nature and the 
Metaphysics of Morals; the former only is here 
treated, the latter belongs to Pradtical Philofophy. 
The Metaphysics of Nature (by Nature is to be 
underftood not merely the external world,, but the aggre¬ 
gate of all objedts that come under the inveftigation of 
theoretical Reafon, with the exception of the laws of 
thinking) confifts of two Chief parts. Ontology and 
Rational Physiology. 
Ontology, which is alfo called Transcendental 
Philosophy, treats of objedts in general; it explains 
completely and fyftematically the univerfal conceptions 
and principles which refer to objedts, and without which 
nothing can be thought either as reul or poffible. The 
univerfality and necefity of theft principles and conceptions 
prove fufficiently that they are not derived from experience, 
but from the original and eflential conftitution of the 
mind. Hence Ontology is alfo called the fcience of the 
original conceptions and principles of pure underfunding. 
Rational Physiology diftinguifhes itfelf from Onto¬ 
logy by not treating of objedts in general, but of an ag¬ 
gregate of definite objetfs. Thefeobjedts are (uch as either 
can be given in experience, or lie beyond all experience; 
being ideas generated by reafon. Rational Phyfiology, 
when treating of the firft fpecies of definite objedts, for 
example of the laws of attradtion, of the motion ot bodies, 
&c. is called immanent: but when, overftepping the boun¬ 
daries of all poffible objedtive knowledge, it makes ufe of 
the conceptions of (ubftance, of caufe, See. in order to 
determine the nature of the foul or oi the Deity as things 
in themfelves, it is tranfeendent. 
The objedts of Immanent Phyfiology may be given 
either to the external or internal perception. Thus the 
external world, or extended material nature, is given to 
our external perception ; and the inveftigation of its laws^ 
is called Rational Phyjics, or the Metaphyfical Science of 
Nature. On the other hand, what occurs in the foul is 
given to our internal perception; and, when realon leeks 
the tranfcendental grounds of'thefe phenomena, Rational 
Pfychology ariles ; which may alfo be caUed, in contra- 
diltindtion to the Metaphyfics of corporeal or material 
Nature, the Metaphyfics of intellectual or immaterial Na¬ 
ture. 
The objedts of Transcendent Physiology are nei¬ 
ther internally nor externally perceptible ; they are Ideas 
produced by Reafon itfelf. The firft of thefe Ideas is that 
of Nature, or the aggregate of all the beings ot nature, as 
an abfolute whole; the univerfe. For, though each Angle 
being of nature, or a certain number of them, can be per¬ 
ceived in unity and connexion; yet the totality of them 
are 
