第 26 节
作者:桃桃逃      更新:2022-08-21 16:33      字数:9316
  by Kant with the negative faculty of the infinite; and as it has no positive content of its own; it is
  restricted to the function of detecting the finitude of experiential knowledge。 To the practical
  reason; on the contrary; he has expressly allowed a positive infinity; by ascribing to the will the
  power of modifying itself in universal modes; i。e。 by thought。 Such a power the will undoubtedly
  has: and it is well to remember that man is free only in so far as he possesses it and avails himself
  of it in his conduct。 But a recognition of the existence of this power is not enough and does not
  avail to tell us what are the contents of the will or practical reason。 Hence to say that a man must
  make the Good the content of his will raises the question; what that content is; and what are the
  means of ascertaining what good is。 Nor does one get over the difficulty by the principle that the
  will must be consistent with itself; or by the precept to do duty for the sake of duty。
  § 55
  (c) The Reflective Power of Judgement is invested by Kant with the function of
  an Intuitive Understanding。 That is to say; whereas the particulars had hitherto
  appeared; so far as the universal or abstract identity was concerned; adventitious
  and incapable of being deduced from it; the Intuitive Understanding apprehends
  the particulars as moulded and formed by the universal itself。 Experience presents
  such universalised particulars in the products of Art and of organic nature。
  The capital feature in Kant's Criticism of the Judgement is; that in it he gave a
  representation and a name; if not even an intellectual expression; to the Idea。
  Such a representation; as an Intuitive Understanding; or an inner adaptation;
  suggests a universal which is at the same time apprehended as essentially a
  concrete unity。 It is in these apercus alone that the Kantian philosophy rises to the
  speculative height。 Schiller; and others; have found in the idea of artistic beauty;
  where thought and sensuous conception have grown together into one; a way of
  escape from the abstract and separatist understanding。 Others have found the
  same relief in the perception and consciousness of life and of living things;
  whether that life be natural or intellectual。 The work of Art; as well as the living
  individual; is; it must be owned; of limited content。 But in the postulated harmony
  of nature (or necessity) and free purpose in the final purpose of the world
  conceived as realised; Kant has put before us the Idea; comprehensive even in its
  content。 Yet what may be called the laziness of thought; when dealing with the
  supreme Idea; finds a too easy mode of evasion in the 'ought to be': instead of the
  actual realisation of the ultimate end; it clings hard to the disjunction of the notion
  from reality。 Yet if thought will not think the ideal realised; the senses and the
  intuition can at any rate see it in the present reality of living organisms and of the
  beautiful in Art。 And consequently Kant's remarks on these objects were well
  adapted to lead the mind on to grasp and think the concrete Idea。
  § 56
  We are thus led to conceive a different relation between the universal of
  understanding and the particular of perception; than that on which the theory…of
  the Theoretical and Practical Reason is founded。 But while this is so; it is not
  supplemented by a recognition that the former is the genuine relation and the very
  truth。 Instead of that; the unity (of universal with particular) is accepted only as it
  exists in finite phenomena; and is adduced only as a fact of experience。 Such
  experience; at first only personal; may come from two sources。 It may spring
  from Genius; the faculty which produces 'aesthetic ideas'; meaning by aesthetic
  ideas; the picture…thoughts of the free imagination which subserve an idea and
  suggest thoughts; although their content is not expressed in a notional form; and
  even admits of no such expression。 It may also be due to Taste; the feeling of
  congruity between the free play of intuition or imagination and the uniformity of
  understanding。
  § 57
  The principle by which the Reflective faculty of Judgement regulates and arranges
  the products of animated nature is described as the End or final cause the notion
  in action; the universal at once determining and determinate in itself。 At the same
  time Kant is careful to discard the conception of external or finite adaptation; in
  which the End is only an adventitious form for the means and material in which it
  is realised。 In the living organism; on the contrary; the final cause is a moulding
  principle and an energy immanent in the matter; and every member is in its turn a
  means as well as an end。
  § 58
  Such an Idea evidently radically transforms the relation which the understanding
  institutes between means and ends; between subjectivity and objectivity。 And yet
  in the face of this unification; the End or design is subsequently explained to be a
  cause which exists and acts subjectively; i。e。 as our idea only: and teleology is
  accordingly explained to be only a principle of criticism; purely personal to our
  understanding。
  After the Critical philosophy had settled that Reason can know phenomena only;
  there would still have been an option for animated nature between two equally
  subjective modes of thought。 Even according to Kant's own exposition; there
  would have been an obligation to admit; in the case of natural productions; a
  knowledge not confined to the categories of quality; cause and effect;
  composition; constituents; and so on。 The principle of inward adaptation or
  design; had it been kept to and carried out in scientific application; would have led
  to a different and a higher method of observing nature。
  § 59
  If we adopt this principle; the Idea; when all limitations were removed from it;
  would appear as follows。 The universality moulded by Reason; and described as
  the absolute and final end or the Good; would be realised in the world; and
  realised moreover by means of a third thing; the power which proposes this End
  as well as realises it that is; God。 Thus in him; who is the absolute truth; those
  oppositions of universal and individual; subjective and objective; are solved and
  explained to be neither self…subsistent nor true。
  § 60
  But Good which is thus put forward as the final cause of the world has been
  already described as only our good; the moral law of our Practical Reason。 This
  being so; the unity in question goes no further than make the state of the world
  and the course of its events harmonise with our moral standards。 Besides; even
  with this limitation; the final cause; or Good; is a vague abstraction; and the same
  vagueness attaches to what is to be Duty。 But; further; this harmony is met by the
  revival and reassertion of the antithesis; which it by its own principle had nullified。
  The harmony is then described as merely subjective; something which merely
  ought to be; and which at the same time is not real a mere article of faith;
  possessing a subjective certainty; but without truth; or that objectivity which is
  proper to the Idea。 This contradiction may seem to be disguised by adjourning the
  realisation of the Idea to a future; to a time when the Idea will also be。 But a
  sensuous condition like time is the reverse of a reconciliation of the discrepancy;
  and an infinite progression which is the corresponding image adopted by the
  understanding on the very face of it only repeats and re…enacts the contradiction。
  A general remark may still be offered on the result to which the Critical
  philosophy led as to the nature of knowledge; a result which has grown one of the
  current 'idols' or axiomatic beliefs of the day。 In every dualistic system; and
  especially in that of Kant; the fundamental defect makes itself visible in the
  inconsistency of unifying at one moment what a moment before had been
  explained to be independent and therefore incapable of unification。 And then; at
  the very moment after unification has been alleged to be the truth; we suddenly
  come upon the doctrine that the two elements; which; in their true status of
  unification; had been refused all independent subsistence; are only true and actual
  in their state of separation。 Philosophising of this kind wants the little penetration
  needed to discover; that this shuffling only evidences how unsatisfactory each one
  of the two terms is。 Arid it fails simply because it is incapable of bringing two
  thoughts together。 (And in point of form there are never more than two。) It argues
  an utter want of consistency to say; on the one hand; that the understanding only
  knows phenomena; and; on the other; assert the absolute character of this
  knowledge; by such statements as 'Cognition can go no further'; 'Here is the
  natural and absolute limit of human knowledge。' But 'natural' is the wrong word
  here。 The things of nature are limited and are natural things only to such extent as
  they are not aware of t