第 26 节
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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