登陆注册
5419400000158

第158章

The natural law that everything which happens must have a cause, that the causality of this cause, that is, the action of the cause (which cannot always have existed, but must be itself an event, for it precedes in time some effect which it has originated), must have itself a phenomenal cause, by which it is determined and, and, consequently, all events are empirically determined in an order of nature- this law, I say, which lies at the foundation of the possibility of experience, and of a connected system of phenomena or nature is a law of the understanding, from which no departure, and to which no exception, can be admitted.For to except even a single phenomenon from its operation is to exclude it from the sphere of possible experience and thus to admit it to be a mere fiction of thought or phantom of the brain.

Thus we are obliged to acknowledge the existence of a chain of causes, in which, however, absolute totality cannot be found.But we need not detain ourselves with this question, for it has already been sufficiently answered in our discussion of the antinomies into which reason falls, when it attempts to reach the unconditioned in the series of phenomena.If we permit ourselves to be deceived by the illusion of transcendental idealism, we shall find that neither nature nor freedom exists.Now the question is: "Whether, admitting the existence of natural necessity in the world of phenomena, it is possible to consider an effect as at the same time an effect of nature and an effect of freedom- or, whether these two modes of causality are contradictory and incompatible?"No phenomenal cause can absolutely and of itself begin a series.

Every action, in so far as it is productive of an event, is itself an event or occurrence, and presupposes another preceding state, in which its cause existed.Thus everything that happens is but a continuation of a series, and an absolute beginning is impossible in the sensuous world.The actions of natural causes are, accordingly, themselves effects, and presuppose causes preceding them in time.Aprimal action which forms an absolute beginning, is beyond the causal power of phenomena.

Now, is it absolutely necessary that, granting that all effects are phenomena, the causality of the cause of these effects must also be a phenomenon and belong to the empirical world? Is it not rather possible that, although every effect in the phenomenal world must be connected with an empirical cause, according to the universal law of nature, this empirical causality may be itself the effect of a non-empirical and intelligible causality- its connection with natural causes remaining nevertheless intact? Such a causality would be considered, in reference to phenomena, as the primal action of a cause, which is in so far, therefore, not phenomenal, but, by reason of this faculty or power, intelligible; although it must, at the same time, as a link in the chain of nature, be regarded as belonging to the sensuous world.

A belief in the reciprocal causality of phenomena is necessary, if we are required to look for and to present the natural conditions of natural events, that is to say, their causes.This being admitted as unexceptionably valid, the requirements of the understanding, which recognizes nothing but nature in the region of phenomena, are satisfied, and our physical explanations of physical phenomena may proceed in their regular course, without hindrance and without opposition.But it is no stumbling-block in the way, even assuming the idea to be a pure fiction, to admit that there are some natural causes in the possession of a faculty which is not empirical, but intelligible, inasmuch as it is not determined to action by empirical conditions, but purely and solely upon grounds brought forward by the understanding- this action being still, when the cause is phenomenized, in perfect accordance with the laws of empirical causality.Thus the acting subject, as a causal phenomenon, would continue to preserve a complete connection with nature and natural conditions; and the phenomenon only of the subject (with all its phenomenal causality) would contain certain conditions, which, if we ascend from the empirical to the transcendental object, must necessarily be regarded as intelligible.

同类推荐
  • 幼科铁镜

    幼科铁镜

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 周子全书

    周子全书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 杨炯诗全集

    杨炯诗全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 三琴记

    三琴记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

    Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 余生江湖

    余生江湖

    江湖似乎对于所有的少年少女们来说就是一场愿意沉溺不醒的梦。富家子弟披白袍,悬佩剑,带上几位身强力壮的奴仆出去游玩就称为了闯荡江湖。没有条件的各位只能凑在茶馆说书先生的摊前孜孜不倦的听着重复的江湖故事。仿佛大家挤破头都想在江湖中成为一名受人敬仰的侠客,过上仗剑江湖,行侠仗义的日子。但是作为前任蜀山剑仙的江鱼摇摇头表示,你们这些年轻人也太天真了!喏,可能你在酒馆中吃饭时旁边坐着的面瘫大叔就是当今的武当掌教,旁边那个笑眯眯的老者则是太上长老。端着菜款款而来的少女是天潢贵胄,在一旁撑着手发呆的掌柜则是上一代的蜀山剑仙。江湖说起来很远,但是其实并没有那么远。
  • 大国智慧

    大国智慧

    千百年来,日本、美国、中国、印度、德国、俄罗斯、法国这七个思想大国,在历史兴衰和发展方面具有典型的意义。本书将阐述其思想的历史,探寻其智慧的精髓,总结其成功的经验。埃及卢克索神庙法老像的底座镌有一句话:“我看到昨天,我知道明天。”到过那里的人,没有不被这句话所震撼的。我们无法确定明天会发生什么,但我们可以用自己的智慧预测明天,自信地去表达、去实现我们的强国之梦。
  • 妖界第一美食博主

    妖界第一美食博主

    【现代种田美食文】A市郊外,有个网红山庄。所有菜品全人工种植,绿色无污染。老板漂亮,做得一手好菜。菜品分为:人间菜,妖界菜,上仙菜。“老板,来一盆蚂蚁上树。”一个穿着西服的精英男子对着老板垂涎三尺,不知道是来吃饭的,还是倾心于美色。“你要哪个做法的?”“当然是妖界的。”西服男子的后背露出了一截绿色的尾巴,嘴巴吐出长长的信子。十分钟后,一盆爆炒黑色蚂蚁和树叶的菜出锅,香味四溢,男子连连说好吃,并且在她的微博点赞。
  • 隐婚甜妻,乖一点

    隐婚甜妻,乖一点

    未婚夫与妹妹狼狈为奸,竟然把她送到别的男人枕边,而这个男人恰好是她的前任。转身回家,却被反污蔑成行为不检点。老爸勃然大怒要赶她出家门,妹妹与后妈一旁看热闹。呵呵,还真以为她是任人宰割的小白兔,来一对打一双。前脚刚出家门,后脚前任就尾随。“女人,才主动送上门,翻脸就不认?”?“再见,叶先生,我们三年前就玩完了!”某女狂傲地甩了下头发。?“小野猫,你想怎么玩,随时奉陪。
  • 八荒:十二守城人

    八荒:十二守城人

    国破山河在,她的血香魅惑人的心神,青丘太子墨以希娶她只为得到那血液。有人攻城,有人守城,这一切只是开始…各方势力蠢蠢欲动,血魂珠…
  • 双生骑士的轮舞曲

    双生骑士的轮舞曲

    2034年6月30日,一款运用了神经接驳技术的全代入网游《塔兰西亚》发布,据称是根据一部不知名的小说改编。2034年7月1日,《塔兰西亚》及其配套主机首日销量破亿2034年7月18日,《塔兰西亚》服务器爆满一度陷入瘫痪2034年9月7日,某国玩家为购买游戏装备入室抢劫杀人2034年11月8日,某国玩家长时间游戏猝死2034年12月22日,多名专家谴责该游戏模糊现实与虚拟界限2038年6月30日,多名玩家因神经接驳装置故障而脑死亡2038年7月12日,多国宣布禁止该游戏及其主机运行2042年6月30日,该游戏最后一个私服终端停运,某国一名玩家离奇死亡。
  • 穷二代潘橙橙

    穷二代潘橙橙

    潘橙橙生在农村,又是那个穷地方的穷人,从小自尊主强的她发誓一定要考上大学,光耀门楣。潘橙橙以全县第一考上北京的一所高校。后来经过华丽蜕变大学里交上了知心好友,又获得了爱情。潘橙橙本来以为自己的生活将要越来越好,谁知毕业后,她才发现,原来困难还在……
  • Door into the Dark

    Door into the Dark

    Originally published in 1969, Seamus Heaney's Door into the Dark continues a furrow so startlingly opened in his first collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966). With the sensuosness and physicality of language that would become the hallmark of his early writing, these poems graphically depict the author's rural upbringing, from the local forge to the banks of Lough Neagh, concluding in the preserving waters of the bogland and a look ahead to his next book, Wintering Out (1972).
  • 闪来的暖婚

    闪来的暖婚

    一场宿醉,醒来以后,她竟然成了有夫之妇,对方是一个比她大了整整十岁的男人!用陆吉祥的话来说,她的婚姻,就是她闪来的!当初若不是她胆子大,她怎么可能嫁给这个牛逼哄哄的男人?
  • 重生归来:天才修炼师

    重生归来:天才修炼师

    前世遭弃,有如一张残破的草席被人随意利用而亡,今世她只希望做回自己,悠然野鹤,肆意为自己而活。人云亦云,毫无修为,这一世所有的一切都将改变。