Insights


Immanuel Kant

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Thesis: The world has, as to time and space, a beginning (limit).

Antithesis: The world is, as to time and space, infinite.

2

Thesis: Everything in the world consists of [elements that are] simple.

Antithesis: There is nothing simple, but everything is composite.

3

Thesis: There are in the world causes through freedom.

Antithesis: There is no freedom, but all is nature.

4

Thesis: In the series of the world-causes there is some necessary being.

Antithesis: There is nothing necessary in the world, but in this series all is contingent.

--Immanuel Kant, "The Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics" (The Age of Ideology, Henry D. Aiken, pp. 41-42)


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