Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/389

UNDERSTANDING PRESCRIBES LA WS TO NA TURE. 3^7 out producing all parts of it one after the other, starting from a point. All phenomena are intuited as aggregates or as collections of previously given parts. '" That which geometry asserts of pure intuition (/'. e., the infinite divisi- bility of lines) holds also of empirical intuitiork An inten- sive quantity is one which is apprehended only as unity, and in which plurality can be represented only by approxi- mation to negation = o. Ej^gJX-sen sation^ ^ consequen tly ever y reality in phenomena,Ji as^ a degree, which, however srfrairit may be, is never the smallest, but can always be , still more diminished ; and between reality and negatioii/ there exists a continuous connection of possible smaller intermediate-sensations, or an infinite series of ever decreas- ing degrees. The property of quantities, according to which no part in them is the smallest possible part, and no part is simple, is termed their continuity. All phenomena are continuous quantities, i. e., all their parts are in turn (further divisible) quantities. Hence it follows, first, that a proof for an empty space or empty time can never be drawn from experience, and secondly, that all change is also con- tinuous. "It is remarkable," so Kant ends his proof of the Anticipation, " that of quantities in general we can know one quality only a />rz(7rz, namely, their continuity, while with regard to quality (the real of phenomena) nothing is known . to us a priori but their intensive quantity, that is, that they > must have a degree. Everything else is left to experience." The outcome of the Analytic of Principles sounds bold enough. The understanding is tlu lawgiver ef nature: "It does not draw its laws a priori from nature, but prescribes them to it " ; the principles of the pure understanding are valuable part of the work defines matter as the movable, that which fills space by its moving force, and recognizes two original forces, repulsive, expansive superficial force or force of contact, by which a body resists the entrance of other bodies into its own space, and attractive, penetrative force or the force which works at a distance, in virtue of which all particles of matter attract one another. In order to a determinate filling of space the co-operation of both fundamental forces is required. In opposition to the mechanical theory of the atomists, which explains forces from matter and makes them inhere in it, Kant holds fast to the dynamical view which he had early adopted (cf. p. 324), according to which forces are the primary factor and matter is constituted by them.