Page:Nature and Life (1934).pdf/25

reasons: it could yield no seasons. Combining Newton and Hume we obtain a barren concept, namely, a field of perception devoid of any date forits own interpretation, and a system of interpretation devoid of any reason for the concurrence of its factors. It is this situation that modern philosophy from Kant onward has in its vatiows ways sought to render intelligible. My own belief is that this situation is a reductio ad absurdum, and should not be accepted as the basis for philosophic speculation. Kant was the frst philosopher who in this way combined Newton and Hume. He accepted them both, and his three critiques were his endeavour to render intelligible this Hume-Newton situation. But the Hume-Newton situation is the primary presupposition for all modern philosophic thought. Any endeavour to go behind it is, in philosophic discussion, almost angrily rejected as unintelligible.