Immanuel Kant & Speculative Cosmology

The speculative cosmologist attempts to extend his or her knowledge of the world by means of synthetic a priori propositions. Kant stats, though, that this procedure leads to antimonies, and these arise when each of two contradictory propositions can be proved. If it is true that speculative cosmology leads to antimonies, then it must be assumed that its whole aim is mistaken, the aim of building up a science of the world considered as the totality of phenomena:

This branch of speculative metaphysics is not, and cannot be, a science. In other words, the fact that speculative cosmology is productive of antimonies shows that we cannot make scientific use of the transcendental Idea of the world as the totality of phenomena (Copleston 286).

Kant describes four antimonies, each of which corresponds to one of the four classes of categories. The third antimony relates to free causation. Kant begins with the following thesis:

Thesis: Causality according to the laws of Nature is not th

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ssatisfaction with one's lot, and exposure to want and penury, might easily become occasions of temptation to overstep the limits prescribed by duty" (Kant, The Metaphysics of Ethics 10). Duty serves to make the individual maintain his health, though there may also be an inclination to do so. Duty is therefore not merely the overcoming of evil tendencies or inclinations but something much more than this. Indeed, it is best when duty and inclination coincide in the individual so that he or she acts from both at once. This is a higher level of development than when the individual makes a choice between inclination and duty, with inclination clearly at war with duty. As Kant describes it, though, it is evident that the man who has inclinations against his duty and who acts out of duty shows more clearly that he has acted out of duty than inclination. When the two coincide, it is more difficult to say which has prevailed, and it must be duty that prevails for the action to have a moral value. The view that we must act out of duty is one which Kant believes everyone would reach if they reflected upon the issue. When one acts from a sense of duty, one demonstrates a good will, a will that is good in itself. In Kant's analysi
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Approximate Word count = 2634
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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