This last question,
which arises out of the above universal problem, would properly run
thus: "How is metaphysics possible as a science?"
Thus, the critique of reason leads at last, naturally and necessarily,
to science; and, on the other hand, the dogmatical use of reason without
criticism leads to groundless assertions, against which others equally
specious can always be set, thus ending unavoidably in scepticism.
Besides, this science cannot be of great and formidable prolixity,
because it has not to do with objects of reason, the variety of which is
inexhaustible, but merely with Reason herself and her problems; problems
which arise out of her own bosom, and are not proposed to her by the
nature of outward things, but by her own nature. And when once Reason
has previously become able completely to understand her own power in
regard to objects which she meets with in experience, it will be easy to
determine securely the extent and limits of her attempted application to
objects beyond the confines of experience.
We may and must, therefore, regard the attempts hitherto made to
establish metaphysical science dogmatically as non-existent. For what of
analysis, that is, mere dissection of conceptions, is contained in one
or other, is not the aim of, but only a preparation for metaphysics
proper, which has for its object the extension, by means of synthesis,
of our a priori knowledge. And for this purpose, mere analysis is
of course useless, because it only shows what is contained in these
conceptions, but not how we arrive, a priori, at them; and this it is
her duty to show, in order to be able afterwards to determine their
valid use in regard to all objects of experience, to all knowledge in
general. But little self-denial, indeed, is needed to give up these
pretensions, seeing the undeniable, and in the dogmatic mode of
procedure, inevitable contradictions of Reason with herself, have long
since ruined the reputation of every system of metaphysics that has
appeared up to this time. It will require more firmness to remain
undeterred by difficulty from within, and opposition from without, from
endeavouring, by a method quite opposed to all those hitherto followed,
to further the growth and fruitfulness of a science indispensable to
human reason--a science from which every branch it has borne may be cut
away, but whose roots remain indestructible.
We have shown what is the real nature of the truths with which the Syllogism is conversant, in contradistinction to the more superficial manner in which their import is conceived in the common theory; and what are the