stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

place, contains nothing borrowed from experience, and which, secondly, refers to an object that
cannot be determined or given any experience” (CPR A533/B561). Instead, we ought to oppose
the intelligible in practice to the sensible in practice. This is why Kant calls the intelligible in the
Critique of Practical Reason the supersensible. However, once we oppose the supersensible in
practice to the sensible in practice it is clear what it must be. “Whatever in an object of the senses
is not itself appearance, I entitle intelligible. If, therefore, that which in the sensible world must
be regarded as appearance has in itself a faculty which is not an object of sensible intuition, but
through which it can be the cause of appearances, the causality of this being can be regarded
from two points of view. Regarded as the causality of a thing in itself, it is intelligible in its
action; regarded as the causality of an appearance in the world of sense, it is sensible in its
effects” (CPR A538/B566). In practice ‘the intelligible’ refers to an ability. But what ability is
that? In opposition to the sensible, that is, to the feeling of pleasure, the supersensible is reason.
“Sometimes, however, we find, or at least believe that we find, that the ideas of reason have in
actual fact proved their causality in respect of the actions of men, as appearances; and that these
actions have taken place, not because they were determined by empirical causes, but because
they were determined by grounds of reason” (CPR A55/B578). Therefore, the causality of the
intelligible character is determined by reason. Reason acts freely. But this point needs to be
specified further.
To say that the causality of the intelligible character is not determined and is outside the
series of empirical conditions means that it is not determined by the laws of nature. However,
that does not mean that the intelligible is not determined by any laws. Kant argues that every
causality and therefore even the causality of the intelligible character is determined by laws.
“Every efficient cause must have a character, that is, a law of its causality, without which it
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