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

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

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deduction, such as we have been able to give <strong>of</strong> the categories, is, strictly speaking, possible in<br />

the case <strong>of</strong> these transcendental ideas. Just because they are only ideas, they have, in fact, no<br />

relation to any object that could be given as coinciding with them. We can, indeed, undertake a<br />

subjective derivation <strong>of</strong> them from the nature <strong>of</strong> our reason…” (CPR B393/A336). In this sense,<br />

transcendental ideas are subjective conditions <strong>of</strong> thought that have no objective validity. “But<br />

such a principle does not prescribe any law for objects, and does not contain general ground <strong>of</strong><br />

knowing or <strong>of</strong> determining objects as such; it is merely a subjective law for the orderly<br />

management <strong>of</strong> the possessions <strong>of</strong> our understanding, that by comparison <strong>of</strong> its concepts it may<br />

reduce them to the smallest possible number; it does not justify us in demanding from the objects<br />

such uniformity as will minister to the convenience and extension <strong>of</strong> our understanding; and we<br />

may not, therefore, ascribe to the maximum any objective validity” (CPR B361/A305).<br />

Transcendental ideas are just ideas. “I understand by idea a necessary concept <strong>of</strong> reason to which<br />

no corresponding object can be given in sense-experience. Thus the pure concepts <strong>of</strong> reason, now<br />

under consideration, are transcendental ideas” (CPR A327/B384). Transcendental ideas are the<br />

source <strong>of</strong> transcendental illusion.<br />

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