sense fails to yield reality, thought must cease to yield truth. 1
Such are Kant's final conclusions in the Critique, and by them the transition is at last made quite out beyond one and all of the Cartesian assumptions. Since consciousness of time involves consciousness of objects interconnected in space, so far is it from being true that we can only be conscious of sub- jective states, that on the contrary, we can never be conscious of anything purely subjective. The distinc- tion between self and not-self, between inner and outer, is not a distinction between our experience and what lies outside it, but a purely relative distinction within the unity of our objective ex- perience. Our knowledge of external objects is as his earlier views, and being inconsistent with his fundamental principles may be ignored.
In the Prolegomena Kant formulates the fundamental principle of his philosophy in a way that brings out in a striking manner his agreement with Hume in opposition to Descartes. "The principle of all genuine Idealists, from the Eleatic school to Bishop Berkeley, is contained in this formula:
'All knowledge by sense and experience is nothing but mere appearance, and truth is to be found only in the ideas of pure understanding and reason.' The principle which throughout governs and determines my Idealism is: 'All knowledge of things from pure understanding or pure reason is nothing but mere appearance, and truth is to be found only in experience'": Werke, IV. p. 121.
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Publication Information: Book Title: Studies in the Cartesian Philosophy. Contributors: Norman Smith - author. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1902. Page Number: 265.
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