The Elements of Metaphysics (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

PRELIMINARY REMARKS PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS § I. There are two standpoints, and two only, from which we can investigate the nature of thing's: the empirical and the transcendental. We are restricted to the empirical standpoint so long as we regard things in the form in which they appear to us, that is, as they are reflected in human consciousness ; the result is physics (in its broader or ancient sense). From the transcendental standpoint we try to discover what things are in themselves, that is independent of, and apart from, our consciousness, in which they are represented ; the result is metaphysics. 2. All our knowledge begins with perception, which is partly external, partly internal. Out of both these is built up that sum total of our representations of things which we call experience. The empirical and the transcendental methods & B

Table of Contents

PRELIMINARY REMARKS; Physics and Metaphysicsi; Two standpoints (§ i) Common source (§ 2) Method and result of the physical method (§ 3) Method and result of the metaphysical method (§ 4) Synopsis of all the general sciences (§ 5) Historical (§ 6); A THE EMPIRICAL STANDPOINT; System of Physics; 1 On Space7; Its infinity (§ 7) Everything in space (§ 8); 2 On Time· 7; Its infinity (§ 9) Everything in time (§ 10); 3 On Matter8; Everything is material; two proofs 11) Matter is uncreatable and indestructible (§ 12) The world is either infinitely great or infinitely small (§ 13); 4 On Causality; Persistence and change (§ 14) The (§ 15)-; xii; ELEMENTS OF METAPHYSICS; Cause and causal constituents (§ 16) Arguing from effect to cause, from cause to effect; hypothesis and experiment (§ 17) Two corollaries of the law of causality (§ lS) The net of causality is without beginning and end (§ 19) Three forms of causation : cause, irritation, motive (§ 20); 5 On Natural Forces12; Laws of nature a priori and a posteriori (§ 21) Groups of phenomena and natural forces (§