Lectures on Metaphysics

Introduction to metaphysics

<Prolegomena metaphysices>

Our cognitions are connected in a twofold way: first as an aggregate, when one is added to another [in order to] constitute a whole, e.g., a sand hill is not in itself a connection of things, but rather they are arbitrarily put together (there is nothing determinate here), second, as a series of ground and consequences, the parts of the series being called members because we can cognize one part only through the others, e.g., in a human body each part is there through the others. We easily comprehend that a connection of cognitions as an aggregate provides no determinate concept of a whole, and it is as if I add one small piece to another until a hill arises, etc., until a planet or terrestrial body comes into being; at least we can so think of it. In a series there is something that makes the connection according to a rule, namely, grounds and consequences. With grounds and consequences we must think of a priori boundaries, i.e., a ground that is not also a consequence, and a posteriori boundaries, i.e., a consequence that is not a ground, e.g., with human generations: human beings are members in a series, yet here we must think of a human being who does conceive but is not born, thus an a priori limit <terminus>, and of one who is born but conceives no one, thus an a posteriori limit <terminus>.