Kant says, Time cannot be perceived ; therefore no succession of representations can be empirically perceived as objective : i.e. can be distinguished as changes in phenomena from the changes of mere subjective representations. The causal law, being a rule according to which states follow one another, is the only means by which the objectivity of a change can be known. Now, the result of his assertion would be, that no succession in Time could be perceived by us as objective, excepting that of cause and effect, and that every other succession of phenomena we perceive, would only be determined so, and not other wise, by our own will. In contradiction to all this I must adduce the fact, that it is quite possible for phenomena to follow upon one another without following from one another. Nor is the law of causality by any means prejudiced by this ; for it remains certain that each change is the effect of another change, this being firmly established a priori; only each change not only follows upon the single one which is its cause, but upon all the other changes which occur simultaneously with that cause, and with which that cause stands in no causal connection whatever. It is not perceived by me exactly in the regular order of causal succession, but in quite a different order, which is, however, no less objective on that account, and which differs widely from any subjective succession depending on my caprice, such as, for instance, the pictures of my imagination. The succession, in Time, of events which stand in no causal connection with each other is precisely what we call contingency.[1] Just as I am leaving my house, a tile happens to fall from the roof which strikes me ; now, there is no causal connection whatever between my going out and
- ↑ In German Zufall, a word derived from the Zusammenfallen (falling together), Zusammentreffen (meeting together), or coinciding of what is unconnected, just as πὸ συμβεβηκός from συμβαίνειν. (Compare Aristotle, " Anal, post.," i. 4.)
