this question and others related to it, shows what is the nature of that empirical reality itself.[1]
And seventy years after the Critique of Pure Reason had appeared and filled the world with its fame, these gentlemen dare to serve up such gross absurdities, which were done away with long ago, and to return to former barbarism. If Kant were to come back and see all this mischief, he would feel like Moses on returning from Mount Sinai, when he found his people worshipping the golden calf, and dashed the Tables to pieces in his anger. But if Kant were to take things as tragically as Moses, I should console him with the words of Jesus ben Sirach:[2] "He that telleth a tale to a fool speaketh to one in a slumber;
- ↑ In the Scholium to the eighth of the definitions he has placed at the
top of his
"Principia," Newton quite rightly distinguishes absolute, that
is, empty, from relative, or filled Time, and likewise absolute from relative
Space. He says, p. 11: Tempus, spatium, locum, motum, ut omnibus notissima, non definio. Notandum tamen quod VULGUS (that is, professors
like those I have been mentioning) quantitates hasce non aliter quam ex relatione ad sensibilia concipiat. Et inde oriuntur praejudicia quaedam, quibus tollendis convenit easdem in absolutas et relativas, veras et apparentes, mathematicas et vulgares distingui. [Wikisource translation: I don't define time, space, place, and motion because they ae very familiar to everyone. Yet it is to be noted that common people conceive these quantities only with reference to objects of sense perception. And this is the source of certain preconceptions. To eliminate these prejudices it is useful to divide these quantities into absolute and relative, true and apparent, mathematical and commonplace.] And again (12):
I. Tempus absolutum, verum et mathematicum, in se et natura sua sine relatione ad externum quodvis, aequabiliter fluit, alioque nomine dicitur Duratio: relativum, apparens et vulgare est sensibilis et externa quaevis Durationis per motum mensura (seu accurata seu inaequabilis) quâ vulgus vice veri temporis utitur; ut Hora, Dies, Mensis, Annus. [Wikisource translation: Absolute, true, and mathematical time, in and of itself, of its own nature, without reference to anything external, flows uniformly, and is otherwise called duration. Relative, apparent, and commonplace time is any sensible and external measure, whether accurate or approximate, of duration by means of motion. This kind of measure, for example, hour, day, month, year, is used by common people instead of true time.]
II. Spatium absolutum, natura sua sine relatione ad externum quodvis, emper manet similare et immobile: relativum est spatii hujus mensura seu dimensio quaelibet mobilis, quae a sensibus nostris per situm suum ad corpora definitur, et a vulgo pro spatio immobili usurpatur: uti dimensio spatii subterranei, aerei vel coelestis definita per situm suum ad terram. [Wikisource translation: Absolute space, of its own nature without reference to anything external, always remains uniform and immovable. Relative space is any movable measure or dimension of absolute space. It is a variable distance that is determined by our senses according to its position with respect to bodies. Common people use relative space instead of immovable space, as when we measure space underground, in the air, or in the heavens with respect to its position relative to the earth.]
But even Newton never dreamt of asking how we know these two infinite entities, Space and Time; since, as he here impresses on us, they do not fall within the range of the senses; and how we know them more over so intimately, that we are able to indicate their whole nature and rule down to the minutest detail. [Add. to 3rd ed.] - ↑ Ecclesiasticus xxii. 8.
