Page:Riddles of the Sphinx (1891).djvu/14

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2. refuted: (1) growth of knowledge is not a growth of

   ignorance; (2) explanations are not required ad infinitum; (3) a limit does not imply something beyond it; this is true of (conceptual) space, but not of knowledge. §§8-10. Spencer's indirect arguments from the difficulties of metaphysics should not daunt an evolutionist. § 9. The self-existence of God, how tenable. § 10. The infinite regress of causation and the question as to the cause of the first cause. But this difficulty is one of all causation, extending also to science, and therefore sceptical. Insuperable, if an absolute first cause is meant, but not if only a cause of our world.

   §§ 11-21. Kantian Agnosticism. The defects of our minds preclude us from the knowledge of things as they really are. §§ 12-17. His positive arguments examined. § 12. Kant's refutation of his own distinction of things in themselves and appearances. § 13. His claim to have made an exhaustive analysis of the mind. § 14. His distinction of Form and Matter in knowledge. But we cannot know until we try. § 15. The epistemological standpoint incompatible with the evolution of the mind and the development of its categories. § 16. Epistemology is futile as well as false, (§ 17) if the "immanent criticism of expedience" does not transcend its limits. The ambiguity of "a priori": it should be taken logically only, and not of priority in time. §§ 18-21. Indirect arguments from the metaphysical difficulties of (§ 19) theology, of (§ 20) the antinomies, of (§ 21) psychology. § 19. Kant's claim that of three possible proofs of the existence of God, two are false and the third is inadequate. But if the third can prove a limited God, is not this all that is needed? § 20. The antinomies, the infinity of Space and Time. The thesis inadequately stated, being supported by science as well as by metaphysics; the proof of the antithesis holds good only of our ideas of Space and Time, and identifies Space with what fills it. A third alternative in the case of Time, ignored by Kant. § 21. Kant's attack on the reality of the soul; its assumptions and contradictions. § 22. The origin of agnosticism, a phenomenon of the growth of knowledge. § 23. The transition into Scepticism owing (1) to the impossibility of refuting metaphysics without upsetting science, and § 24 (2) to

   the self-criticism of Agnosticism.