On Nov 11, 12:07?am, Malrassic Park <male...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:33:12 -0800, Scott H <zinites_p...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> wrote:
>
> >On Nov 10, 1:38 pm, Malrassic Park <male...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> Kant is elucidating the circularity involved in denying causality on
> >> transcendent grounds.
>
> >I thought we were talking about his refutation of the denial of free
> >will?
>
> I wasn't clear enough. Freedom vs. determinism is a question of
> causality. The transcendent origin of all series is a spontaneous
> First Cause. If one denies a transcendent first cause then much
> necessary empirical knowledge is also denied. ("But if for this reason
> you refuse to recognise this enigma in nature, you will find yourself
> compelled to reject many fundamental synthetic properties and forces,
> which as little admit of comprehension.") Free will, as spontaneity of
> action, itself is a first cause of events within the world. Place your
> big toe in a still pond and watch the ripples. But Kant is referring
> to a First Cause from outside the world, the beginning of every chain
> of events such as the source of the Big Bang. "Even if a
> transcendental power of freedom be allowed, as supplying a beginning
> of happenings in the world, this power would in any case have to be
> outside the world." (op cit.) NKS says "transcendental," but a Freedom
> to set the entire universe in motion would truly be transcendent,
> because it is really "not a beginning in time, but in causality" (op
> cit.), a transcendent versus an empirical cause.
>
> Thus the scientific materialist should realize that in denying
> spontaneity, simply because it is not scientifically understandable,
> he is denying much empirical knowledge that allegedly stands on solid
> grounds, but that is equally incapable of being understood.
>
> --
> fantasybedtimehour.com
Spontaneity is an idea that belongs to the transcendentally real
picture of causality whether spontaneity arises inside the world or
outside the world. And because Kant is a transcendental idealist he
would not promote the idea of spontaneity.
Spontaneity is an idea that comes from the scientific materialists,
even though they reject the idea. So if scientists accepted the idea
of spontaneity then this might expand empirical knowledge. However, a
spontaneity construed in causally real terms is not of Kant's making.
The transcendent origin of all series is a spontaneous First Cause,
but the transcendental origin of all series sup****ts or provides the
conditions for causality itself. The two are quite different.
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