reality.41 Thus, Hägerström’s conclusion is that objective reality, according to Kant, is inherently a formal condition. However, the problem of the Kantian idea is that neither the object nor the subject can rely on existence as a predicate for its objective reality,42 for physical existence lacks objective reality in the formal sense of the word. Moreover, Kant’s ideas involve the conclusion that the sensible objects (phenomena) thus are barred from the class of truly real objects (noumena), a conclusion due to the Kantian supposition of the inherent lack of logical necessity of sensible objects as well as to the fact that the sensible objects in themselves only possess a lesser degree of reality - actuality rather than necessity. Sensible objects only possess causal form rather than apodictic form; causal form being an ontological predicate that must be contrasted to the subject and the subjectively determinable objects (the noumena), which do not have to rely on actual existence (a material predicate) for their (objective) reality. In other words, Kant held that the determination of the objective reality of the subject itself and the validity of its judgments could rest on the subjective certainty of the validity of the subjective activities (thinking) as well as the subjective certainty of the logical necessity of the noumena alone. According to Kant’s epistemology, the subject is at total liberty to determine knowledge in any manner whatsoever as long as knowledge conforms to the (logical) conditions set by the (transcendental) subject itself.43 This means that cognition is determined by the subject alone, eventually bringing this type of cognition into conflict (and even into contradiction) with any form of cognition determined by an (epistemologically) constraining external object, that is, a non-subject (de facto solipsism).The reason for this conclusion is that an external object would set other a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 47 41 Cf. ibid., pp. 2-3. 42 An idea that is the exact opposite of Hägerström’s philosophy, in which existence includes reality. Hägerström, “Hägerström.”; “The Philosophy of Axel Hägerström.” 43 This is a view that does not cause any problems as long as the sought-after knowledge is analytic rather than synthetic.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=