that it is the subject that from an epistemological point of view is impossible to imagine as non-existent, while the object is epistemologically and ontologically dispensable as well as non-necessary.86 In addition to the denial of the causal relationship between logical possibility and actual existence, Hägerström’s objection contains a positive element, which sets up an alternative ontological candidate to that of subjective rationalism, turning the tables and arguing that: Hägerström thus makes epistemological and ontological necessity an objective category. From Hägerström’s point of view, the object whose necessity is postulated obviously is not a specific object, in the case of transcendentalism the object “subject”. On the contrary, one must refrain from postulating a necessarily existing object, and instead conclude what necessarily follows from the existence of reality itself, namely a necessary relationship between logical subject (reality) and logical predicate (self-identity). Moreover, Hägerström’s theory only predicates that if reality itself actually exists, then reality necessarily is identical with itself.The question of whether reality exists or not is thus not a proposition whose truth can be decided by means of a logical analysis of the predicate alone, but a proposition whose truth value can only be decided a posteriori. Consequently, the determip a r t i 1 , c h a p t e r 2 62 2 . 4 the cope rnican revolut ion: from subj ect ive nece s s i ty to the nece s s i ty of real i ty’s own se lf- ident i ty “Eines allein ist, objektiv gesehen, direkt unmöglich als nicht existierend zu denken, und das ist die Realität als ihrem Begriff nach unmittelbar mit sich selbst identisch - d.h. das absoluteWissen. Dies ist die kopernikanische Umwälzung in der Erkenntnistheorie. Dass die Welt nur bei dem denkenden Menschen existiert, ist ein Gedanke, der ebenso unmöglich ist wie der, dass die Erde auf dem Rücken eines Elefanten ruht.”87 86 Ibid., pp. 76-77. 87 Ibid., p. 77. My italics.
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