Kantian Meditation

[timelets]

I. Of Definitions. 

A definition is, 
       as the term itself 
                    indicates, 
the representation, 
             upon primary grounds,
of the complete
               conception 
                           of a thing 
                                      within 
its own limits. 

Accordingly, an empirical 
                        conception 
cannot be defined,

            it can only be explained. 

For, as there are in 
              such a conception 
                                only 
a certain number 
         of marks or signs, 
                     which denote 
a certain class of 
              sensuous objects, 
                        we can never be sure 
that we do not cogitate
               under the word 
                      which indicates the same 
object, at one time 
                   a greater, 
                             at another 
a smaller number 
                 of signs.
...
We employ 
       certain signs 
                   only so long 
                            as we require them 
for the sake of 
                 distinction; 
new observations 
               abstract some and 
                             add new ones, 
so that an empirical 
                   conception 
                          never remains 
within permanent 
                  limits. 

It is, in fact, 
             useless 
                  to define a conception 
                                of this kind. 
If, for example, 
            we are speaking 
                       of water and 
its properties, 
           we do not stop at 
                     what we actually think 
by the word 
         water, 
            but proceed to observation 
and 
     experiment; 

and the word, 
        with the few signs 
                  attached to it, 
is more properly 
             a designation than 
                           a conception 
of the thing.

--- Immanuel Kant. The Critique of Pure Reason.”

Comments

[gracheeha]

I really enjoy your Kant-rap: rhythmic speech, and Kant vernacular. :)

[timelets]

Thanks! It is a funny combination of ultimate philosophy and poetry:).