Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/289

 ANATOMY. 257

mathematical demonstration. Even Priestley too declares it to be irrefutable. 1 Hume's reflection and acumen alone stood the test, even in this case; in his Dialogues on Natural Religion, 2 which are so well worth reading, this true precursor of Kant calls attention to the fact, that there is no resemblance at all between the works of Nature and those of an Art which proceeds according to a design. Now it is precisely where he cuts asunder the nervus probandi [nerve of the argument] of this extremely insidious proof, as well as that of the two others in his Critique of Judgment and in his Critique of Pure Reason that Kant' merit shines most brilliantly. A very brief summary of this Kantian refutation of the Physico-theological Proof may be found in my chief work. 3 Kant has earned for himself great merit by it; for nothing stands so much in the way of a correct insight into Nature and into the essence of things as this view, by which they are looked upon as having been made according to a preconceived plan. Therefore, if a Duke of Bridgewater offers a prize of high value for the confirmation and perpetuation of such fundamental errors, let it be our task, following in the footsteps of Hume and Kant, to work undauntedly at their destruction, without any other reward than truth. Truth deserves respect: not what is opposed to it. Nevertheless here, as elsewhere, Kant has confined himself to negation; but a negation only takes full effect when it has been completed by a correct affirmation, this alone giving entire satisfaction and in itself dislodging and superseding error, according to the words of Spinoza: Sicut lux se ipsam et tenebras manifestat, sic veritas norma sui et falsi est [Just as light reveals itself and darkness, so is truth the standard for itself and for what is false]. First of all therefore we say: the world is not made with the help of knowledge, consequently also not from the outside

1 Priestley, Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit, sect. 16, p. 188.

2 Part 7, and in other places.

3 See Die Welt als W. u. V. [The World as Will and Representation] vol. i. p. 597. (vol. i. p. 631 of the 3rd ed.), "Criticism of the Kantian Philosophy."

258