Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason — trans. F. Max Müller

highest aim of life, we see that the last intention [p. 801] of nature in her wise provision was really, in the constitution of our reason, directed to moral interests only.

We must.be careful, however, lest, as we are now considering a subject which is foreign to transcendental philosophy,^ we should lose ourselves in episodes, and injure the unity of the system, while on the other side, if we say too little of this new matter, there might be a lack of clearness and persuasion. I hope to avoid both dangers by keeping as close as possible to what is transcendental, and by leaving entirely aside what may be psychological, that is, empirical in it.

I have, therefore, first to remark that for the present I shall use the concept of freedom in its practical meaning only, taking no account of the other concept of freedom in its transcendental meaning, which cannot be presupposed empirically as an explanation of phenomena, but is itself a problem of reason and has been disposed [p. 802] of before. A will is purely animal {arbitrium brutum) when it is determined by nothing but sensuous impulses, that is, pathologically. A will, on the contrary, which is independent of sensuous impulses, and can be determined therefore by motives presented by reason alone, is called Free-zvill {arbitritim liberum)^ and everything connected with this, whether as cause or effect, is called practical. Practical freedom can be proved by experience. For human will is

1 All practical concepts relate to objects of pleasure or displeasure, that is, of joy or pain, and, therefore, at least indirectly, to objects of our feelings. But, as feeling is not a faculty of representing things, but lies outside the whole field of our powers of cognition, the elements of our judgments, so far as they relate to pleasure or pain, that is, the elements of practical judgments, do not belong to transcendental philosophy, which is concerned exclusively with pure cognitions a priori.

644 Canon of Pure Reason not determined by that only which excites, that is, immediately affects the senses ; but we possess the power to overcome the impressions made on the faculty of our sensuous desires, by representing to ourselves what, in a more distant way, may be useful or hurtful. These considerations of what is desirable with regard to our whole state, that is, of what is good and useful, are based entirely on reason. Reason, therefore, gives laws which are imperatives, that is, objective laws of freedom, and tell us what ought to take place, though perhaps it never does take place, differing therein from the laws of nature, which relate only to ivliat does take place. These laws of freedom, therefore, are called practical laws.

Whether reason in prescribing these laws is [p. 803] not itself determined by other influences, and whether what, in relation to sensuous impulses, is called freedom, may not, with regard to higher and more remote causes, be nature again, does not concern us while engaged in these practical questions, and while demanding from reason nothing but the rule of our conduct. It is a purely speculative question which, while we are only concerned with what we ought or ought not to do, may well be left aside. We know practical freedom by experience as one of the natural causes, namely, as a causality of reason in determining the will, while transcendental freedom demands the independence of reason itself (with reference to its causality in beginning a series of phenomena) from all determining causes in the world of sense, thus running counter, as it would seem, to the law of nature and therefore to all possible experience, and remaining a problem. Reason, however, in its practical employment has nothing to do with this problem, so that there remain but two questions in a

Canon of Pure Reason 645

canon of pure reason which concern the practical interest of pure reason, and with regard to which a canon of their employment must be possible, namely : Is there a God ? Is there a future life ? The question of transcendental freedom refers to speculative knowledge only, and may be safely left aside as quite indifferent when we are concerned with practical interests. A sufficient discussion [p. 804] of it may be found in the antinomy of pure reason.

CANON OF PURE REASON Section II

Of the Ideal of the Sitmnmm Boniim as determmiiig the Ultimate Aim of Pnre Reason