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

Nor can the theoretically insufficient acceptance of truth be called belief, except from 2. practical point of view. And this practical view refers either to skill or to moralitj'y the former being concerned with any contingent and casual ends and objects whatsoever, the latter with absolutely necessary ends only.

If we have once proposed an object or end to ourselves,

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the conditions of attaining it are hypothetically necessary. This necessity is subjective, and yet but rela- [p. 824] tively sufficient, if I know of no other conditions under which the end can be attained : it is sufficient absolutely and for every one, if I am convinced that no one can know of other conditions, leading to the attainment of our end. In the former case my assuming and holding certain conditions as true is merely an accidental belief, while in the latter case it is a necessary belief. Thus a physician, for instance, may feel that he must do something for a patient, who is in danger. But as he does not know the nature of the illness, he observes the symptoms, and arrives at the conclusion, as he knows nothing else, that it is phthisis. His belief, according to his own judgment, is contingent only, and he knows that another might form a better judgment. It is this kind of contingent belief which, nevertheless, supplies a ground for the actual employment of means to certain actions, which I call pragmatic belief.

The usual test, whether something that is maintained be merely persuasion, or a subjective conviction at least, that is, firm belief, is betting. People often pronounce their views with such bold and uncompromising assurance that they seem to have abandoned all fear of error. A bet startles them. Sometimes it turns out that a man has persuasion sufficient to be valued at one ducat, but not at ten ; he is ready to venture the first ducat, but [p. 825] with ten, he becomes aware for the first time that, after all, it might be possible that he should be mistaken. If we imagine that we have to stake the happiness of our whole life, the triumphant air of our judgment drops considerably; we become extremely shy, and suddenly discover that our belief does not reach so far. Thus pragmatic

662 Canon of Pure Reason belief admits of degrees which, according to the difference of the interests at stake, may be large or small.

Now it is true, no doubt, that, though with reference to an object of our belief, we can do nothing, and our opinion is, therefore, purely theoretical, yet in many cases we can represent and imagine to ourselves an undertaking for which we might think that we had sufficient inducements, if any means existed of ascertaining the truth of the matter. Thus, even in purely theoretical judgments, there is an analogon of practical judgments to which the word belief may be applied, and which we shall therefore call doctrinal belief. If it were possible to apply any test of experience, I should be ready to stake the whole of my earthly goods on my belief that at least one of the planets which we see is inhabited. Hence I say that it is not only an opinion, but a strong belief, on the truth of which I should risk even many advantages of life, that there are inhabitants in other worlds.

Now we must admit that the doctrine of the [p. 826] existence of God belongs to doctrinal belief. For although, with reference to my theoretical knowledge of the world, I can produce nothing which would make this thought a necessary supposition as a condition of my being able to explain the phenomena of the world, but on the contrary am bound to use my reason as if everything were mere nature, nevertheless, the unity of design is so important a condition of the application of reason to nature that I cannot ignore it, especially as experience supplies so many examples of it. Of that unity of design, however, I know no other condition, which would make it a guidance in my study of nature, but the supposition that a supreme intelligence has ordered all things according to the wisest

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