The Star in the West

232 THE STAR IN THE WEST obtained is merely a statement of limitation , and there fore every accession of knowledge is a vision of a new vista of ignorance . Summa scientia nihil scire, has yet another meaning . ) Having then as he thought discovered an à priori basis to metaphysics , he places before his reader the crucial problem . “ How are synthetic propositions à priori possible ” ? And at the very outset , assuming pure synthetic knowledge from the Reason as real (p . 22 ), attacks the problem . “ How is it possible when a conception is given me , I can pass out of it , and connect it with another which is not contained in the former ," and explains the difficulty by assumed knowledge à priori. (Rendering Hume's position now impregnable , thanks to ethnology , etc. , etc. ) ; and then Kant asks , " How is pure mathematics possible " ? [Again falling into the fallacy of supposing his own brain to be without a history . It is curious to note that Kant's à priori is but a recasting of the old myth of Pallas , Wisdom , springing full- armed from the brain of Zeus , and like the legend is a strangely false assertion .] Thus , into the trap Kant sets out to rescue Hume from , he himself falls , by asserting that : “ it is only by means of the form of sensuous intuition that we can intuite things à priori, but in this way we intuite the objects only as they appear to our senses , not as they may be in themselves (p . 29 ). [ Thus Kant himself proves the noumenon , the sole refuge from scepticism , itself to be sceptical .] Kant must have in some way felt the weakness of his argument , since in the following page, he , in true Berkeleyan fashion , in order to upset the sceptic , argues in a circle ; and to prove the possibility of a priori judgements , insists on the sceptic proving an à priori proposition . Having !