The Critique of Pure Reason, Part 6, Section III summary
Part 6, Section III of 79 · Part 2: Transcendental Logic · 7 min to read the section
In Section III, reason moves from contingent existence toward a necessary being and identifies that being with complete reality, but the argument cannot establish this identification. The discussion distinguishes three speculative proofs of divine existence and announces an examination that begins with pure conceptions rather than experience.
What happens
- Reason begins with actual existence and seeks an unconditioned cause that provides a secure stopping point.
- It selects a being containing all reality as the best candidate for absolutely necessary existence.
- The argument fails to establish that limited beings cannot also exist necessarily, so it determines no properties of a necessary being.
- Practical obligations can nevertheless give the assumption of a Supreme Being weight despite the argument’s weakness.
- The discussion identifies three speculative proofs and chooses to examine them in reverse order, beginning with the ontological approach.
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Which proof begins from some empirical existence without specifying its particular features?
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