(2) Cosmology

CONCEPT OF THE WORLD

Because cosmology borrows its principles not from experience, but rather from pure reason, it can be called rational cosmology. But because even the object as well, and not just the principles, is an object of pure reason and not experience, it is called transcendental cosmology <cosmologia transscendentalis>. In the Ontology we have already spoken of the limiting concepts, which constitute the limit in the series of cognitions. – In relation there were these three concepts: the relation of the substance to the accident; of the cause to the effect, and of the whole to the parts. – In all these cognitions we can think of a first and a last, through which a completeness <completudo> or totality arises in these cognitions. – In the relation of the substance to the accident, the substantial is that which is not an accident of another. – In the relation of the cause to the effect the first cause is the limiting concept, which is no effect of another <causatum alterius>. – In the third relation of the whole to the parts, the limiting concept is the whole which is not a part of another; and that is the concept of the world. This concept is a pure concept of reason, and is not arbitrary, but rather is necessary to human reason. Our reason has a need that is not satisfied until it meets a completeness <completudinem> in the series of things, or until it can think a complete totality.