Cosmological Ideas 1 & 2

In in third part of Proglegomena, Kant discusses cosmological ideas, which he separates into four different arguments. The first two are:

1. The claim that the world has a definite beginning and end vs. the claim that the world is infinite

2. The claim that all things are made up of simple, indestructible, indivisible parts vs. the claim that everything is composite and infinitely divisible

Since these claims cannot be proved with experience, we tend to think they deal with things in themselves rather than with appearances. Kant does not attack either side, instead he shows what mistakes come about in each one. He says that the mistake in the first one comes from treating space and time are features of our experience, and do not exist independently of experience. He says that it does not make sense to asked if the world has a limit in space and time since the limit would exist where we would not experience it.

The problem with the second argument, according to Kant, is that when we talk about the parts into which a composite thing can be divided, we are assuming that these parts already exists inside the composite thing, but they are only appearances, so they cannot have any existence until the are experienced.