Cosmological Ideas 3 & 4

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

3. The claim that we can act in accordance with our own free will vs. the claim that everything we do is determined by nature.

4. The claim that there are necessary causes vs. the claim that nothing is necessary and everything is contingent.

Kant says that in 3, causal necessity and freedom are made to seem contradictory when in fact they are compatible. He says that the laws of nature are applicable only to appearances since they can only operate within the limits of space and time. He says that freedom is only applicable to things in themselves because it is the ability to exist outside the confines of experience. He says that we can be free and also be subject to the laws of nature because our faculty of reason does not deal with experience and so we are free in our capacity as rational beings. The freedom has to express itself in and only in general maxims that do not depend on causal influence or particular times and places, so we still follow the regular laws in the world of appearances.

In 4, the contradiction is resolved somewhat like 3 is. He says that half of the proposition talks about things in themselves and the other half talks about appearances. He says that every causal connection may be contingent in the world of appearances, meaning it could have happened otherwise, but these appearances might have a necessary connection to things in themselves.