Aristotélēs
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According to our previous discussion, it is a misapplication of the law of causality whenever it is applied to something other than alterations in the empirically given material world, e.g., to natural forces, by means of which such alterations are first possible at all; or to matter, in which they take place; or to the universe, to which must be attributed an absolutely objective existence, not one conditioned by our intellect; and also in many other ways. Here I refer to what was said about this in The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 2, ch. 4, pp. 42ff. (3rd edn, ii, pp. 46ff.).a Of course, the origin of such misapplication is partly in our applying the concept of cause, like countless other concepts in metaphysics and morals, much too widely, and partly through our forgetting that the law of causality is, indeed, a presupposition that we bring with us into the world and that makes possible intuition of things external to us. However, for just this reason, we are not justified in applying such a principle to the eternal order of the world and to all that exists in it external to and independent of the function of our cognitive faculty from which this principle has arisen.
On the Fourfold Root
On the Fourfold Root
