Time and Space A Metaphysical Essay (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Time and Space: A Metaphysical Essay
1. The writer of the following pages submits them, not without a sense of their imperfection, to the judgment of his contemporaries. The questions treated of labour under one kind of difficulty peculiarly their own. It is not every reader who will be prepared to admit, that, in one part of metaphysical enquiries, the proof to be required differs in its nature from the proof to be required in the purely objective sciences. But that it is so follows from the nature of the matter, at once subjective and objective. In the purely objective sciences a writer need have no doubt about his facts; he can protect himself by definitions and by distinctions, and can always make clear what the precise object is, about which he reasons. For instance, in Political Economy, he can obviate ambiguities in his object-matter by defining Wealth to mean "every commodity which has an exchangeable value;" and, consequent on this definition, he can define Productive Labour to mean labour which produces such commodities; for every one is agreed that there are such commodities and such labour. But where this has not been done, but is still in process of doing, there every man must be judge for himself, whether his own internal experience bears out the assertions of the writer.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."