Note 204 — Introductory material

But can we agree in regarding empty space, the "infinite given whole," as really given? Must we not, in spite of Kant's argument, regard it as wholly conceptual? It is not required, in the first place, by the argument of the first half of this chapter, which required only that every This of sense-perception should be resolvable into Thises, and thus involved only an order among Thises, not anything given originally without reference to them at all. In the second place, Kant's two arguments[198] designed to prove that empty space is not conceptual, are inadequate to their purpose. The argument that the parts of space are not contained under it, but in it, proves certainly that space is not a general conception, of which spatial figures are the instances; but it by no means follows that empty space is not a conception. Empty space is undifferentiated and homogeneous; parts of space, or spatial figures, arise only by reference to some differentiating matter, and thus belong rather to spatial order than to empty space. If empty space be the pre-condition of spatial order, we cannot expect it to be connected with spatial relations as genus with species. But empty space may nevertheless be a universal conception; it may be related to spatial order as the state to the citizens. These are not instances of the state, but are contained in it; they also, in a sense, presuppose it, for a man can only become a citizen by being related to other citizens in a state[199].