On The Basis Of Law And Its Limits

This essay mainly investigates the domain dominated by principle of ground and also whether free will is possible insofar as the domain of power of principle of ground.Hence the structure of the essay corresponds to this investigation,namely,first of all it investigates thoughts of philosophers starting from Leibniz concerning this principle,and then how to answer the tension between principle of ground and free will in each philosopher's theory.Leibniz argues that essence of truths consists in identity.With distinction between necessary and contingent truths,one can conclude that insofar as cognition of truth,all indirectly identical truths depend on principle of ground.Meanwhile,the principle of ground dominates existence,i.e.,apart from God's existence,existence of all creatures depends on principle of ground,which implies determinism.Hence it seems that human has no philosophical freedom at all.The essay explains that God is free and human has limited freedom by explicating three meanings of free will(especially one concerning autonomy),Leibniz's distinction between metaphysical and moral necessity and his doctrine of substance(i.e.,doctrine of monad).On the foundation of Leibniz's thoughts on principle of ground,Wolff starts from presupposed unity of cognition and reality,and defines ground as"something from which one can understand why some thing is".Based on principle of ground,Wolff is able to establish all sciences through certainty of empirical cognition and distinctness of rational cognition.Principle of ground itself finally is grounded in God ontologically,which is alike with Leibniz's theory.However,in Wolff s system,God's presence at final doctrine of natural theology indicates the possibility of philosophical system without being based on God,i.e.,an atheistic system.Besides,Wolff thinks that principle of ground is a necessary presupposition for empirical cognition,which is turned into transcendental view in Kant's theory.Pre-critical Kant proposes principle of determining ground,which is a more precise formulation of Leibniz's principle of ground.He also reconciles free will with principle of ground through that"freedom consists in that ground for action comes from oneself".Insofar as thoughts on principle of ground itself and reconciliation between this principle and free will,it seems that Kant's 1755 essay does not transcend Leibniz's philosophy.However,with Copernican revolution and accompanying transcendental idealism,Kant is able to supply a wholly new proof for principle of ground in Kritik der reinen Vernunft.Principle of ground under the horizon of transcendental idealism is formulated as"in what precedes,the condition is to be encountered under which the occurrence always(i.e.,necessarily)follows".Since transcendental principle of ground determines appearances,and things in themselves are not dominated by this principle,freedom is possible.Although human action must be in time,hence dominated by principle of ground,in every instant(non-temporal)actions are merely grounded in will and one acts under the representation of moral laws.As freely determined action is equivalent with those determined under moral laws,acting according to moral law is what has been called freedom.Schopenhauer accepts some thoughts of Kant's transcendental idealism and he divides the principle of ground into fourfold roots,especially one of will.By determining necessity as "the inevitability of the consequent when the ground is posited",Schopenhauer argues that human has no free will.