Temporal Succession and Spatial Position

The flow of cognition [principle of sufficient reason] which appears in pure time is the basis of counting and arithmetical calculation

Succession, Position, Action

It has completely mastered the nature of abstract time.

Abstrast time is that form of the flow of cognition [principle of sufficient reason] as succession.

Succession is:

• the form of the flow of cognition [principle of sufficient reason] in time
• the whole nature of time

The flow of cognition [principle of sufficient reason] in abstract space is position.

Abstract space is merely that possibility of position.

Position is the reciprocal determination of the parts of abstract space by other parts.

This is the subject of geometry.

The flow of cognition in cause and effect fills the forms of space and time with matter as objects of perception.

Matter is merely causation.

Its true being is its action.

Only as active does it fill space and time.

Its action on the immediate object (which is itself matter) determines its perception.

The consequence of the action of Material Object 1 on Material Object 2 is known only when Material Object 2 acts on Material Object 3 differently from how Material Object 1 acted on Material Object 2.

Cause and effect thus constitute the whole nature of matter.

Its true being is its action.

The nature of all material things is therefore appropriately called Physical Reality (as opposed to general Reality).

The thing acted on is always matter.

Thus the essence of matter is the orderly change of one part on another part.

The existence of matter is therefore entirely relative within [physical] time and space.

But time and space can be abstract whereas matter cannot.

Matter always exists in physical space.

Its physical action is always in physical time.

Physical space and time are revealed by matter and by cause and effect.

All conceivable phenomena are in infinite space and eternal time.

There is no causation in co-existence in space and change in time that is independent of each other.

But the law of causation receives its meaning and necessity only from this, that

The essence of change is not a mere change in things.

The law of causality does not merely show a succession of things in time without space, or an existence in a space without time.

Instead:

• this succession has reference to a definite space
• this place has a different point of time

Action leads to change.

Change:

• comes from the law of cause and effect
• involves a specific space and time

Cause and effect unites this specific space and time.

The essence of matter is cause and effect.

Consequently, space and time is also united in matter.

This is why co-existence is:

• not in time or in space alone
• first established through matter

The co-existence of many things is the essence of reality.

Through reality, permanence first becomes possible.

Permanence or unchanging is only known when with something changing or impermanent.

Changing is only known when with something unchanging or permanent.

If the world were in space alone, it would be rigid and immovable without succession and change and action.

There would be no matter since matter appears through action.

If the world were in time alone, all would be fleeting, without persistence, contiguity, co-existence, and permanence.

There would also be no matter.

Only through the union of space and time do we reach matter.

Matter is the possibility of co-existence, and, through that, of permanence.

Through permanence again matter is the possibility of the persistence of substance in the change of its states.8

Matter has the stamp of both space and time.

Matter springs from time by change from action.

The law of this action, however, always depends on space and time together.

The regulative function of causality depends on this specific time and space.

We know the characteristics of matter the space and time which it occupies.

The unalterable characteristics of matter are known a priori:

• space-occupation, i.e., impenetrability, i.e., causal action,
• consequently, extension, infinite divisibility, persistence, i.e., indestructibility
• mobility

Weight is experiential knowledge,

Kant, in his “Metaphysical Introduction to Natural Philosophy” p. 71 treats weight as knowable a priori.