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Metaphysics, in the dialectical attempts of pure reason, leads us to limits

Metaphysics, in the dialectical attempts of pure reason to which the nature of reason itself drives us, leads us to limits, and the transcendental ideas, which one cannot do without and yet never let themselves be realized, serve to show us the limits of the use of pure reason and the way to determine them.

Prolegomena §57, AA 4:353.16–22. The contrast is with mathematics and natural science, which recognize bounds but no limits (4:352.29–33, its own claim); "Grenzen" here is "limits" in the sense Kant defines at 4:352.21–23, a space outside that encloses a place.

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Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik, die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können §57 (AA 4:353.16–22)korpora.org, AA IV 353

Allein Metaphysik führt uns in den dialektischen Versuchen der reinen Vernunft (die nicht willkürlich oder muthwilliger Weise angefangen werden, sondern dazu die Natur der Vernunft selbst treibt) auf Grenzen; und die transscendentale Ideen, eben dadurch daß man ihrer nicht Umgang haben kann, daß sie sich gleichwohl niemals wollen realisiren lassen, dienen dazu, nicht allein uns wirklich die Grenzen des reinen Vernunftgebrauchs zu zeigen, sondern auch die Art, solche zu bestimmen;

But metaphysics, in the dialectical attempts of pure reason (which are not begun arbitrarily or wantonly, but to which the nature of reason itself drives us), leads us to limits; and the transcendental ideas, precisely because one cannot do without them and yet they never let themselves be realized, serve not only to show us actually the limits of the use of pure reason, but also the way to determine them; — the project

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