The same action may be taken in another relation, so that the doctrine of morality and the doctrine of nature each hold their place
For morality nothing more is needed than that freedom not contradict itself and hence put no obstacle at all in the way of the mechanism of nature of the very same action taken in another relation; so the doctrine of morality and the doctrine of nature each hold their place, which would not have happened had the critique not instructed us of our unavoidable ignorance of things in themselves and restricted all theoretical cognition to mere appearances.
So aber, da ich zur Moral nichts weiter brauche, als daß Freiheit sich nur nicht selbst widerspreche und sich also doch wenigstens denken lasse, ohne nöthig zu haben sie weiter einzusehen, daß sie also dem Naturmechanism eben derselben Handlung (in anderer Beziehung genommen) gar kein Hinderniß in den Weg lege: so behauptet die Lehre der Sittlichkeit ihren Platz und die Naturlehre auch den ihrigen
But since for morality I need nothing more than that freedom only not contradict itself, and so can after all at least be thought, without needing to understand it any further, and hence that it put no obstacle at all in the way of the mechanism of nature of the very same action (taken in another relation): the doctrine of morality holds its place and the doctrine of nature its own
B xxviii–xxix: freedom "dem Naturmechanism eben derselben Handlung (in anderer Beziehung genommen) gar kein Hinderniß in den Weg lege" (AA 3:18.24–25); the two doctrines hold their places, "welches aber nicht statt gefunden hätte, wenn nicht Kritik uns zuvor ... alles, was wir theoretisch erkennen können, auf bloße Erscheinungen eingeschränkt hätte" (3:18.27–30). The phrase "eben derselben Handlung (in anderer Beziehung genommen)" is one of the texts the two-aspect reading rests on (see the readings of "eben dieselben Gegenstände" at B xxvi).
Depends on
- c-kant-objects-known-only-as-appearancesWe cognize objects only as appearances, never as things in themselves