| All cognition, by means of which I am enabled to cognize and determine a priori what belongs to empirical cognition, may be called an anticipation; and without doubt this is the sense in which Epicurus employed his expression prholepsis. |
| But as there is in phenomena something which is never cognized a priori, which on this account constitutes the proper difference between pure and empirical cognition, that is to say, sensation (as the matter of perception), it follows, that sensation is just that element in cognition which cannot be at all anticipated. |
| On the other hand, we might very well term the pure determinations in space and time, as well in regard to figure as to quantity, anticipations of phenomena, because they represent a priori that which may always be given a posteriori in experience. |
| But suppose that in every sensation, as sensation in general, without any particular sensation being thought of, there existed something which could be cognized a priori, this would deserve to be called anticipation in a special sense--special, because it may seem surprising to forestall experience, in that which concerns the matter of experience, and which we can only derive from itself. |
| Yet such really is the case here. |
| Apprehension*, by means of sensation alone, fills only one moment, that is, if I do not take into consideration a succession of many sensations. |
| As that in the phenomenon, the apprehension of which is not a successive synthesis advancing from parts to an entire representation, sensation has therefore no extensive quantity; the want of sensation in a moment of time would represent it as empty, consequently = 0. |
| That which in the empirical intuition corresponds to sensation is reality (realitas phaenomenon); that which corresponds to the absence of it, negation = 0. |
| Now every sensation is capable of a diminution, so that it can decrease, and thus gradually disappear. |
| Therefore, between reality in a phenomenon and negation, there exists a continuous concatenation of many possible intermediate sensations, the difference of which from each other is always smaller than that between the given sensation and zero, or complete negation. |
| That is to say, the real in a phenomenon has always a quantity, which however is not discoverable in apprehension, inasmuch as apprehension take place by means of mere sensation in one instant, and not by the successive synthesis of many sensations, and therefore does not progress from parts to the whole. |
| Consequently, it has a quantity, but not an extensive quantity. |
| [*Footnote; Apprehension is the Kantian word for preception, in the largest sense in which we employ that term. |
| It is the genus which includes under i, as species, perception proper and sensation proper--Tr] |
| Now that quantity which is apprehended only as unity, and in which plurality can be represented only by approximation to negation = 0, I term intensive quantity. |
| Consequently, reality in a phenomenon has intensive quantity, that is, a degree. |
| if we consider this reality as cause (be it of sensation or of another reality in the phenomenon, for example, a change), we call the degree of reality in its character of cause a momentum, for example, the momentum of weight; and for this reason, that the degree only indicates that quantity the apprehension of which is not successive, but instantaneous. |
| This, however, I touch upon only in passing, for with causality I have at present nothing to do. |
| Accordingly, every sensation, consequently every reality in phenomena, however small it may be, has a degree, that is, an intensive quantity, which may always be lessened, and between reality and negation there exists a continuous connection of possible realities, and possible smaller perceptions. |
| Every colour-- for example, red--has a degree, which, be it ever so small, is never the smallest, and so is it always with heat, the momentum of weight, etc. |
| This property of quantities, according to which no part of them is the smallest possible (no part simple), is called their continuity. |