| To suppose the existence of a triangle and not that of its three angles, is self-contradictory; but to suppose the non-existence of both triangle and angles is perfectly admissible. |
| And so is it with the conception of an absolutely necessary being. |
| Annihilate its existence in thought, and you annihilate the thing itself with all its predicates; how then can there be any room for contradiction? |
| Externally, there is nothing to give rise to a contradiction, for a thing cannot be necessary externally; nor internally, for, by the annihilation or suppression of the thing itself, its internal properties are also annihilated. |
| God is omnipotent--that is a necessary judgement. |
| His omnipotence cannot be denied, if the existence of a Deity is posited--the existence, that is, of an infinite being, the two conceptions being identical. |
| But when you say, God does not exist, neither omnipotence nor any other predicate is affirmed; they must all disappear with the subject, and in this judgement there cannot exist the least self-contradiction. |
| You have thus seen that when the predicate of a judgement is annihilated in thought along with the subject, no internal contradiction can arise, be the predicate what it may. |
| There is no possibility of evading the conclusion--you find yourselves compelled to declare; There are certain subjects which cannot be annihilated in thought. |
| But this is nothing more than saying; There exist subjects which are absolutely necessary--the very hypothesis which you are called upon to establish. |
| For I find myself unable to form the slightest conception of a thing which when annihilated in thought with all its predicates, leaves behind a contradiction; and contradiction is the only criterion of impossibility in the sphere of pure a priori conceptions. |
| Against these general considerations, the justice of which no one can dispute, one argument is adduced, which is regarded as furnishing a satisfactory demonstration from the fact. |
| It is affirmed that there is one and only one conception, in which the non-being or annihilation of the object is self-contradictory, and this is the conception of an ens realissimum. |
| It possesses, you say, all reality, and you feel yourselves justified in admitting the possibility of such a being. |
| (This I am willing to grant for the present, although the existence of a conception which is not self-contradictory is far from being sufficient to prove the possibility of an object.)* Now the notion of all reality embraces in it that of existence; the notion of existence lies, therefore, in the conception of this possible thing. |
| If this thing is annihilated in thought, the internal possibility of the thing is also annihilated, which is self-contradictory. |
| [*Footnote; A conception is always possible, if it is not self-contradictory. |
| This is the logical criterion of possibility, distinguishing the object of such a conception from the nihil negativum. |
| But it may be, notwithstanding, an empty conception, unless the objective reality of this synthesis, but which it is generated, is demonstrated; and a proof of this kind must be based upon principles of possible experience, and not upon the principle of analysis or contradiction. |
| This remark may be serviceable as a warning against concluding, from the possibility of a conception--which is logical--the possibility of a thing--which is real.] |
| I answer; It is absurd to introduce--under whatever term disguised--into the conception of a thing, which is to be cogitated solely in reference to its possibility, the conception of its existence. |