Editing Antinomy (section)

==Kant's use==
{{see|Kant's antinomies}}
The term acquired a special significance in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who used it to describe the equally rational but contradictory results of applying to the universe of pure thought the categories or criteria of reason that are proper to the universe of sensible perception or [[experience]] (phenomena).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Antinomy|volume=2|page=130}}</ref> [[Empirical]] reason cannot here play the role of establishing rational truths because it goes beyond possible experience and is applied to the sphere of that which [[transcendence (philosophy)|transcends]] it.

For Kant there are [[Kant's antinomies|four antinomies]],<ref>S. Al-Azm, The Origins of Kant's Argument in the Antinomies, Oxford University Press 1972.</ref><ref>M. Grier, ''Kant's Doctrine of Transcendental Illusion'', Cambridge University Press 2001.</ref><ref>M. Grier, "The Logic of Illusion and the Antinomies," in Bird (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford 2006, pp. 192-207.</ref> connected with:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/antinomy|title=antinomy {{!}} philosophy|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-09-04|language=en}}</ref>
*the limitation of the universe in respect to [[space]] and [[time]]
*the theory that the whole consists of indivisible [[atom]]s (whereas, in fact, none such exist)
*the problem of [[free will]] in relation to universal [[causality]]
*the existence of a universal being<ref name="EB1911"/>

In each antinomy, a thesis is contradicted by an antithesis. For example: in the first antinomy, Kant proves the thesis that time must have a beginning by showing that if time had no beginning, then an infinity would have elapsed up until the present moment. This is a manifest contradiction because infinity cannot, by definition, be completed by "successive synthesis"—yet just such a finalizing synthesis would be required by the view that time is infinite; so the thesis is proven. Then he proves the antithesis, that time has no beginning, by showing that if time had a beginning, then there must have been "empty time" out of which time arose. This is incoherent (for Kant) for the following reason: Since, necessarily, no time elapses in this pretemporal void, then there could be no alteration, and therefore nothing (including time) would ever come to be: so the antithesis is proven. Reason makes equal claim to each proof, since they are both correct, so the question of the limits of time must be regarded as meaningless.

This was part of Kant's critical program of determining limits to [[science]] and philosophical inquiry. These contradictions are inherent in reason when it is applied to the world as it is in itself, independently of any perception of it (this has to do with the distinction between [[phenomena]] and [[noumena]]). Kant's goal in his critical philosophy was to identify what claims are and are not justified, and the antinomies are a particularly illustrative example of his larger project.