Kant Second Antinomy Essay

It is in the third antinomy where Kant addresses the possibility of freedom with causal necessity. Transcendental freedom is only possible for Kant if both the thesis and the antithesis of the dialectic are shown to be correct. By demonstrating both the thesis and the antithesis to be correct, Kant hopes to show that applying the question of freedom to the unconditioned totality of appearances is bound to lead towards irreconcilable errors. It is only by accepting the transcendental idealist position about the unknowability of the totality of appearances and its relationship to freedom, that we can postulate the notion of freedom for practical application. It is from this practical application that Kant's moral philosophy can come about. The third antinomy serves an important purpose regarding the nature of freedom with causality.
Kant starts by assuming the opposed position that everything that occurs has a determining ground, and that uncaused causality is impossible.5 Since the totality of appearances is given in transcendental realism, there must be a series of causality in which every cause has a likewise cause ad infinitum. It would obviously follow from this that there would be no such thing as a first cause and no finitude to this series of causes. However, since the initial position was that everything that happens demands a cause, this same rule should apply to the series of causes. This naturally leads to a contradiction.6 There must therefore be some notion of an uncaused causality in order to explain the order of appearances in the