ABSTRACT
An argument back to a presupposed item from the propriety of the statement presupposing it is bound to be p–circular, as the alleged propriety consists simply in that item being available for reference. Kant’s Vindication new ‘critical’ philosophy is billed to refute scepticism and idealism, not to mention materialism, fatalism, atheism, free–thinking, fanaticism and superstition, by showing how we can achieve real knowledge of our world. Kant’s Vindication often speaks as though his transcendental theory were a super–science turning out proofs for the axioms of each and every science. In modern parlance, ‘construction’ refers to extra lines put into a diagram to assist the proof. A p-circular argument may however indicate a certain logical relation between its conclusion and its premises, which prohibits us from denying it while accepting them. The resulting ‘geometry’ concerns entities and relations invented and defined, i.e. contributed at choice, by us.
