ABSTRACT
I have shown in the seventh chapter that, in theoretical matters, to proceed from concepts only suffices for mediocre achievements; those which are excellent by contrast need to be drawn from perception itself, as the primary source of all cognizance. Now in practical matters, however, the converse is true: here, being determined by the perceptual is the manner of the animal, but unworthy of the human being, who has concepts to direct his action; thereby, he is emancipated from the power of the perceptually present to which the animal is unconditionally subject. The human being’s action is termed rational in proportion to his assertion of this prerogative, and only in this sense can one speak of practical reason, not in the Kantian sense, the inadmissibility of which I have demonstrated at length in the Prize Essay On the Foundation of Morality.
