6. Deduction of the Conception of a Purely Juridical
Possession of an External Object (Possessio Noumenon).
The question, "How is an external mine and thine possible?" resolves
itself into this other question: "How is a merely juridical or
rational possession possible?" And this second question resolves
itself again into a third: "How is a synthetic proposition in right
possible a priori?"
All propositions of right- as juridical propositions- are
propositions a priori, for they are practical laws of reason
(dictamina rationis). But the juridical proposition a priori
respecting empirical possession is analytical; for it says nothing
more than what follows by the principle of contradiction, from the
conception of such possession; namely, that if I am the holder of a
thing in the way of being physically connected with it, any one
interfering with it without my consent- as, for instance, in wrenching
an apple out of my hand- affects and detracts from my freedom as
that which is internally mine; and consequently the maxim of his
action is in direct contradiction to the axiom of right. The
proposition expressing the principle of an empirical rightful
possession does not therefore go beyond the right of a person in
reference to himself.
On the other hand, the proposition expressing the possibility of the
possession of a thing external to me, after abstraction of all the
conditions of empirical possession in space and time- consequently
presenting the assumption of the possibility of a possessio
noumenon- goes beyond these limiting conditions; and because this
proposition asserts a possession even without physical holding, as
necessary to the conception of the external mine and thine, it is
synthetical.
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