These appear to be entirely empirical, and it may therefore seem
questionable whether they are entitled to a place in a metaphysical
science of right. For, in such a science, the divisions must be made
according to principles a priori; and hence the matter of the
juridical relation, which may be conventional, ought to be left out of
account, and only its form should be taken into consideration.
Such conceptions may be illustrated by taking the instance of money,
in contradistinction from all other exchangeable things as wares and
merchandise; or by the case of a book. And considering these as
illustrative examples in this connection, it will be shown that the
conception of money as the greatest and most useable of all the
means of human intercommunication through things, in the way of
purchase and sale in commerce, as well as that of books as the
greatest means of carrying on the interchange of thought, resolve
themselves into relations that are purely intellectual and rational.
And hence it will be made evident that such conceptions do not
really detract from the purity of the given scheme of pure rational
contracts, by empirical admixture.
Illustration of Relations of Contract by the
Conceptions of Money and a Book
I.
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