Definitions HQ

A Postulate (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a conviction of reason no lower in degree than knowledge, for a morally good person, though wholly different from it in kind.

A Postulate (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not a mathematical certainty but a necessary hypothesis — for practical reason, a subjective yet unconditioned necessity to assume God and immortality in order to obey the law.

A Postulate (n.) does ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not mean a proposition put forth as certain without proof; if that were allowed, criticism would be lost and the understanding open to every delusion that speaks in a confident tone.

A Postulate (n.) of ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠pure practical reason is a theoretical proposition that cannot be proved, yet is held because it clings inseparably to a law that holds a priori and unconditionally.

A Postulate (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠mathematics is a practical proposition that contains nothing but the act by which we first give ourselves an object — to draw a circle with a given line from a given point — and so cannot be proved.

Postulate (n.) such ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠as immortality, freedom and God are not theoretical dogmas but presuppositions forced by a practical standpoint; they add nothing to knowledge, yet give speculative reason's ideas a reality it could never secure itself.