ANTINOMY. - From the Greek ἀντινομία (ἀντί against, νόμος law) it is the contradiction or inconsistency of a law, which gives rise to interpretations in the opposite sense; or else the conflict, real or apparent, between two different laws (Quintilian, VII, 7, 1; ibid., 10, 2). In a derived sense, and common today, a. generally means contradiction, conflict, inconsistency, originating from situations, principles, reasonings that present themselves as equally legitimate (practical, social, historical a., etc.).
In Kant, a. are the contradictions in which human reason becomes involved when it considers the contents of its ideas (which are valid only as unifying representations of experience) as possible objects of science (metaphysics). They concern in particular the cosmological idea and are formulated by Kant in the form of thesis and antithesis, both susceptible of equal demonstration. Kant enumerates four of them which together constitute "the a. of pure reason" (cf. Kr. der v. Vernunft, Die Trans. Dial., II, ch. 2; Ital. trans., Bari 1940, part 2, p. 335 ff.). Kant further admits an a. of practical reason (to the correct [concept] of the highest good the indissoluble agreement between virtue and happiness is essential; on the other hand, in the natural world the actualization of virtue is not joined with happiness: cf. Kr. der prakt. Vernunft, part 1, II, ch. 2; Ital. trans., Bari 1942, p. 136-37); an a.
of teleological judgment, concerning mechanism and finality, and finally an a. of aesthetic taste (cf. Kr. der Urtheilkraft, § 56 ff. and 69 ff.; Ital. trans., Bari 1938, p. 193 ff. and 246 ff.). v. KANT.
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Ugo Viglino