The Ultimate Resolution of Kant's Thing-in-Itself Problem: A Logical Proof Based on Cognitive Succession Ontology

Kant’s proposition that "the thing-in-itself is unknowable", proposed in Critique of Pure Reason, represents the ultimate dilemma of subject-object dualism that has plagued Western philosophy for over two millennia. Kant argued that humans can only know phenomena and cannot know the primordial being of things themselves, a conclusion that completely severed the connection between cognition and reality, undermining the legitimacy of metaphysics and leaving an irreparable crack in the objectivity of scientific knowledge. Based on Cognitive Succession Ontology, this paper starts from the unfalsifiable first principle that "the essence of cognition is succession" and proves through strict logical deduction that the ontological spatiotemporal layer (the thing-in-itself), although not directly perceivable, can be precisely known with 1:1 accuracy through geometrized construction and logical retrospection. This paper further demonstrates that the ontological spatiotemporal layer, physical spatiotemporal layer, and logical-cognitive layer share the same Universal Meta-Rule of Succession, possessing underlying isomorphism. Kant’s so-called "transcendental categories" are not inherent structures of the human mind but natural manifestations of the succession meta-rule at the cognitive level. This theory fundamentally resolves the thing-in-itself problem and subject-object dualism, providing a solid epistemological and ontological foundation for Cognitive Succession Ontology and the unification theory of the four fundamental forces.