KANT
KANT’S PROBLEM AND ITS SOLUTION
• Acc to Kant knowledge means certain knowledge which is found in
mathematics and physics. However, both empiricism and rationalism failed to
find certain knowledge.
• The failure of empiricism
- Hume was right in holding that the sense –impressions are passing events.
However, knowledge proper is obtained by ordering them into some
system.Without order, there is no knowledge.
- Further, on the basis of experience, strict universality and necessity cannot be
obtained.
• The failure of rationalism
- Rationalism successfully explains universality and necessity but the difficulty
lies in that the innate ideas are subjective.Reason unaided by experience, is
like building castles in the air .
• Solution
- Acc to Kant, knowledge proper is a joint venture of ‘sense’ and
‘understanding’. As soon as sense- impressions are obtained, the mind at once
is stirred into ordering activity by apriori elements.
- Apart from ‘sense’ and ‘understanding’ , there is a ‘reason’.However, reason
is not constitutive but regulative principle of knowledge.
- Hence, acc to Kant, knowledge begins with sense, proceeds to understanding
and ends in reason.
SYNTHETIC JUDGMENT APRIORI
Kant stated that knowledge always meant scientific knowledge found in mathematics
and physics which consists of ‘synthetic judgments a priori’. He explains the
synthetic judgements a priori as follows:
• Analytical propositions:
!A proposition is said to be analytic when its predicate is already
contained in the subject.
!e.g ‘all bodies are extended’. Here the predicate ’extended’ is already
contained in the subject.
!Thus analytical propositions simply explain the meaning of the terms
involved and do not add anything to our knowledge.
• Synthetic propositions:
!A synthetic proposition is one in which the predicate is not contained in
the subject e.g material bodies are heavy.
!Whether a body is heavy or not is known through experience. So, here,
the predicate ‘heavy’ is not contained in the subject and thus the
proposition adds to our knowledge.
• A priori proposition:
!A proposition is said to be ‘a priori’ when it is independent of any
experience .
!‘Necessity’ and ‘strict universality’ are the two criteria of ‘ apriori
propositions.
!For example, All bachelors are unmarried.
• A posteriori proposition:
!‘A posteriori’ propositions are those which are dependent on experience.
!For example, It is raining outside.
- Synthetic judgments apriori:
o For most of the empiricists, analytical proposition is identical with
apriori , and, synthetic proposition is identical with aposteriori.
o For Kant, synthetic propositions can be apriori as well.
o Example of synthetic judgments apriori:5+7 = 12
▪ Being universal and necessary such propositions will be called
‘apriori’.
▪Further, the predicate is not contained in the subject. Since, here,
the predicate or the product 12 is very easy to calculate it seems
that it is already contained in the subject ‘7+5’.However, if we
take large numbers of six or seven digits each, then we cannot
calculate product easily. Hence, the proposition is synthetic as
well.
CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
SPACE AND TIME
Kant discusses space and time as follows:
A)Space and time are percepts and not concepts :
• Concepts are formed by comparing the various instances and by
concentrating on common and essential qualities found in them.
• But space or time is really one and has no instances. Therefore, it is a
percept.
- B)Space and Time are apriori:
• If Space or Time is not apriori then it is aposteriori i.e. derived from
experience. But if it is derived from experience, then such notion of space
cannot have strict universality or objectivity as held by Newton.
• Leibnitz held that space or time is an appearance derived from experience
of things as near and far. Kant says that the very experience of objects near
and far, above and below etc. presupposes the notion of Space.
• If the idea of space or time were derived empirically, then it could be
imagined to be non-existing as is the case with colour, taste or smell etc.
But space or time can never be thought away.
Thus, space and time are apriori percepts.
CATEGORIES
- Acc to Kant, knowledge begins with sensations.
- The mind moulds the sensations using space and time to yield percepts.
- These percepts are combined to form judgments.
- There are 12 forms of judgment which are classified into four - Quantity, Quality,
Relation and Modality with 3 judgements belonging to each class.
- Corresponding to each form of judgement, Kant deduces a particular concept or
category. Thus, there are 12 categories in total.
- For example, judgments corresponding to the class Quantity are Universal,
Particular and Singular and the respective Categories are Unity, Plurality, and
Totality.
- Each third category is a synthesis of the second category with the first.e.g totality
is simply unity combined with plurality.
- Kant has called the first six categories as mathematical and the remaining six as
dynamical. The former have no correlates; but the latter always go in pairs.
- Knowledge consists in combination of concepts with the percepts.
IDEAS OF REASON: SOUL, WORLD, GOD
- According to Kant, there is scientific knowledge of the phenomena alone.We have
no means of knowing the super-sensible or noumena.
- But the human mind cannot rest content with the limited sphere of phenomena and
aims at knowing the the super-sensible.
- Thus, all our knowledge begins with the senses and ends with reason.
- Reason consists in combination of the concepts with the three ideas of God, soul
and world in the same way in which knowledge consists in combination of
concepts with the percepts.
- But corresponding to these three ideas of reason there is nothing in the reality and
if we treat the ideas of reason as knowledge then we fall into illusions.
- SOUL
− The bid of reason to know the super-sensible ‘self’ is bound to yield illusory
conclusions called ‘paralogisms’.
− There are four kinds of paralogisms concerning the self.
• Quantity: The soul is substance.
• Quality: It is simple.
• Relation: It remains identical throughout different times in which it exists.
• Modality: It is immediately given in our consciousness while all other things
are mere inferences from perceptions in our consciousness.
The fourth paralogism leads to development of idealism.
- WORLD
- The world as a whole, being supra-sensible, is not known. However, the mind
attempts to know the world which leads to illusions called antinomies.
- In Antinomies, thesis and anti-thesis can be proved with equal force.
- There are four antinomies corresponding four categories viz. quantity, quality,
relation and modality.
1.Quantity:
Thesis-The world is limited in time and space.
Anti-thesis-The world has no beginning and is not limited in time or
space.
2.Quality:
Thesis-Nothing exists but the simple.
Anti-thesis-There exists nowhere in the world anything simple.
3.Relation:
Thesis-There is free cause and everything is not determined.
Anti-thesis-There is no free cause and everything is determined.
4.Modality:
Thesis-There is a necessary being in the world.
Anti-thesis-There is no necessary being in the world.
- In the antinomies there is no formal fallacy and yet there is an opposition
between them.This proves that valid knowledge is confined to phenomena and
must not be extended beyond into the noumena.
- Kant’s refutation of GOD
- Kant states that there are three proofs only for proving the existence of God,
namely, ontological, cosmological and teleological and he refutes them all.
−Ontological proof-By ontological proof is meant that ’existence’ is the very
essence of the idea of God.The existence of God follows from his idea in the
same way in which the three sidedness follows from the very definition of a
triangle.The ontological proof was developed by Anselm, Descartes and
Leibnitz.
Kant’s refutation-
• ‘existence'` is not a real predicate.
• By mere thought or concepts we cannot bring anything to existence.
- Cosmological proof-Every phenomenon is caused by its antecedents. The
chain extends to infinity. Hence, in order to explain this contingency of the
world we are forced to assume the reality of an uncaused cause or a necessary
being at the basis of the world.
Kant’s refutation-
• The rule of causality is applicable only in the phenomenal world and not in
noumenal.
• From contingency we can infer contingency and not its opposite i.e
necessary being.
- Teleological proof –It says that there is a design found in nature and therefore
there is a supreme designer who has created the world.It also says that there is
order in the universe
Kant’s refutation-
• How can we say that world as a whole has harmony, there may be
blemishes, disorders?
• This proof shows that there is an architect/designer of the world, but it does
not show that there is a creator of the universe.
• We can also say that there are more than one designers of this world.So
God becomes multiple
CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON
PRACTICAL REASON
- Tripartite division: Kant introduced tripartite division of mental processes into
cognition, conation and affection. Pure Reason corresponds to cognition, Practical
reason corresponds to conation.
- Pure Reason:
oThe Critique of Pure Reason shows that the scientific knowledge of
noumena or supersensible -God, World and Soul- is not possible.
oHowever, Kant did not deny the existence of noumena.He held that there are
noumena, but we can’t have knowledge of them.
oBut the human mind cannot rest content with the limited sphere of
phenomena and tries to know the non-experienced or super-sensible i.e.
noumena
- Practical Reason:
oKant states that the problems concerning the supersensible-soul, God, etc-
can be partly solved through practical reason by showing them to be the
necessary postulates of morality.As morality has to be accepted, so these
postulates as objects of faith have to accepted. Therefore Kant points out-I
was obliged to destroy knowledge in order to make room for faith.
PHENOMENA AND NOUMENA
Kant distinguished between Phenomena and Noumena in order to explain knowledge.
- PHENOMENA:
oObjects of perception or experience are called phenomena.These are similar
to what Locke and Berkeley mean by “ideas”. Like Berkeley, Kant says that
phenomena are dependent on the mind.
oHowever,Kant held that though phenomena are dependent on the mind, they
are not produced by the mind.
- NOUMENA:
oThere is a reality external to us that exists independently of us but we can
know it only as it appears to us.
oThese purely intelligible, non-sensual things are called noumena.
oThough we cannot know noumena, they exist as the ground of phenomena.
oThe three ideas of reason-God,World,Self- point to noumena and hence we
cannot know them.
- LIMIT OF KNOWLEDGE:
oOur knowledge is limited to phenomena. When rules that apply to the
phenomena are applied to noumena, illusions result.
oHowever, Kant maintains that the limit of knowledge is not the limit of
thought.So we can think of the noumena but cannot know them.
-CRITICISM:
oThe concept of noumena has introduced an element of Agnosticism in the
Kant’s system.
oHegel has criticised Kant that if noumena is unknowable then how can we
say that it exist.
COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
- Mind approaches objects:
- Acc to Kant, Empiricism and Rationalism both had failed to explain
knowledge because they assumed that mind has to approach objects in
order to know them.
- Objects approach mind:
- Kant stated that instead of the mind approaching objects we have to
assume that the objects must approach mind to be known.
- Mind lays down the conditions or apriori forms (space, time and 12
categories) for the objects to become objects of knowledge.
- Only those objects which fit into these conditions are known; those
which do not fit, are not known at all.
- Similarity with Copernicus:
- Kant took a bold step in field of philosophy as Copernicus did in the
field of science:
- Copernicus had assumed the sun to be the centre of the universe
instead of the earth.
- Similarly, Kant assumed that “ objects approach mind” instead of
“mind approaches objects” as held by Empiricism and
Rationalism.
