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Kant

Kant aimed to make philosophy scientific by applying a "Copernican revolution" to reason, analogous to how Copernicus revolutionized astronomy. Specifically, Kant argued that instead of assuming objects conform to our knowledge, we must start from the supposition that objects must conform to our knowledge. He distinguished between the understanding, which structures our experience based on sensory input, and pure reason, which tries to go beyond what can be achieved through understanding alone. Kant introduced epistemological distinctions regarding how our senses determine the content of experience while our understanding determines its structure.

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89 views2 pages

Kant

Kant aimed to make philosophy scientific by applying a "Copernican revolution" to reason, analogous to how Copernicus revolutionized astronomy. Specifically, Kant argued that instead of assuming objects conform to our knowledge, we must start from the supposition that objects must conform to our knowledge. He distinguished between the understanding, which structures our experience based on sensory input, and pure reason, which tries to go beyond what can be achieved through understanding alone. Kant introduced epistemological distinctions regarding how our senses determine the content of experience while our understanding determines its structure.

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123014stephen
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1. Many truths of arithmetic and geometry are synthetic, not analytic.

a. That a straight line between two points is the shortest one is a


synthetic proposition. For my concept of straightness contains
no notion of size, but only of quality (B, 16).
b. Physics, too, contains synthetic a priori principles, such as the
law of conservation of matter.
c. How, though, is a synthetic a priori judgment possible?
2. Kants aim in his critical philosophy was to make philosophy, for the
first time, fully scientific. Mathematics had been scientific for many
centuries, and scientific physics had come of age. But metaphysics, the
oldest discipline, the one which would survive even if all the rest were
swallowed up in the abyss of an all-destroying barbarism, was still far
from maturity.
a. Metaphysical curiosity was inherent in human nature: human
beings could not but be interested in the three main objects of
metaphysics, namely, God, freedom, and immortality.
b. Could metaphysics become a true science?
3. Philosophy, Kant believed, needed a revolution like that of Copernicus.
a. Copernicus had shown that when we think we are observing the
motion of the sun round the earth what we see is the
consequence of the rotation of our own earth.
b. Kants Copernican revolution will do for our reason what
Copernicus did for our sight.
i. Instead of asking how our knowledge can conform to its
objects, we must start from the supposition that objects
must conform to our knowledge.
ii. Only in this way can we justify the claim of metaphysics to
possess knowledge that is necessary and universal.
4. Like medieval and rationalist philosophers before him, Kant
distinguishes sharply between the senses and the intellect; but within
the intellect he makes a new distinction of his own between
understanding (Verstand) and reason (Vernunft).
a. The understanding operates in combination with the senses in
order to provide human knowledge: through the senses, objects
are given to us; through understanding they are made thinkable.
i. Experience has a content, provided by the senses, and a
structure, determined by the understanding.
b. Reason is the intellects endeavor to go beyond what
understanding can achieve.
i. When divorced from experience it is pure reason.
5. Kant introduces epistemological and logical distinctions:
a. Our senses determine the content of our experience; our
understanding determines its structure.

i. The content of sensation would include what makes the

difference between a splash of blue and a splash of green,


or the sound of a violin and the sound of a piano.

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