Immanuel Kant ( ) “ The Synthesizer ”

Synthesized Rationalism and Empiricism We learn through our senses, but we also must use reason to make sense of sensory data o The mind is active o The mind is not a tabula rasa o We are born with a priori Pure Concepts of Understanding Categories through which we interpret reality They exist prior to experience, but help us understand experience They are universal They are necessary Purely epistemological

Kant ’ s a priori Concepts Quantity Unity Plurality Totality Relation Substance-accidents Cause-effect Causal reciprocity (interaction) Quality Affirmation/Reality Negation Limitation Modality Possibility Actuality (existence) Necessity

Ding an Sich The “ Thing in Itself ” We can never know the ding an sich o We can only know reality as it exists through our a priori concepts

“ In order to save the truth of the sciences, Kant has had to make the laws of science dependant upon the mind and its concepts… ” “ Nature does not give the human mind its laws, Kant has discovered. It is the other way around. The mind gives its own laws to nature—its own laws in the form of its own necessary concepts which organize all sensory materials. ” “ Mind is the law-giver of nature. ” With the philosophy of Kant, the world order has become mind-dependant. ”

The “ Kantian Turn ” in Philosophy Focused on how we interpret things, not the things themselves Subjectivity is now essential The object is a creation of the subject

Descartes said the existence of God proves the existence of substances. Hume said we can never prove the existence of substances. Kant said we can prove the existence of substance, but we subjectively view substances through the lenses of our Pure Concepts. So we can never know the true, pure, material world.

Kant ’ s Axiology The “ Categorical Imperative ” o “ Act as if the maxim from which you act were to become through your will a general law. ” o Never treat another human being as a means, but always as an end Morality according to Kant is: o Rational o Concerned with HOW you do things, not with WHAT you do o A matter of right or obligation (deontological), not of consequences; consequences are irrelevant o Unconditional o A matter of necessity and universality