Kant’s Philosophy: Knowledge and Reason

Posted on Feb 17, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Kant’s Philosophy: Structure and Order

Kant’s philosophy can be ordered and structured around three questions posed in his Logica:

  • What can I know?
  • What should I do?
  • What can I hope?

What I can know relates to the theory of knowledge.

Definition of Science

Kant considered scientific knowledge to have these characteristics:

  • It is universal knowledge, and scientific statements are true and applicable to all individuals.
  • It is, therefore, necessary knowledge; it cannot be otherwise and would deny contradiction.
  • It is ampliative knowledge, as it has to expand knowledge.

Types of Judgments

Kant distinguishes between two types of judgments (analytical and synthetic) but adds a novelty: the distinction between a posteriori and a priori.

Analytical Judgments

  • Are universal, concerning all and not one in particular.
  • Are needed.
  • Are not ampliative; they do not add information that the subject contains.

Synthetic Judgments

These are characterized by expanding the information contained in the subject in its definition.

A posteriori Synthetic Judgments
  • Are particular, not universal; judgments that apply to specific people.
  • Are contingent, not necessary, since they could be otherwise.
  • Are ampliative.
A priori Synthetic Judgments
  • Are universal.
  • Are necessary.
  • Are ampliative.

Therefore, scientific knowledge is composed of a priori synthetic judgments, since they are the only ones that are both necessary and universally ampliative.

Structure of the Critique of Pure Reason

Kant studied the human powers involved in knowledge in the Critique of Pure Reason. In this work, he differentiates between the substance of knowledge (sensory impressions) and the form of knowledge (which precedes experience and is therefore a priori). The three powers involved in knowledge are:

  • Transcendental Aesthetic (Sensibility)
  • Transcendental Analytic (Understanding)
  • Transcendental Dialectic (Reason)

Transcendental Aesthetic

The subject has a priori forms of sensibility, which are responsible for reordering the data we get through the senses. These are space and time:

  • Space is the external form of sensitivity.
  • Time is the internal form.

Sensory impressions marked in a specific time and space are called representations. The presence of a priori elements in sensitivity makes possible and explains the existence of:

  • Geometry: a science based on the pure study of space; its judgments are a priori synthetic.
  • Arithmetic: a science that is based on temporal intuition.

Transcendental Analytic

This deals with the study of a priori concepts that structure understanding. Its task is to synthesize or unify the representations of sensitivity obtained from concepts. Kant distinguishes between:

  • Pure concepts (they have no empirical content)
  • Empirical concepts (arising from sensory experience)

Pure concepts are called categories and are a priori forms of understanding that allow sensible intuitions to be thought about.

  • Categories are the condition of possibility that sensible intuitions are designed.
  • Categories can only be applied to sensible intuitions; any other use is illegitimate.

Kant established a total of twelve categories for the twelve types of statements of logic:

  • Quantity
    • Universal (all A is B) -> Total
    • Particular (Some A are B) -> Multiple
    • Individual (one A is B) -> Unit
  • Quality
    • Affirmative (A is B) -> Essence or reality
    • Negative (A is not B) -> Denial of an essence
    • Indefinite (A is not-B) -> Limitation
  • Relationship
    • Categorical (A is B) -> A/B substance accident
    • Hypothetical (if A then B) -> Causality
    • Disjunctive (A is B or C) -> Reciprocal Action
  • Mode
    • Problematic (A is possibly B) -> Chance
    • Assertoric (A is really B) -> Existence
    • Apodictic (A is necessarily B) -> Need