Kant’s Philosophy: Knowledge, Reason, and Moral Imperatives
Kant’s Theory of Knowledge
Immanuel Kant asks whether knowledge is not better explained if we assume that objects must conform to our knowledge. Conversely, if our understanding were governed by the nature of objects, then the object would have to adapt to the way we know. For Kant, the only remaining possibility is that necessity and universality result from our way of knowing. This implies that we ourselves contribute to knowledge.
All knowledge is expressed in judgments, which can be classified:
- By the Subject-Predicate Relationship:
- Analytical Judgments: The predicate is implicit in the subject; these are not informative.
- Synthetic Judgments: The predicate is not implicit in the subject; these are informative.
- By the Way to Know the Truth of Judgments:
- A Priori Judgments: Their truth is known without recourse to experience (e.g., mathematical truths).
- A Posteriori Judgments: Their truth is known through experience.
Kant analyzes the structure of our knowledge into three main sections:
Transcendental Aesthetic: The Role of Sensitivity
Sensitivity is the result, the sum of two elements: a) A Posteriori: The combination of sensations received through experience. b) A Priori: The spatio-temporal order. Space and time are not sensations themselves, as they lack empirical content. They are subjective forms and the conditions for the possibility of sensitivity.
Transcendental Analytic: Understanding and Categories
Sensitivity alone does not yield knowledge. The sensations provided by sensitivity, ordered spatio-temporally, always refer to an object. The categories of understanding synthesize these sensations, grouping similar features into a single unit. Thus, concepts are elaborated through the synthesis of two elements: a) A Priori Ordered Sensations: Sensations structured in space-time. b) A Priori Rules (Categories): Rules of understanding that organize this sensory material.
Transcendental Dialectic: The Limits of Reason
Kant calls the third faculty of our knowledge ‘Reason’. Knowledge is only valid when it pertains to objects of experience (phenomena). However, reason tends to synthesize beyond sensation, venturing into concepts like God, soul, and cosmos (noumena). These attempts violate the boundaries of legitimate knowledge. Therefore, metaphysics, in its traditional sense, cannot claim to be a science, as it does not meet the requirements of empirical verification for legitimate knowledge.
Kant’s Ethical Philosophy
Ethics is a reflection of reason, but only in its practical use. The human being has both a sensible dimension (desires, passions) and a rational dimension. Kant seeks an ethics applicable at all times, meaning it must be a priori (necessary and universal).
Kant identifies several ‘failings’ of traditional material ethics:
- Empirical: Based on experience (a posteriori).
- Hypothetical: Conditioned on achieving a specific outcome (e.g., ‘If you want X, do Y’).
- Heteronomous: Driven by external desires or inclinations (e.g., happiness), rather than internal moral law. This includes most ancient and modern ethical systems.
To be universal, ethics cannot be ‘material’ (prescribing what to do). Instead, it must be ‘formal’ (prescribing how we should act).
Kant distinguishes three types of actions in relation to duty:
- Contrary to Duty: Actions that violate moral duty.
- In Accordance with Duty (but not from duty): Actions that align with duty but are performed for other reasons (e.g., self-interest).
- From Duty: Actions performed purely out of respect for the moral law. This is the only truly moral action for Kant.
For Kant, actions themselves are not inherently good or bad; rather, the moral worth lies in the will or maxim behind the action.
Kant proposed the Categorical Imperative as the supreme principle of morality. It commands unconditionally, regardless of desires or consequences. There are several formulations, two key ones are:
- First Formulation (Universal Law): “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction.”
- Second Formulation (Humanity as an End): “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”
In Kantian ethics, two postulates are often associated with the possibility of morality:
- Freedom: If there is no freedom, morality is impossible. We must postulate freedom as a noumenal reality, even if we experience ourselves phenomenally as determined.
- Immortality of the Soul: The complete realization of the highest good (virtue and happiness) is not possible in this life, so we must postulate an immortal soul to allow for infinite moral progress.