Kant’s Philosophy: Reason, Knowledge, and Morality
Kant’s Philosophical Project
Context and Motivation
Kant’s philosophy, motivated by the intellectual situation of the Renaissance, arose from a need for clarification and a critique of reason. Reason, as the ultimate authority, was crucial for scientific endeavor, moral action, and the organization of society. Kant sought to resolve three key issues:
- Dogmatic Rationalism
- Passivist Empiricism
- Irrationalism
Enlightenment and Freedom
Humanity often lives in an unenlightened state due to a lack of freedom and intellectual laziness. The objective, therefore, is the realization of freedom and the creation of a new social order.
The Idea of Philosophy
Kant distinguished between two concepts of philosophy:
- Worldly Concept: Addresses fundamental human questions:
- What can I know? (Limits of knowledge)
- What ought I to do? (Conditions of freedom)
- What may I hope? (Destiny, ultimate project of humanity)
- What is man? (Encompassing all previous questions)
- Academic Concept: Focuses on the internal interpretation of knowledge to establish a systematic understanding.
Critique of Pure Reason: Theoretical Reason
The Problem of Knowledge
Kant’s epistemology goes beyond both rationalism and empiricism:
- Empiricism: Sensibility merely passively receives impressions from the external world.
- Rationalism: Understanding actively produces concepts, not merely as a result of experience.
Possibility of Metaphysics as a Science
Can metaphysics (thorough knowledge of God, soul, freedom, and immortality) be a science? As science progresses and scientists agree, the question becomes: How is metaphysics possible as a science?
Conditions of Scientific Knowledge
Scientific knowledge requires two conditions:
- Empirical: Particular to each subject.
- A Priori: General in nature, not factual, strictly necessary.
Judgments and Their Classes
Kant classified judgments based on their structure and origin:
- Analytic Judgments: The predicate is included in the subject; they do not extend our knowledge.
- Synthetic Judgments: The predicate is not in the subject; they expand our knowledge.
- A Priori Judgments: Truth is known without experience; they are universal and necessary.
- A Posteriori Judgments: Truth is known by experience; they are neither necessary nor universal.
The crucial category for scientific knowledge is Synthetic A Priori Judgments. These judgments provide new information (synthetic) and are universally and necessarily true, independent of experience (a priori). They are fundamental for extending our knowledge of reality.
Transcendental Doctrine of Elements
Transcendental Aesthetic: Sensibility
This section examines the sensible conditions of knowledge:
- Space and Time: These are a priori forms of sensibility, not empirical concepts.
- Synthetic A Priori Judgments in Mathematics: Mathematics is not derived from the senses but from the understanding. Geometry relates to space, and arithmetic relates to time.
Transcendental Analytic: Understanding
The function of understanding is to comprehend through concepts. These concepts can be empirical (derived from experience) or a priori (not from experience). The discovery of pure concepts from judgments is called the Metaphysical Deduction of the Categories. These concepts are the transcendental conditions for our necessary knowledge of phenomena. Their exposition and justification constitute the Transcendental Deduction of Categories. Pure concepts are empty without sensory input, but when applied to phenomena, the categories are “filled” with content.
Synthetic A Priori Judgments in Physics
These judgments are based on a priori principles, such as the principle of causality. The concept of cause is a pure concept, not derived from the senses, making it a priori. Phenomena can only be understood if the understanding applies its categories to them. Since categories apply to all known phenomena, the principle of causality must apply universally and necessarily to all phenomena known by the understanding.
Limits of Knowledge: Phenomenon and Noumenon
Kant’s Transcendental Idealism distinguishes between:
- Phenomenon: The world as it appears to us, to which categories are applied.
- Noumenon: The “thing-in-itself,” which lies outside the realm of possible experience and knowledge.
Transcendental Dialectic: Metaphysics’ Limits
The Transcendental Dialectic demonstrates the impossibility of metaphysics as a science when it attempts to know realities beyond experience. This is impossible because categories only apply to phenomena. Applying them outside this realm leads to illusions and errors, which reason inherently tends to do. Reason, through syllogistic reasoning, seeks to find general statements to apply to particular cases.
When reason attempts to apply itself to metaphysical concepts, it falls into:
- World: Antinomies (contradictory but equally plausible statements).
- Soul: Paralogisms (fallacious arguments about the soul’s nature).
- God: The idea of a highest cause, which cannot be proven theoretically.
Critique of Practical Reason: Freedom & Morality
Technical Reason vs. Practical Reason
Kant distinguishes between:
- Technical Reason: Concerned with means to achieve given ends.
- Practical Reason: Concerned with determining what ought to be done, based on moral law.
Moral Formalism
Critique of Material Ethics
Kant critiques previous ethical systems (material ethics) that base morality on external ends or feelings (e.g., happiness, utility). These are contingent and cannot provide universal moral laws.
Kant’s Formal Ethics: Duty & Categorical Imperative
Kant’s ethics is based on duty and the Categorical Imperative. A morally good act is one performed out of duty, not inclination. The Categorical Imperative is a moral requirement to act in such a way that your action could become a universal law. It also states that humanity, as rational beings, should always be treated as an end in themselves, and never merely as a means.
Postulates of Practical Reason
While theoretical reason cannot prove them, practical reason requires certain postulates for morality to be possible:
- Freedom: The ability to act autonomously, according to moral law.
- Immortality of the Soul: Necessary for the infinite progress towards perfect virtue.
- Existence of God: Guarantees the ultimate harmony between virtue and happiness.
None of these can be theoretically proven, but they are necessary conditions for human morality.