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The Concept of Nature in the Light of Immanuel Kant's „Critique of Pure

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The Concept of Nature in the Light of Immanuel Kant's „Critique of Pure BTU Chair of General Ecology Concept of Nature in the „Critique of Pure Reason” 1 THE CONCEPT OF NATURE IN THE LIGHT OF IMMANUEL KANT’S „CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON” Scriptum Udo Bröring BTU, Chair General Ecology Table of Contents Summary Introductory Remarks Prerequisites: Various Philosophers and General Approaches Different Attitudes Towards Nature and the Concept of Causality The „Critique of Pure Reason” - Contents and Reception - Transcendental Aesthetics and Analytics - Transcendental Apperception and the Four Tables of Understanding, Concept of Nature Within the Transcendental Idealism Outlook: The Kantian “Critical Business” References and Further Readings Summary It is reason which prescribes its laws to the sensible universe; it is reason which makes the cosmos. (I. Kant, Prolegom. 85) The „Critique of Pure Reason” (CPR) by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, is one of the most important philosophical publications, and the „Copernican Revolution in Philoso- phy” was the result. Various fields of philosophical discussion are affected. I start to give a brief overview on different concepts of science (empirism, rationalism) and different attitudes towards nature before 1781. After some terminological clarifications (transcendental, analytic and synthetic a priori truths, intuition, recognition, reason, and apperception), an overview of the general contents and architecture of CPR and a brief summary of the different parts is given. Special emphasis is laid on the transcendental aesthetic and the transcendental analytic within the first part of CPR („transcendental doctrine of elements”) in order to analyze the concept of nature in the light of the CPR. Discussion within the transcendental aesthetic reveals ideality of space and time, that means that space and time are just modes of our perception („conditions of faculty of experience”) and are not within nature itself. With space and time our intellect arranges our sensations and intuitions by applying the categories of pure understanding. This process is discussed in detail, as according to CPR nature is nothing else than the result of such an application of categories using time schemes within the frame of a BTU Chair of General Ecology Concept of Nature in the „Critique of Pure Reason” 2 system of principles: the result is a representation of the world and the condition is the „facility of the synthesis of the manifold by transcendental apperception” („I think”). What we know about nature are just appearances which are manifold and unreservedly arranged by the subject. We perceive appearances only; the thing in itself („Ding an sich selbst”) is unknow- able to us. Kant himself writes: „By nature, in the empirical sensse, we understand the connection of appearances as regards their existence according to necessary rules, that is, according to laws” (B239) and in the chapter „Analogies of Pure Reason” he provides „transcendental laws of nature”, which he also characterizes as „a priori propositions that are intellectual and at the same time synthetic”. By this it is concluded thaat nature is essentially the existence of things, as it is determiined by scientific laws. Introductory Remarks The „Critique of Pure Reason” by Immanuel Kant is by far the most important philosophical book ever written in Europe (Schopeenhauer). Various fields of philossophical discussion are affected. For modern concepts of nature and scientific research it is a fundamental basis. The Kantian approach is completely different from the very beginning, he straightly goes in the opposite direction (figure 1). Philosophers before Kant asked most frequently: What is the limit of our reason (Gr. λόγος, logos, Lat. ratio), and what is the limit of our perception? What is beyyond our reason (metaphysics)? What is beyond the visible world? Figure 1: Transcendentality versus transcendency. Epistemology (gr. ἐπιστήμη, epistéme – lat. scientia: knowledge, „Erkenntnis”) as one field of philosophical reasoning refers to the first two questions, ontology (gr. ὄν – being, sein) refers to third and fourth question. Contrary to this Kant asked: What is before reason, that is in his words, what are the necessary conditions for the faculty of experience? By this, the approach is „transcendental”, his philosophy is referred to as „transcendental ideaalisms”. BTU Chair of General Ecology Concept of Nature in the „Critique of Pure Reason” 3 Revolutions in Europe and Conditions for Philosophical and Scientific Progress The political, social, cultural, scientific situation in Europe in the middle of the 18th century changed dramatically. Epoch-making changes in a small time window („beginning of the modern age as a historical formation”, „Beginn der Neuzeit”) were: the publication of „Kritik der reinen Vernunft” (1781) by Immanuel Kant for the field of philosophy and human mind in general; the French revolution (1789) for the field of socio-political and economic situation; the Napoleonic realignment (since 1800) for the political map of Europe. Preconditions were of course the proceeding secularization and the emancipation of human mind. At the end of the 18th century various political and social developments (which started already at the times of the renaissance) and a synthesis of different patterns of thought lead to the end of the age of enlightment („Aufklärung”). The resulting world view is the basis of our today’s scientific and philosophical thinking. A side-effect of this development is of course the irreversible divergence of the philosophy of nature and science („Naturphilosophie” in the sense of Schelling vs. „Naturwissenschaft”) in the course of the 19th century. – „You, that way; we, this way” (Shakespeare, Lost Labour‘s Lost, V,2 the end). Various patterns of thought are characteristic for the cultural and scientific sphere at the end of the 18th century1: Science is purely secular (Hume, Kant, and Laplace): The condemnation of the curios- itas (Augustinus)2 and other theological presettings abridging scientific reasoning is rejected. There is no return.3 Scientific knowledge is knowledge of laws in nature, process has to be described in mathematical (quantitative) terms (Kant). Scientific knowledge is based on experience (Hume, Kant), basic procedure of scien- tific nature research is observation and experiment: Platonic philosophy (e.g. concept of idea and type) and Aristotelian doctrines (e.g. concepts of teleology and entelechy) were eroded. Scientific research leads to scientific and social progress: Everything is possible, it is just necessary to do more and more research! Prerequisites: Various Philosophers and General Approaches When Immanuel Kant was born on April, 22nd 1724 in Kaliningrad, the Leibniz-Wolffian rationalism dominated the philosophical debate in continental Europe, while in Britain empiricism prevailed Newton and Locke. The CPR was revolutionary and crushing down everything completely like an earthquake (Mendelssohn: „alles zermalmend”), however, there 1 See discussion in Trepl (1987) [Geschichte der Ökologie. Frankfurt]. 2 Aurelius Augustinus (354-430) condemned curiosity (curiositas in the „Confessiones”; German: Neugierde) to be too much related to senses and the visible world. His theology had an extremely deep impact for more than thousand years and lead to rejection of scientific research. 3 „Pure religion is based on belief” (Hume 1740 [A treatise on human nature. London. p. 9], see also discussion in Kühn 2001 [Kant. Cambridge: especially p. 301ff.]). BTU Chair of General Ecology Concept of Nature in the „Critique of Pure Reason” 4 were a number of important precursors, and Kant developed his critique of reason closely in the light of the philosophical discussion of his time. Rationalism is formed based on the philosophy of different thinkers: Plato (427-347 BC), René Descartes ('Renatus Cartesius' 1596-1650), Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), G.W. Leibniz (1646-1716) and Christian Wolff (1679-1754). Accordingly, sensory experiences are neither the basis nor limitations of our recognition. True is not what sense, but only what reason tells us about the world (Descartes). Metaphysics is possible and necessary. For the dogmatist thinking is a cognitive function and has absolutely no boundaries and therefore claims universality. – Empirism is based on Aristotle (384-324 BC), Francis Bacon ('Baco de Verulam', 1561-1626), John Locke (1632-1704), Isaac Newton (1643-1727), George Berkeley (1685-1753), and David Hume (1711-1776). Contrary to rationalism, empirism states that experience is the only source and limitation of all our recognition and knowledge. There is nothing in our intellect that is not in our senses before (Locke). Therefore, metaphysics is impossible. Additionally, for the skepticism thought is completely unable to perform an act of definite or at least assured knowledge. Kant follows Plato in respect to his distinction between the sensual and the intellectual world, he smoothes and polishes this approach for his own purpose: the construction of the noume- non and the phaenoumenon. The concept of the Platonic idea is modified as well: For the knowledge non-empirical elements are of basic importance, and the idea is not constitutive for knowledge, but has a research- and experience-regulating function (see Höffe 2004). Howev- er, unlike Plato, Kant significantly upgraded the importance of sensuality in the Critique of Pure Reason. Illusion is never in the phenomenon, because senses basically don’t appear in the mode of possible deception: misapprehension
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