PHILOSOPHY OF KANT (Core – 2) PHL1C02 STUDY MATERIAL FIRST SEMESTER CORE COURSE MA PHILOSOPHY CBCSS (2019 ADMISSION) UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION Calicut University P.O, Malappuram, Kerala, India 673 635. 190402 School of Distance Education UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION STUDY MATERIAL FIRST SEMESTER MA PHILOSOPHY (2019 ADMISSION) CORE COURSE : PHLIC02 : PHILOSOPHY OF KANT Prepared by : Sri. Manoj K.R, Assistant Professor on contract SDE, University of Calicut. Scrutinized by : Dr. Sheeja O.K, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur. PHLIC02 - Philosophy of Kant Page 2 School of Distance Education PHLIC02 - Philosophy of Kant Page 3 School of Distance Education Unit 1 1) Introduction 2) The distinction between Pure and Empirical Knowledge 3) Need of a science of Apriori 4) Distinction between Analytic and Synthetic judgements 5) Synthetic Apriori judgements 6) The General problem of pure reason 7) The Idea and Division of the Critique of pure reason Unit – II 1) Transcendental Aesthetic – Introduction 2) Definition a) Sensibility b) Intuition c) Sensation d) Representation e) Appearance f) Phenomena g) Noumena h) Matter of Appearance i) Form of Appearance j)Pure or Apriori Intuition k) Empirical Intuition 3) Space - Metaphysical Exposition and Transcendental Exposition 4) Time - Metaphysical Exposition and Transcendental Exposition 5) General observation on Transcendental Aesthetic Unit – III Transcendental Logic – Introduction 1) Logic – Division of Logic in to Analytic and Dialectic 2) Transcendental Logic, Division in to Transcendental Analytic and Transcendental Dialectic Unit – IV 1) Transcendental Analytic – Introduction 2) Analytic of Concepts 3) A clue to the discovery of all pure concepts of understanding 4) Logical Employment of Understanding 5) Pure concepts of Understanding or Categories 6) Table of Categories 7) Transcendental deduction of the Categories. PHLIC02 - Philosophy of Kant Page 4 School of Distance Education UNIT - I 1.1 Introduction Immanuel Kant was born in the Prussian town of Konigsberg on 22 April 1724.Konisberg is situated on the Baltic sea at the North Eastern edge of German speaking lands. In Kant’s time Konisberg was a prosperous city. Kant grew up in modest circumstances. His father was a Harness maker, whose ancestors came from wider Konigsberg region. He dedicated his life entirely to his philosophical work. The Critique of pure reason was published in 1781.One of Kant’s central problem was regarding the status of metaphysics, if it is to be raised to the status of knowledge, the uncertainties and contradictions in the thoughts of earlier thinkers is to be resolved. There was dispute regarding the origin of ideas since the time Greeks. Plato considered knowledge is derived from innate ideas, these unconscious ideas was imprinted in the soul from the time of birth. Through reasoning these ideas are brought to consciousness, hence yielding knowledge of necessary eternal forms. Innate knowledge is independent of sense experience though recollection could be aided by sense experience. Rationalist thinkers of the modern period like Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz held versions of this theory. The empiricist philosophers held a different view, they did not regard any knowledge to be derivable other than from sense experience. John Locke, Berkeley, David Hume adhered to such a view. David Hume considered all simple ideas are faint copies of impressions and complex ideas was constructed out of imagination. Some empiricists even rejected general ideas. Empiricists analysed thinking in terms of associative functions of memory and imagination also they failed to recognize between general concepts and sense impressions. For rationalists it was impossible to account for innate knowledge being applicable to the world without invoking divine benevolence. Understanding for rationalists is like a mystical instantaneous intuition. For Kant neither rationalism nor empiricism provides satisfactory account of the relation of the intellect and the senses. According to Kant intellect has no ideas that are independent of its operation in experience. Kant ushers a new analysis of understanding to remedy the defects of both empiricists and rationalists. Kant's philosophy may be termed a synthesis between rationalism and empiricism. Kant PHLIC02 - Philosophy of Kant Page 5 School of Distance Education accepts the rationalist claim that pure reason is capable of genuine knowledge but denies that knowledge of things in themselves is possible through pure reason. He takes the empiricist claim that knowledge is based in experience but through sense experience we cannot infer universal and necessary knowledge. His epistemological theory of knowledge is called transcendental idealism, according to Kant mind of the knower makes active contribution to the objects before us, the knowledge we already have through experience makes us easier to acquire newer knowledge. The two sources of our knowledge are minds receptive capacity(sensibility) and mind’s conceptual capacity(understanding).No experience of objects are possible which are not placed in space and time. The mistake metaphysician do is they reason beyond things that are beyond the metaphysician’s grasp. This results in contradiction. The role of reason is to understand and to limit itself. The role of the perceiving mind is brought to the centre. Mind actively shapes and makes sense of the information it gets through the senses. It is because mind arranges this information in temporal progression that all experience happen in time. It is because mind thinks in terms of cause and effect that we could say that one event follows another event. According to Kant space and time are pure intuitions of faculty of sensibility, the pure intuition of faculty of understanding are the concepts of physics such as causation and inertia. It is through intuitions of space and time we can have knowledge of mathematics. Our intuition of successive moments of in time account for number sense and intuition of space accounts for geometrical knowledge. It is the faculty of understanding which organizes experiences into concepts such as causation which forms the principle of natural science. From metaphysical speculation of nature of reality to critical examination of nature of thinking and perceiving mind, this shift is termed the Copernican revolution in philosophy. Time, space and causation are the forms which mind gives to experience and not the content of external reality. Kant found the doctrines of traditional metaphysics was insufficiently grounded speculation on matters which lay beyond the reach of the senses and therefore eluded confirmation as well as disconfirmation through experience. Rational methods are applied in the investigation in to the nature and attributes of God, the existence and presuppositions of human freedom and immortality of the human soul. There was proofs and demonstration even from the time of Plato regarding the existence of God. The conflicting positions regarding the composition of the world, one view that world is composed of discrete elementary particles and the other that it is composed of infinitely PHLIC02 - Philosophy of Kant Page 6 School of Distance Education divisible parts. It is equally possible to demonstrate both finite and infinite extension of the world in space and time. Kant found that both this positions with seemingly valid proof pointed to deficiency at the heart of metaphysics. Kant sought to uncover the illusion underlying the use of the intellect in matters of metaphysics, he thought it might be due to a erroneous basic assumption or fallacious general procedure. Hence, he sought that there was strict limitation to space and time, restricted itself to the world of senses. He found that it was due to erroneous application of space and time which is only applicable to the senses, to the world of understanding on which they do not have bearing. The distinction between the world of sense and the world of understanding was regarded as two different cognitive abilities of the human mind. The two forms of cognition were different in kind and that no amount of working over sensible cognition could yield non- sensible cognition. Metaphysics should be based on the use of intellect totally independent from sensible cognition (world of sense), for metaphysics to fit the rank of other subjects like Mathematics or Physics. According to Kant metaphysics has fallen in to principal errors. Firstly, the attempt to discover the nature of the soul by philosophical reflection which is called rational psychology. Secondly, Rational theology is an attempt to discover the proofs of the existence of God and truths about his nature by philosophical reasoning. Thirdly, In Rational cosmology conflicting views appear within metaphysics and conflicting arguments appear to be equally valid. Kant states that these conflicting arguments are part of reasoning process. Kant found that the whole of metaphysics rests on shaky foundation and it will continue until a full enquiry in to the working of reason can be undertaken. Previous philosophers have undertaken dogmatic assumptions regarding metaphysics, he states that through our intellectual powers are capable of making discoveries which is the object of metaphysics. Further he insists till an inquiry in to the nature of our reasoning powers is done our investigation in to metaphysics must be withheld. According to Kant it was David Hume