Kant’s Critique: Knowledge, Reality, Ethics, and Politics
Knowledge and Reality: Critique of Pure Reason. This work, written in the mid-18th century before the French Revolution, analyzes the conditions of knowledge production. It’s the first book studying cognitive capacities, focusing on the subject rather than the object. The book is divided into three parts: Transcendental Aesthetic, Transcendental Analytic, and Transcendental Dialectic.
Judgments
A judgment is a proposition. Kant differentiates scientific statements from others to find universal truth. The Critique of Pure Reason classifies cognitive judgments.
Types:
- Analytic: The predicate is included in the subject.
- A priori: Independent of experience.
- A posteriori: Dependent on experience.
- Synthetic: The predicate adds knowledge not included in the subject.
- A priori and a posteriori.
A real judgment must be synthetic. Regardless of experience, it doesn’t come from it but needs constant verification. Science is not subject to change.
The System of A Priori
The book examines three different a priori aspects: Transcendental Aesthetic (awareness of sensibility’s a priori), dealing with perception. These a priori are common to all humans. Space and time organize our perception of reality, not coming from the object but from the subject. Kant’s objective perception is transcendental; all individuals perceive time and space similarly. Transcendental Aesthetic is also called sensitivity.
Transcendental Analytic: Critique of knowledge. Categories are a priori knowledge. Kant’s categories differ from Aristotle’s. We have categories ready in our minds, needing experience to fill them. Experience is shaped by a priori. We have a unique mental structure with a priori, aligning with Descartes’ innate understanding and Hume’s need for experience.
Transcendental Dialectic: Reason has two uses: pure logical and practical. Pure reason groups experiences into concepts (generalizations). Generalizations are valid within experience. Overly general concepts fall into metaphysics, which Kant criticizes as beyond experience.
Phenomenon and Noumenon
The phenomenon is what we know through our senses and a priori. Noumena are things-in-themselves, unknowable. Kant’s reality is dual: knowable and unknowable.
Ethics and Politics in Kant: Critique of Practical Reason aims to investigate human action scientifically. Humans have a will subject to various factors. Kant seeks universally valid behavior.
Theoretical vs. Practical Reason
Theoretical reason finds universal truths (Critique of Pure Reason). Practical reason, subject to will, uses imperatives. It studies human will. Moral imperatives can be disobeyed. Theoretical reason studies objects; practical reason deals with will.
Moral Duty: Kant recognizes we have will and rationality. Human behavior requires acting on reason. If everyone acted rationally, all would be good.
Imperatives
Imperatives are categorical or hypothetical. Hypothetical imperatives are conditional and not universal. They achieve a particular end.
- Assertoric: Skill-based, for a specific end.
- Problematic: The goal might be universal (e.g., happiness), but the method isn’t.
Hypothetical ethics are not universal. Categorical imperatives: Act so your action can become universal law. Formal ethics focuses on the action’s form, not content.
Postulates of Practical Reason
Kant postulates God, freedom, and soul, though not empirically knowable, as necessary for ethics.
Kant’s Politics: Perpetual Peace
If all acted rationally, there would be no war, leading to perpetual peace in Europe.