Kant’s Philosophy: Metaphysics, Freedom, Knowledge
Kant’s Metaphysics: The Ideas of Reason
Reason is a faculty of the subject and contains three ideas:
- The I: Makes us think of the only explanation for all knowledge of internal experiences.
- The World: Makes us think of the ultimate explanation for all external knowledge and experiences.
- God: The root of all that is (internal and external experiences).
When we use these ideas, we engage in metaphysics. This is not the same as empirical knowledge, but rather the thought that Kant says is true for three reasons: because it is part of us, because it regulates, organizes, and systematizes scientific knowledge expressed in laws, thus broadening the field of knowledge and making us look beyond.
Kant on Freedom and Morality
Kant identifies rationality with morality, and also with freedom. When we do something because we are determined or motivated to do it, we are not free. Humans have two faculties: we are rational and sensible. When our will is determined by sensibility, we choose based on the appearance of things, and thus the appearance of things determines our will. For Kant, there is no freedom here because there is no self-determination by reason.
We can determine ourselves when we use reason, when we think ‘I’. This is self-determination, and therefore I am free when I am self-determined, when I use reason. He says it is impossible to be certain whether you are determined by external things or if you determine yourself. So, for Kant, we are only free when we are rational and moral.
Kant says that holiness is not something of this world; inevitably, we will never be fully rational, moral, or free because we are also sensitive. Nevertheless, we must always strive for this. This process is achieved through education.
Kant’s Theory of Knowledge
Regarding the theory of knowledge, Kant was not a pure empiricist. He said that knowledge begins with experience, but not all knowledge is born from experience. Part of knowledge comes from experience, and the other part comes from the subject, a priori.
A priori knowledge is prior to experience. However, a priori forms of intuition (like space and time) do not need experience to be determined, whereas a priori concepts (like causality) do need experience to be applied. Therefore, we understand the a priori as the condition of possibility for the form of knowledge.
Sensitivity has two a priori forms, two possible conditions that are not objects of experience themselves: time and space. However, there is no experience that does not occur in space and time. There are two types of experiences:
- Internal: Which only take time.
- External: Which occupy space and time.
Mathematics studies the conditions of possibility of experience: geometry studies space, and arithmetic studies time. Mathematics is not validated by experience itself; rather, a priori, we can say that any experience that can be mathematically validated happens under these conditions in space and time.
Knowledge (science) is also a faculty of the Understanding. The Understanding has two categories: substantiality and causality. Causality is a condition imposed by the Understanding on the subject. Causality makes possible the knowledge that will be expressed in science. Science progresses by increasing the number of causes it explains and by correcting explanations when they are not proper.