Kant’s Theory of Knowledge: A Priori Structures & Reality
Kant: Knowledge, Experience, and A Priori Structures
Experience and A Priori Forms of Sensibility
Knowledge begins with experience; however, experience is not given to the subject in advance. In fact, what is initially given to the subject is a chaotic mass of impressions. We can only speak of ‘experience’ from the moment that this sensory matter is organized by the a priori forms of sensibility inherent in the subject.
Thus, knowledge is a combination of two elements: one element comes from outside of us (empirical intuitions), and another is provided by our own cognitive faculties, which organize these intuitions.
Hume, Necessity, and Universal Knowledge
This approach had important consequences and responded to deep concerns stemming from Hume’s conclusions, who argued that all knowledge of events begins in experience.
Kant agreed with Hume that experience, by itself, cannot justify knowledge possessing a necessary and universal character. However, Kant was fully convinced of the existence of necessary and universal knowledge, exemplified by Newtonian physics. Kant’s proposed solution is that the necessity and universality of knowledge are made possible by a priori elements contributed by the subject.
A Priori Conditions & Transcendental Research
The a priori refers to that which is independent not just of this or that particular experience, but absolutely independent of all experience. It represents the conditions imposed by the subject for knowledge to be possible.
Kant undertakes the identification of these pure elements of knowledge in his seminal work, the Critique of Pure Reason. This crucial task involves Transcendental research, which investigates the pure, a priori conditions that make knowledge possible.
Kant’s Critical View of Metaphysics
Metaphysics as Disposition and Science
In Kant, the term ‘metaphysics’ holds two primary meanings:
- As a natural disposition: An innate, inescapable human tendency to reason beyond experience about topics like God, freedom, and immortality.
- As a science: The (hitherto unsuccessful) attempt to systematically pose and solve these fundamental problems.
The ‘Copernican Revolution’ in Method
Kant utilizes both senses, proposing a new conception of metaphysics: traditional metaphysics purified through criticism, free from dogmatism. He believed this requires a radical change in method—a ‘Copernican Revolution’—mirroring the methodological shifts in mathematics and physics. Kant argued that reason should approach nature not as a passive student but as an appointed judge compelling witnesses (phenomena) to answer questions framed by reason itself.
Kant’s Revolution: Judgments and Knowledge
How Knowledge Conforms to the Mind
This ‘complete turnaround’ signifies that instead of the mind conforming to objects, objects must conform to the mind’s structure for knowledge to be possible. This is Kant’s Copernican Revolution in philosophy.
- Mathematics is possible because space and time are a priori forms of sensibility (pure intuitions).
- Physics (as a science) is possible because of the a priori concepts of understanding (Categories).
- Traditional Metaphysics, attempting to go beyond all possible experience, is not possible as a science in the same way.
Knowledge, therefore, results from a synthesis: the collaboration between the matter given through sensation (particular and contingent) and the form imposed by the subject’s cognitive faculties (a priori, universal, and necessary).
Analytic, Synthetic, and A Priori Judgments
The philosophical tradition distinguished between two types of judgments:
- Analytic judgments: Based on the principle of identity (e.g., ‘All bachelors are unmarried’). The predicate is contained within the subject concept. They are a priori (necessary and universal) but do not expand knowledge.
- Synthetic judgments: The predicate adds new information not contained in the subject concept (e.g., ‘The cat is on the mat’). Traditional synthetic judgments were considered a posteriori (based on experience), thus lacking necessity and universality.
Kant argued that neither type alone could ground science, which must both expand knowledge (be synthetic) and be universally and necessarily true (be a priori).
Synthetic A Priori Judgments
Kant introduced a third, crucial category: synthetic a priori judgments. These judgments expand our knowledge (synthetic) yet are necessary and universal (a priori).
According to Kant, such judgments form the foundation of mathematics and physics, made possible by the a priori structures of sensibility (space, time) and understanding (Categories). Metaphysics, however, struggles because its claims often attempt to be synthetic a priori but venture beyond the limits of possible experience.