Understanding Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
3. Text on Kant.
This text is a commentary on the Critique of Pure Reason, a work by the prestigious philosopher Immanuel Kant, published in Königsberg in April 1787.
Immanuel Kant, born in Königsberg in 1724, became, along with Hume, one of the most important philosophers of the 18th century, breaking new ground by determining thought and his later philosophy, notably in Germany. Kant had no other aim in his life than the study of human thought.
After studying at the university of his hometown, he obtained the chair in logic and metaphysics.
In 1797, he abandoned teaching, which included varied subjects such as physics, logic, mathematics, and metaphysics, in addition to natural law, morality, aesthetics, theoretical nature, geography, and anthropology.
Until the end of his life, Kant was still working on what should have been his definitive work: the System of Pure Philosophy.
The stages of his thought are divided into two principles:
1. Precritical Period, during which his philosophical evolution was very slow.
2. Critical Period, which is critically important as his thinking is divided into four key issues:
• What do I know? – This is research into the problem of knowledge.
• What should I know? – This is the investigation of morality.
• What am I allowed to hope? – This is the research into history.
• What is man? – This is the relationship of the above questions.
Kant’s philosophy represents a turning point in the realm of universal philosophy, even considering the two foundations of 18th-century philosophy: nationalism and empiricism.
Philosophical Review: Until 1770, Kant was concerned with scientific issues related to physics and mathematics, driven by an increasing interest in Newton. However, gradually he focused on the problem of metaphysics.
Solving the Problem of Metaphysics took Kant ten long years, and in 1781, he published the Critique of Pure Reason, marking the beginning of the critical period. This work deals with the analysis Kant conducted to arrive at the foundation of metaphysics. It examines logic, physics, and more, proceeding with the investigation of whether science is based on a priori synthetic judgments.
In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant discusses the problem of reason, logic, and metaphysics, questioning whether these subjects can be considered sciences.
He elaborates a series of questions about the origin of knowledge and wonders how a subject can become a science, which for Kant consists of judgments.
But Kant questioned what types of judgments are characteristic of science:
• Analytical judgments are characterized by the predicate being contained within the subject (e.g., The whole is greater than the part).
This type of judgment does not extend knowledge; they are universal judgments.
• Synthetic judgments are characterized by the predicate not being contained within the subject.
These judgments are not universal.
• A priori judgments are those whose truth is known independently of experience.
They are universal judgments.
• A posteriori judgments are characterized by the truth being known after experience.
Kant explains that it is necessary to combine synthetic judgments a priori for a subject to be regarded as scientific. These judgments should be universal and necessary for progress in science.
Now we face a concerning question: the construction of a priori synthetic judgments in metaphysics (Kant refers only to experimental physics. Its purpose is to understand nature, which means all phenomena as determined by general laws) and mathematics (from intuitions of space and time, and building mathematical theorems, all of which are made independently of experience) and metaphysics (when considering the possibility of metaphysics, Kant developed the Critique of Pure Reason, which clearly demonstrates its impossibility).
As for physics and mathematics, he wondered how to construct the judgments, while in metaphysics, he did not ask whether they could be constructed. To this question, the answer is advanced prior to any demonstration: it is not possible, since metaphysics deals with the universe, the soul, and God, and such issues cannot be received through sense impressions; thus, synthetic judgments a priori cannot be developed.
For all this, for Kant, metaphysics is not a science; it cannot reach valid, universal, and necessary metaphysical knowledge.
His long research into the causes of metaphysical science is conducted in two parts: the Metaphysics and dogmatic metaphysics.
Metaphysics must take into account reason and experience, as this has some knowledge.
Kant joined nationalism and empiricism, but these are some points of Kant’s critique.
Rationalism gives great importance to reason and little to experience, while empiricism attaches great importance to experience and little to reason.