1. Immanuel Kant A Compromise
Chapter 17
Immanuel Kant
A Compromise

2. Knowledge and Experience
John Locke had explicitly described the knowing mind as a blank tablet
Kant likens his epistemological view to the Copernican revolution in astronomy
The emphasis has shifted from the mind as passive to its playing an active role in:
Shaping the “world” that can be known
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3. A Priori and a Posteriori Knowledge
In characterizing a priori judgments, Kant stresses that they are necessary;
They cannot be falsified by sense experience
A posteriori knowledge, or empirical knowledge as Kant usually calls it:
Is found in judgments that have their truth grounded in sense experience.
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4. Analytic and Synthetic Judgments
Synthetic—Predicate adds something and is not contained in the subject
Analytic—Predicate adds nothing and is contained in the subject
We can, of course, apply these two distinctions to judgments at the same time
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5. Kant’s Fourfold Classification Of Judgments
The synthetic a posteriori, the analytic a priori, the analytic a posteriori; the synthetic a priori
Examples of synthetic a posteriori judgments
Examples of analytic a priori judgments
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6. Synthetic A Priori Judgments
The first place one finds synthetic a priori judgments is, for Kant, in mathematics
The second example, from geometry, is less controversial:
As far as its being synthetic is concerned
The foundations of the natural sciences are synthetic a priori
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7. Kant’s Copernican Revolution In Epistemology
Kant’s suggestion is that all human awareness of the world involves:
Two faculties: sensibility & the understanding
How are synthetic a priori judgments possible?
How does this help to ground the necessity of synthetic a priori judgments?
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8. The Cost Of The Copernican Revolution In Epistemology
Traditional rationalist metaphysics was accustomed to using:
A priori concepts and principles to go beyond the world of experience and prove:
The existence of God or an immortal soul or that the entire universe must have a cause
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9. Immanuel Kant: Two Sources of Knowledge
The Distinction Between Pure and Empirical Knowledge
The Distinction Between Analytic and Synthetic Judgments
In All Theoretical Sciences of Reason:
Synthetic A Priori Judgments Are Contained as Principles
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10. Immanuel Kant: Two Sources of Knowledge
All mathematical judgments, without exception, are synthetic
Natural science (physics) contains a priori synthetic judgments as principles
Metaphysics ought to contain a priori synthetic knowledge
The General Problem of Pure Reason
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