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We have already given certain characteristics to objects. Perceptions are engrained in us from the very start, varying from people to people.
The object at had was given a predetermined name based on what it's predecessors decided to call it.
Then it wouldn't have changed anything for us because it'd still be the norm to call a rose a violet and vice versa.
Kant's influence is immense especially with modern philosophy. He remains a source of great inspiration. German idealism, which arose in the generation after Kant, draws heavily on Kant's work despite disagreeing with some ideas.
Time is also a priori because we cannot represent anything without time.
Time is not a concept of a thing, since there can be only one time. Also, the fact that any knowledge about motion is possible shows that there we understand time without having to experience it.
From these observations, Kant concludes that Time is not a feature of things in themselves, but a necessary feature of our experience of any kind. Time is just the form of inner sense.
Ex: Any portrayal of something outside of me must be a portrayal of something in space.
He believes space is a priori because we cannot represent ourselves in the absence of space. We can imagine space without things (empty space), but not things without space.
He believes space is not the concept of a thing, since there can be only one space.
From these observations, Kant concludes that Space is not a feature of things in themselves, but a necessary feature of our experience of the world. Space is just the "subjective condition of sensibility," of experience of the outer senses.
Intuition free of sensations. Pure intuition allows for synthetic a priori knowledge.
Space and time are examples of pure intuition according to Kant. Space and time are what remain when you remove everything empirical.
The idea of critique is to establish and investigate the legitimate limits of human knowledge
He believes there are two synthetic a priori features of experience:
1. Space
2. Time
Before Kant, it was held that a priori knowledge must be analtyic.
Ex. "An Intelligent man is intelligent" but attempting to deny anything that could be known a priori would involve a contradiction.
"An intelligent man is not intelligent."
When Kant refers to space and time in it's pure form we can assume his usage of the word pure symbolizes a completely objective point.
No biases, no predetermined perceptions.
But how does he know that about space and time? He doesn't.
Kant states that there can be no doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.
The mind actively shapes and makes sense of the information it has received through the senses. Knowledge is something we create in our minds.
But what is "out there" beyond the space and time? What is independent of our minds?
This is Kant's philosophy that we look at. Kant's answer is that we cannot know for certain.
a priori knowledge that is universal and something we have prior to experience. It is transcendental.
Ex.
A posteriori knowledge is the knowledge we gain from experience.
Ex.
"Human reason is by nature architectonic."
(--Kant, CPR, p.B502)
In the Transcendental Aesthetic, Kant attempts to prove that space and time are subjective conditions of human sensibility, not features of things in themselves.
Transcendental (in Kantian philosophy) - beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge
Aesthetic - of the senses
Transcendental Aesthetic - the study of space and time as the a priori forms of perception.