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Transcendental Aesthetic Cont.

We have already given certain characteristics to objects. Perceptions are engrained in us from the very start, varying from people to people.

TIME

Ex. What if we named the violet, a rose, and the rose, a violet.

Time is not something we learn about from experience.

Empirical Intuition

SPACE

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 believes that space is not something we learn about from experience.

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.

Synthetic judgements can be made based on what our senses provide us.

Any judgement made from experience is synthetic and a posteriori.

Ex. One sees a flower in bloom and the thought can be formed that the "flower is in bloom". However one can not gain that knowledge from just analyzing the concept of a "flower"

Pure Intuition

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.

Kant's Transcendetal Aesthetic

Kant wants to scrutinize our experiences, and determine what is a priori and also synthetic.

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

Let's get a little insight

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."

To put the described space and time in Layman's terms...

Conclusion

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.

Discussion Questions

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.

WHO IS...Immanuel Kant?

What is a priori?

a priori knowledge that is universal and something we have prior to experience. It is transcendental.

Ex.

  • One uses their nose to smell.
  • One needs to breathe to live.

A posteriori knowledge is the knowledge we gain from experience.

Ex.

  • Drugs are bad for you.
  • Refraining from bathing causes smelliness.
  • German philosopher

  • Spent his academic career focusing on philosophy, mathematics, and physics

  • Kant's critical philosophy is presented in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

  • Brought together the ideas of rationalism with empiricism...

  • Considered to be the central figure of modern philosophy

What do you think Kant means when he refers to time and space in it's purest form?

Do you believe that Kant's distinction between what is analytic and synthetic accurate?

Do you think intuition is nothing but the representation of appearances?

1724-1804

What is the Transcendental Aesthetic?

"Human reason is by nature architectonic."

(--Kant, CPR, p.B502)

Citations

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.

Kant, Immanuel. "Transcendental Aesthetic." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin

and Michael Ryan. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004. 135-36. Print.

"Transcendental" Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011.

Web. 2 Feb 2014.

"Aesthetic" Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011.

Web. 2 Feb 2014.

"a priori" Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011.

Web. 2 Feb 2014.

Pereboom, Derk, "Kant's Transcendental Arguments", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(Winter 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

"Transcendental Aesthetic" - Kant

By Nadine Akomeah & Kacey Ho

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