Questions tagged [critique-of-pure-reason]
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On Kant's third antinomy (CPR)
The thesis of Kant's third antinomy is based on the fact that, if the antithesis was true (i.e. there is no causality through freedom and thus only causality by natural laws) then, for any given ...
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Understanding some aspects of schematism in Kant's philosophy
I'm struggling to understand Kant's schematism. Kant says that imagination produces the synthesis of schemata and that schemata are how we can relate intuitions to concepts. He goes on to give the ...
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Reference requested: follow-up to Kant's COPR
Still reading the First Critique, still confused about multiple facts, please be indulgent and helpful with the errors in my understanding... thanks.
Perhaps the most important goal of Immanuel Kant, ...
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What is the meaning of "dialectic"and "analytic" in Kant's First Critique?
The meaning of the term dialectic, as in Transcendental Dialectic, in the Critique Of Pure Reason, is obscure. This, mixed with the already complex text, makes this term difficult to assess.
A list of ...
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What is the difference between the “thing in itself” and noumena?
“Things in themselves” and noumena are similar in Kantian metaphysics (Critique of Pure Reason, mostly) and interchangeable much of the time. The phenomena/noumena divide is integral to Kantian ...
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What do we mean by "if we have a proposition which is thought in conjunction with its own necessity"?
I am reading an English translation of Critique of Pure Reason by Kant and came across the statement "if we have a proposition which is thought in conjunction with its own necessity, we have an a ...
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Book or source recommendations on philosophy and the web
I am looking for a philosophical take on the Internet and so far find surprisingly little of what I was hoping for. While I am also interested in information theory, digital culture, social critique, ...
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On Kant's use of "überhaupt" [in general] and "allgemein" [general]
What's the difference between 'überhaupt' and 'allgemein'?
I'm still not fully in the grasp of what Kant exactly mean when he uses 'überhaupt' and 'allgemein'. In German, these are completely ...
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Prerequisites for Critique of Pure Reason
Is it reasonable to read the Critique of Pure Reason after having read the following books
Hume - An enquiry concerning human understanding
Descartes - Discourse on method
Descartes - Meditations
...
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According to Kant, while thinking of empty concepts without intuitions, what do we synthesise?
(This will be my last question on this book, for those of you getting bored of my questions).
Very briefly I will describe the method of Transcendental Deduction (TD) in an over-simplistic manner, and ...
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Can somebody explain the second argument of B-deduction in CPR?
For me, the Transcendental Deduction aims at proving two things:
Categories or pure concepts of understanding must be applied to the manifold of intuitions, i.e, they are necessary for cognition.
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Problem with Refutation of Idealism
Can someone please defend Kant's refutation of idealism in the B-edition, because it seems untenable to me.
First, he claims that 'I' am aware of myself being subjected to a specific temporal order ...
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What if the premise of CPR's Transcedental Deduction is wrong?
The transcendental unity of apperception is that unity through which all the manifold given in an intuition is united in a concept of the object. It is therefore entitled objective, and must be ...
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Why are concepts without intuitions blind?
I think at this point I understand all the transcendental arguments of CPR except this one - and probably this could considerably change my understanding of Kant as a whole.
Here is my confusion.
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Does Kant justify intuitions existing without understanding?
Objects can indeed appear to us without necessarily having to be
related to functions of the understanding. (A89/B122)
Appearances can certainly be given in intuition without functions of
the ...
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What's Kant defense of a noumenal world actually existing?
There is a sharp distinction according to most commentaries between Berkeley and Kant - and perhaps it's purely due to the fact that Kant doesn't render experience in-itself enough to make sense of ...
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Kant on triangles vs unicorns
In the critique of pure reason, according to my reading, Kant is positing that propositions of mathematics are true because they can be situated in space and time, i.e, they can be conceived in space ...
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Why are mathematical judgments legitimate while metaphysical are not, according to Kant's CPR?
In my reading of Kant's CPR (I mention this because I don't want an answer according to his other critiques), I don't seem to understand on what basis is Kant distinguishing statements in math and ...
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Is it better to read Kant in English or Italian?
I have heard that it is quite a hard task to translate Kant's ideas from German. Is it better to read the Critique of Pure Reason in English or Italian? I have heard some people say that English is ...
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A priori knowledge and experience in Kant
In the introduction of the critique of pure reason, Kant says
"That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt. For how is it possible that the
faculty of cognition should be ...
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How do Kantian's respond to the "Neglected Alternative"?
In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant posits two seemingly contradictory claims:
The nature of Things in Themselves, as they exist apart from the phenomenal world, are unknowable.
Time and Space do ...
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Secondary Work on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
I'm currently reading through the Critique of Pure Reason for the first time and have on hand a book by Martin Heidegger titled, "Phenomenological Interpretations of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason." I ...
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Criticizing Arguments: Identifying Weaknesses
I have recently gained interest in Philosophy as I quite arbitrarily came across an interesting video on YouTube discussing the importance of Philosophy and how it evolved throughout history.
I more ...
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Abridged version of Kant's Critiques, especially the Critique of Pure Reason
I'm a mathematician. I'm considering reading Emmanuel Kant's famous Critique of Pure Reason to help me think. I care more about the ideas rather than the ways of his presentation, which I'm not ...
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Did Kant classify the same proposition as both pure and impure a priori?
I'm confused about what seems to be a contradiction between statements from sections I and II of the introduction of (Meiklejohn's translation of) Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
The section I ...
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Is my understanding on Kant's section contained in the critique of pure reason "The transcendental Aesthetic" correct?
I'm attempting to 'self-study' Kant's "critique of pure reason". I've just finished the section "The transcendental Aesthetic"" from both versions of the book and I'm looking for feedback on what I ...
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Critical rationalism and Evolution
Lets assume I. Kant would have became aware of Darwins theory of Evolution after writing his "Kritik der reinen Vernunft". How could the knowledge have affected his idea about the "ursprünglich ...
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In the Critique of Pure Reason, what is the difference between "schema" and "synthesis"?
I don't understand the difference between Schema and Synthesis. I have read the First Critique and I see Kant is using the words "schema" and "synthesis" as "intermediate" between intuitions and ...
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First Critique Edition with both Akademie numbers and A/B numbers?
Most of the editions of the first Critique give the A/B numbers for the text, which is very useful. But some editions, especially the online edition of the Akademie edition of Kant use the Akademie ...
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Where did Kant say that "happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination"?
Can somebody tell me where this famous quote comes from?
I mean in which book and on which page. I want to find this in German. If someone can provide the quote in German the way Kant wrote it, I ...
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Why do living things seek to keep living [closed]
It occurred to me that the greatest question is why does life want to keep living? Why? Ultimate question.
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What are exactly intuitions in Kant's philosophy?
An intuition is a conscious objective direct representation of an object, according to A320/B376-77. It is direct in being non-conceptual, involving no mediating representation, and it is what ...
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What does Kant think about a priori concepts of causality?
This is an excerpt from Critique of Pure Reason, B13:
Take the proposition: "Everything that happens has its cause." In the
concept of something that happens, I think, to be sure, of an
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According to Kant - how is transcendental deduction of the forms of sensibility and categories of understanding possible?
It has been a long time since I've read the Critique of Pure Reason. My question is, how is the mind able to perform the transcendental deduction, according to Kant.
What I'm getting at is... the way ...
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How does Kant derive the categories of the understanding from the logical forms of judgment in the Critique of Pure Reason?
I didn't arrive at any cogent and clear conception of the exact relation between Kant's logical forms of judgment and his categories, and most importantly, how he derives the latter from the former.
&...
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Redefining the Analytic/Synthetic Distinction in Terms of Computational Complexity
I've been reading Kant for the first time and encountered Quine's objections to the analytic/synthetic distinction and am want to agree that they feel a little obscure in their definitions. That is, ...
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Kant's analytic/synthetic propositions
In the Critique of Pure Reason, an example of an analytic proposition is that all bodies are extended, and an example of a synthetic proposition is that all bodies are heavy (A7|B11), however in the ...
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A companion or guide to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Which companion, or guide, would you recommend to someone trying to read and understand the original work, The Critique of Pure Reason? Why?
I'm inclined towards these two, The Cambridge Companion to ...
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Unity of Apperception vs. Self Consciousness in Critique of Pure Reason
What is the difference between Unity of Apperception and Self- consciousness?
From what I gather so far, Unity of Apperception is a particular part of Self-Consciousness in that UoA brings to ...
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Good Introductions to Kants Critique of Judgment
Can somebody recommend any? I have come across Wicks & Hughes so far, but I am finding it very difficult. I am also finding it incredibly difficult reading through the Critique itself. Any advice ...
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Must Kant's a priori concepts of Space and Time be known to us before the 12 pure Categories of the Understanding?
As I continue my deep read of Kant's first critique, I'm struck by the fact that both space and time are a priori concepts, known to us prior to any experience, CPR(A) Transcendental Aesthetic, S.7 p....
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What does Rosenberg mean by the term "Strategy K" with reference to Kant?
In Rosenberg's Accessing Kant, he describes a certain 'Strategy K'. Could anyone succintly explain this strategy for me?
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How to improve critical thinking?
What are some ways to improve Critical Thinking, which is at the heart of philosophy? For example:
Kant's fundamental work Critique of Pure Reason advocates critical thinking already by its title.
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Connection between Kant's defense of the belief in God and Kant's categories?
Kant states in the Critique of Pure Reason (English translation) that
Thus the entire armament of reason, in the undertaking that one can
call pure philosophy, is in fact directed only at the ...
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Identifying three kinds of "unity" in Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason"
After reading about transcendental Aesthetics and transcendental logic, I perceive three kinds of unity in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason:
Unity of properties of an object which is sensed through ...
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Kant's cleavage of knowledge
In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant goes to great lengths to distinguish transcendental knowledge from other a priori knowledge. For Kant, is transcendental knowledge distinct from analytic or ...
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How would Kant defend the concept of the noumenon against Berkeley's charge?
Berkeley asserts that it is meaningless to speak of things-in-themselves that are not subject to human evaluation. Given that, no ampliative judgements can be made by postulating a causal relation ...
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Kant and free will
Could someone explain Kant's view on free will to me?
As I understand it, Kant says that it is necessary that we have free will, because otherwise it would be unreasonable to hold people responsible. ...
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Does Kant distinguish different types of "pure reason"?
Does Kant distinguish different types of "pure reason"s? Viz., is there a human "pure reason," angelic "pure reason," Godly "pure reason," etc.?
(cf. this comment)
This comment claims "it's quite ...
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Is our Philosophy, the Human Philosophy, the only possible Philosophy which can exist?
What I'm asking is if is there any possibility for a Non-human Philosophy, that is, a Philosophy founded on questions which we can't even conceive. Is possible a Philosophy of questions which only can ...