Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
analytical Essay
1411 words
There are different views about how we gain knowledge of the world, through our senses or through our minds, and although many say that it is one or the other I believe that although we gain some knowledge through sense data not all of our ideas come from these impressions. There are those who stand on the side of empiricism, like David Hume, and those who stand on the side of rationalism, like René Descartes; then there are also those who believe that one can have a foot on both sides, like Immanuel Kant. To be on one side or the other never gives you full knowledge you must be willing to use your senses and your reason to form ideas.
Kant was to first to step away from choosing a side. Kant changed philosophy in the way that he showed that certain aspects of rationalism and empiricism were wrong. Kant was also the first to say that objects conform to our knowledge meaning that rationality puts a structure on sense data to be experienced as objects. This view has more logic than rationalism or empiricism because if a person is of the belief of one of these two views it can lead to skepticism and certain important aspects have a tendency to be disregarded. This is why ideas cannot come from impressions because there are important matters, such as God, that cannot be explained by impressions and some of which we do not have impressions of but we do have ideas about them. In order to know how and why a combination of the two is needed one first needs to understand each individual side.
Empiricism is the belief that all knowledge and ideas come from the senses and that the only way we can know anything about the world is through those senses. This has a tendency to be true in the fact that people learn from their mistakes. Growing u...
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...pendent reality Kant makes the distinction that distinctions occur within experience instead of a division of realities.
Works Cited
Kant, Immanuel. Part Three: The Modren Period, Chapter 22 Immanuel Kant
Hume, David. An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding: A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh: Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1993. Print.
Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated. Trans. Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1979. Print.
Plato. Plato's Republic. Trans. G. M. A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1992. Print.
Boethius. Consolation of Philosophy. Trans. Joel C. Relihan. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2001. Print.
Reid, Thomas. Thomas Reid’s Inquiry And Essays: Intellectual Powers.
In this essay, the author
- Argues that empiricists believe that all knowledge and ideas come from the senses and that people learn from their mistakes.
- Explains that descartes says that ideas are whatever is perceived by the mind both acts and objects. hume is wrong about the idea of god because humans cannot create something better and more perfect than us.
- Explains that rationalists believe that knowledge and ideas should be based on reason and not our senses. descartes' example of the wax illustrates kant's view that objects conform to our minds.
- Explains kant's belief combines rationalism and empiricism, stating that people must distinguish between the phenomenal world and the noumenal world.
- Explains kant's four types of judgments: analytic and synthetic, based on the principle of contradiction and general laws of science.
- Analyzes how kant introduces the idea of perception. time and space are necessary to perception, even though they cannot be perceived apart from the events. hume's theory of impressions falls apart.
- Opines that although we gain knowledge through sense data, not all of our ideas come from these impressions. kant changed philosophy by showing that certain aspects of rationalism and empiricism were wrong.
- Describes hume, david, descartes, rené, and cress' meditations on first philosophy, in which the existence of god and the distinction of the soul from the body are demonstrated.
Related
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- Kantian Philosophy: Immanuel Kantanalytical essayImmanuel Kant was German philosopher who was an influential figure in modern philosophy since he was one of the first to analyze the process of thinking. Kant was not only just a prominent figure in philosophy, but contributed greatly in metaphysics, epistemology, and aesthetics. Some of his major works were the Critique of Pure Reason, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Critique of Practical Reason, and Critique of Judgement. His form of ethics or philosophy is known as Kantian Ethics which are mostly based off of deontology, which is the ethical position that judges an action based on its morality and not the consequence. Like any philosophy on ethics, there are pros and cons to it and we will analyze them. I personally believe that
In this essay, the author
- Explains that immanuel kant was an influential figure in modern philosophy. he contributed greatly in metaphysics, epistemology, and aesthetics.
- Explains that immanuel kant lived a strict, disciplined life in konigsberg, prussia, and was never married. his social life, however, was good.
- Explains that kant's greatest work, critique of pure reason, was considered one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy.
- Analyzes immanuel kant's theory of duty ethics or rule non-consequentialist theory, where intentions or motives of a consequence are more important and focused than the actual consequence.
- Explains that kant proposed a moral law called the categorical imperative, which states that an act is immoral if the rule cannot be universalized.
- Explains that there are conflicting duties when making universal rules, which means there will be exceptions.
- Argues that people would be acting out of moral duty instead of inclination, which is bad. if we followed kant's ethics of duty, we would seem inhuman.
- Analyzes the pros and cons of kant's ethic, stating that universal maxims, or ground rules, are conflicted when it comes to moral issues.
990 wordsRead More - Descartes Source Of Knowledgeanalytical essayWhat is the source of knowledge? What can we know? Questions like these dominated western philosophy during the 17th and 18th century. This philosophical period was known as the epistemological turn. The quest for the source of knowledge was not an easy one. This question had led to many disagreements about the nature of knowledge, and a philosophical war was waged which would last two centuries. It began with the 17th century with a french philosopher by the name of Rene Descartes. The answer to his epistemological quest was rationalism. For Descartes rationalism was the key to keeping our reality in check. Descartes had undergone a process of purging all that he thought he knew to find the sole source of knowledge . After much examination Descartes came to the realization that there were few things that could be considered pure knowledge. Since most of the things we know come from the senses, and the senses were falliable. He made a crucial discovery that would forever change the face of philosophy. The mind he regarded is the tool and the that could lead to a pure source of knowledge unbridled by the senses. He believed that we can only trust our minds that which we can intuit or “deduce” on our own. Descartes called these ideas of knowledge a priori. A priori are ideas that are innate, and that we can only arrive at through a special kind of reasoning known as deductive reasoning.Descartes famously declares the statement “cogito ergo sum “to answer the question of our existence. Because if the senses are decieving who is to say that this world we live in is a lie created by a wicked genius we call god.”Descartes believed that if he existed it was because his mind was engaged in the process of thinking. In other words only ...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the quest for the source of knowledge dominated western philosophy during the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Analyzes how descartes' bold statement changed philosophy as the world knew it, and instigated a battle too close to home. john locke attacked locke's ideas calling them ungrounded and accused him of perpetuating the follies of scholasticism.
- Analyzes how hume calls for a separation between ideas and impressions and attacks rationalistic claims of innate ideas by challenging people to imagine an idea that is free from the senses.
- Analyzes hume's argument that science runs on the principle of cause and effect as an unstable conception that doesn't correspond with reality.
- Argues that hume's attack on universal human conceptions of god, the self, cosmos, led to a great dissension which remained unsolved.
- Explains kant's view that knowledge is a combination of both our experiences and of our minds faculty of judgement which organizes and constructs the world around us.
- Analyzes how kant's view of the noumenal world is fascinating. he turns experience against hume, saying that if a integrated self did not exist would we be subjected to causal laws of nature.
- Opines that kant's views are mind-bending, and he boils reality down to mental conceptions, making one wonder about this world of impossibility.
1717 wordsRead More - Comparing Knowledge in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and Hume’s An Enquiry Concerningcomparative essayThe source of knowledge is not a topic that is universally agreed upon. To rationalists, who usually have a sense of the divine, innate ideas give them cause to base knowledge in reason, being derived from ideas. To empiricists, who do not hold innate ideas to be valid, knowledge is unearthed through the senses, derived from observations. The presence of a concept of the divine is the deciding factor of whether knowledge originates from the senses or the ideas.
In this essay, the author
- Compares descartes' meditations on first philosophy and hume's an enquiry concerning human understanding. rationalists claim that knowledge comes from reason or ideas, while empirists answer that it is derived from the senses.
- Explains that descartes is a rationalist and begins his meditations on first philosophy by doubting his senses. he establishes cogito ergo sum with the aid of natural light.
- Explains that empiricists don't believe in natural light and therefore do not hold knowledge to be derived from these innate ideas. hume was a scientist and an atheist.
- Explains that from impressions and ideas stem two kinds of knowledge: relations of ideas and matters of fact.
- Explains that the source of knowledge is not universally agreed upon. to rationalists, innate ideas give them cause to base knowledge in reason, being derived from ideas.
860 wordsRead More - Critical Analysis Of Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reasonanalytical essayImmanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) Critique of Pure Reason is held universally as a watershed regarding epistemology and metaphysics. There have been anticipations regarding the notion of the analytic especially in Hume. The specific terms analytic and synthetic were first introduced by Kant at the beginning of his Critique of Pure Reason book. The mistake that metaphysicians made was viewing mathematical judgments as being “analytic”. Kant came up with a description for analytic judgments as one that is merely elucidatory, that is, what is implicit is transformed into explicit. Kant’s examples utilize the judgments of subjects or rather predicates, for instance the square has four sides. The predicates content is always already accounted for in
In this essay, the author
- Explains immanuel kant's inaugural dissertation, where he discusses the classes of knowledge that are generally accepted by using priori, posteriori and analytic.
- Analyzes immanuel kant's transcendental deductions of the classifications as understanding of pure concepts that are applicable as priori in possible experiences.
- Explains kant's concept of consciousness as an integrated group of experiences that require unity of two kinds: the experiences must have the characteristic of a singular subject and the consciousness that the said subject possesses regarding represented objects.
- Explains kant's role in the treatment of religion has been utilized in both divergent and contrary ways in many philosophical discussions.
- Analyzes how kant synthesized empiricism and rationalism to establish a new view.
- Analyzes how locke defends the freedom of men against claims that god made men naturally subjects to monarchs.
- Explains that levina's philosophy is described as interpretive or the phenomenological description that could be associated with the rise and repetition of encounters, particularly face to face.
- Describes husserl as the principal founder associated with phenomenology and one of the most influential 20th century philosophers.
- Analyzes how husserl dubbed his famous transcendental phenomenology as the "new, twentieth century cartesianism" and quoted descartes on the insistence that the only fruitful renaissance is considered one that reawakens.
- Explains that kant's critique of pure reason is held universally as a watershed regarding epistemology and metaphysics.
2433 wordsRead More - Immanuel, Kant (1724-1804)analytical essayImmanuel Kant was born in 1724 in the East Prussian town of Königsberg and lived there practically all his life. He came from a deeply pious Lutheran family, and his own religious convictions formed a significant background to his philosophy. Like Berkeley, he felt it was essential to preserve the foundations of Christian belief.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that immanuel kant was born in 1724 in the east prussian town of königsberg and lived there practically all his life. his religious convictions formed a significant background to his philosophy.
- Explains that kant became professor of logic and metaphysics at the university of königsberg in 1770. he was also interested in science and published works on astronomy and geophysics.
- Explains that kant's three most significant works were published later in life: the critique of pure reason, practical reason and judgment.
- Analyzes how kant's mental faculties and his sight deteriorated and he died a shadow of his former self, aged 80.
- Explains that kant believed that there are clear limits to what we can know. he thought that reason operates beyond the limits of what humans can comprehend.
- Explains that sensory perception and reason contribute to our knowledge of the world. the material of knowledge comes to us through the senses, but must conform to the attributes of reason.
- Opines that reason is on hold when we wonder where the world came from, and discuss possible answers. it has no sensory material to process, no experience to make use of, because we have never experienced the whole of the great reality of which we are a tiny part.
- Explains kant's view that there will always be two contrasting viewpoints that are equally likely or unlikely, depending on what our reason tells us.
- Analyzes how hume's scepticism with regard to reason and the senses forced kant to think through many important questions again. he agreed with rationalists who said the ability to distinguish between right and wrong is inherent in human reason.
- Explains that the ability to tell right from wrong is as innate as all the other attributes of reason. we all have access to the same universal moral law.
- Analyzes how kant formulates the moral law as a categorical imperative, or that it applies to all situations.
- Analyzes how he formulates this 'categorical imperative' in several ways.
- Analyzes how kant formulated the 'quot;categorical imperative': treat humanity, whether in one's own person or another, never as a means, but as an end.
- Explains that kant's law of morals is absolute and universal, as is causality. it cannot be proved by reason, but it is unalterable.
- Opines that if one acts out of respect for moral law, they must have conquered themselves. kant's ethics is called duty ethics.
- Explains that kant advocated the establishment of a 'league of nations' in his treatise perpetual peace.
1191 wordsRead More - Immanuel Kantanalytical essayKant is a deontological philosopher; that is, in examining morality he says that the ends must not be looked at, only the means. Kant began by carefully drawing a pair of crucial distinctions among the judgments we do actually make. The first distinction separates a priori from a posteriori judgments by reference to the origin of our knowledge of them. A priori judgments are statements for which there is no appeal to experience in order to dertermine what is true and false. A posteriori judgments, on the other hand, are statements in which experience determines how we discover the truth or falsity of the statement. Thus, this distinction also marks the difference traditionally noted in logic between necessary and contingent truths.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that kant is a deontological philosopher who says that the ends must not be looked at, but only the means.
- Explains kant's distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments, according to the information conveyed as their content. analytic judgements are purely explicative and can be deduced from the principle of non-contradiction.
- Analyzes how kant's groundwork sets his deontological claim that nothing can be conceived in the world, or even out of it, except a good will.
- Explains kant's categorical imperative is the thing from which morality can be derived. an imperative is a command; what we must do.
- Explains that the four parts of his categorical imperative are: a) act only according to that maxim, b) act as if the maxim of your action was to become through your will, and c) treat humanity as an end. the former two are closely related to each other.
- Opines that immanuel kant is a very good philosophy because of his four parts of categorical imperative.
683 wordsRead More - Rene Descartes Rationalism Analysisexplanatory essayRegardless of the disagreement between both schools of philosophy that Rene Descartes and David Hume founded, Descartes’s rationalism and Hume’s empiricism set the tone for skepticism regarding knowledge. Rene Descartes rationalism served to form a solid foundation for true knowledge. Although Descartes reaches an illogical conclusion, his rationalism was meant to solve life’s problem by trusting and using the mind. David Hume’s empiricism serves to be the true blueprint on how humans experience the mind. Hume’s empiricism shows that the world only observes the world through their own sense and that there are no a priori truths. For that reason it became clearer that David Hume’s empiricism explains and demonstrates that it is the better way
In this essay, the author
- Explains that descartes' rationalism and hume's empiricism set the tone for skepticism regarding knowledge.
159 wordsRead More - Empiricism Essayanalytical essayEmpiricism by nature is the belief that there is no knowledge without experience. How can one know what something tastes like if they have never tasted it? For example, would someone know that an apple is red if they have never actually have seen one? Someone can tell you an apple is red, but, if you have never seen one, can you really be sure? One must first understand what empiricism is before one can assess its validity. Empiricism can be defined as the view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge (Free Dictionary). The existence of empiricism will be understood through an examination of the attack on innate ideas and the origin of ideas, filling the 'Tabula Rasa'; the objection
In this essay, the author
- Defines empiricism as the belief that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge.
- Argues that locke rejects the theory of innate ideas, arguing that reason and intuition can provide knowledge.
- Argues that locke is against the innateness of ideas, arguing that people do not commonly hold to these ideas.
- Analyzes locke's claim that ideas are in the mind only through experience, either through the external observation of sensible objects or through reflection.
- Analyzes how descartes wanted to rebuild the structure of human knowledge on certain foundations. he doubted his senses because they were sometimes deceived, by illusions or trickery.
- Explains spinoza's view that physical things and mental things were just aspects of the substance. thought alone is inseparable from them.
- Analyzes how descartes argued that true knowledge could not come from the senses but only from reason.
- Concludes that empiricism will be understood through an examination of the attack on innate ideas and the origin of ideas, filling the 'tabula rasa'. empiricists believe that there is no knowledge without experience.
1975 wordsRead More - Empiricism And Epistemologyanalytical essayTo the empiricists, our mind is a blank slate when entering the world and only through experience are marks left on it. Empiricists are content with believing in conclusions that are probable rather than absolutely certain (Lawhead). Our sense experiences may not provide complete certainty as rationalists would like, but it is all we have to go on. Empiricists are against the speculation that rationalists tend to make. Empiricists believe every idea, concept, or term must be tested by tracing it back to an original experience from which it was derived (Lawhead). Empiricists also differ from rationalists by claiming that we have no innate ideas. While some ideas may seem universal, the empiricists would say these are expressions of the relations of our ideas or the generalizations from experience (Lawhead). For example,
In this essay, the author
- Explains that epistemology is an area of philosophy that deals with the questions and theories concerning knowledge. the main theories are rationalism, empiricism, and constructivism.
- Explains empiricism as the second-best argument and is a big influence on constructivism. empiricists believe that sense experience is the single source of our knowledge about the world.
- Explains the concept of constructivism, which was introduced by immanuel kant as a theory that took insights from rationalism and empiricism.
- Analyzes how kant's theory of constructivism solves the rationalist problem of supposing reason can operate without materials of experience in.
- Explains kantian constructivism produces the strongest theory of knowledge compared to rationalism and empiricism. kant's theory recognizes that both reason and sensation play a role in developing our knowledge.
998 wordsRead More - Summary of Immanuel Kant's Lifeopinionated essaySummary of Immanuel Kant's Life Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) spent all of his life in Königsberg, a small German town on the Baltic Sea in East Prussia. (After World War II, Germany's border was pushed west, so Königsberg is now called Kaliningrad and is part of Russia.) At the age of fifty-five, Kant appeared to be a washout. He had taught at Königsberg University for over twenty years, yet had not published any works of significance. During the last twenty-five years of his life, however, Kant left a mark on the history of philosophy that is rivaled only by such towering giants as Plato and Aristotle.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that it is useful to know what kant is up to in this book.
- Explains that when we see baseballs break a window, we summary:
- Opines that we can imagine a universe that is an infinite series of causes.
- Describes the lessons they learned from their parents, and how we can be free.
- Explains that free to think that we can make free choices, because for all we know this.
- Opines that "really" is, so can we not rely on expectations about events in the world.
- Dispels myths and the idea that western people have a right and duty to do so.
1089 wordsRead More