Like Newton (discussed later), Kant sought to show that inference from hard sense data (from the external world) to soft data (inside the mind) are warranted, and that empiricism agreed with claims to knowledge about nature. According to Kant, the mind perceives an external world full of independent objects (noumena) that are actually there and synthesizes experience (phenomena) from those perceptions. Reality, itself, is not mind-dependent, but our perceptions of it are. For this reason, we are forever separated from the actual world as it really is, and are limited to know only our perceptions of it - the phenomena we experience. Though we can never really know ultimate reality, and are limited to what our experience and perception contribute to it, we can at least know that, somehow, “things in themselves” really do exist “out there”. “Things in themselves” exist wholly outside our experience, and all we can say is that they exist. They are beyond our full understanding, due to the limitations of our perceptions and mental constructs. This is a “Constructivist” philosophy, meaning that the mind’s thoughts create the perceived world. Any philosophy of reality in which mental categories play a large role has a constructivist element.
Unlike Locke, who believed that the human mind was a “tabula rasa” or blank slate, Kant argued that the human mind was pre-wired to form categories of understanding and meaning that are inherent in our makeup such as our understanding of substance, causality, anticipation, analogy, possibility, necessity, existence, etc. So, although Kant was not a “reality-denier”, he did claim that our ability to understand it directly was not possible.
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteYour summary of Kant is very good. However, it is now clear that he made a very simple little mistake with very profound consequences.
His error (following Newton) is to assume that Time is also a priori or necessary for us to sense the motion of matter 'particles' in Space. He writes;
"There are two pure forms of sensible intuition, as principles of knowledge a priori, namely space and time." (Kant, 1781)
And from this he concludes that because Space and Time cannot be united, they must both be merely ideas. His error can be found in the following quote where he writes;
"... even that of motion, which unites in itself both elements (Space and Time), presuppose something empirical. Motion, for example, presupposes the perception of something movable. But space considered in itself contains nothing movable; consequently motion must be something which is found in space only through experience -in other words, is an empirical datum." (Kant, 1781)
Please read this quote several times, for it contains an error that has had profound repercussions for humanity. The error? That 'space considered in itself contains nothing movable'. And this error then leads Kant to conclude that;
"..in respect to the form of appearances, much may be said a priori, whilst of the thing in itself, which may lie at the foundation of these appearances, it is impossible to say anything." (Kant, 1781)
The solution to Kant's error is to realise that the exact opposite is true, that Space considered in itself contains wave motions, i.e. Space physically exists as a substance with the properties of a wave medium and contains wave motions.
Kant's error is obvious in hindsight, because he followed Newton, and thus was conditioned into thinking that motion applied to matter 'particles' in space and time. Thus 'empty space' had no 'particles' thus motion could not exist.
The solution is found by replacing the particle conception of matter in space and time with the wave structure of matter in space.
Thus the two pure forms of sensible intuition, as principles of knowledge a priori, are namely Space and (wave) Motion - that we must place in this a priori concept of Space the correct meaning - that Space is a wave-medium and contains within it a second thing, wave motions of space that form matter (i.e. synthetic a priori knowledge).
Thus we move from the Metaphysics of Space and Time to the Metaphysics of Space and (wave) Motion and finally unite these two things that give rise to all other things, as the wave structure of matter in Space explains.
I hope you will give this careful thought, as the consequences for humanity are profound.
All the best,
Geoff Haselhurst
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/metaphysics-immanuel-kant.htm