Kant's epistemological synthesis

Question 1

analytic

Answer 1

eg “all bachelors are unmarried”

• truth value can be accessed through pure logic
• all analytic statements are a priori

Question 2

synthetic

Answer 2

• predicate lies outside the subject
  eg. the children wear hats
• based on sensory experiences
• truth value can only be understood through experience but not through logic alone
• all posteriori judgements are synthetic

Question 3

Kant argues that you can have…

Answer 3

synthetic a priori statements:

eg in maths 2+2=4
- this is universal and necessary - a priori
but also…
- concept 4 is not contained in 2 or 2 or + or = or in their combinations - not analytic

Question 4

Kant’s Synthesis

Answer 4

middle ground between rationalism and empiricism.

• our perceptions bring the matter to the knower, which is then organized by a priori forms of understanding
• sensation without conceptions (a priori forms of understanding) is blind

empiricism wrong: mind is not blank slate (tabula rasa)

rationalism wrong: knowledge requires raw data supplied by the senses alongside concepts

there can be no knowledge without sensory experience but we need the capacity to use reason to access and use this knowledge. “reason provides the structure or form of what we know, the senses provide the content.” - Kant

Question 5

Kant - criticisms

Answer 5

• we can never know anything about things that we do not experience eg God/soul/freedom (metaphysical objects)
• we are limited to phenomena (things as they appear) so we cannot know if our ideas of the world are true