The Synthesis of Kant Flashcards
Kant introduced which two terms?
Analytic and synthetic
What is the general consensus around analytic and synthetic propositions?
All analytic statements are a priori
All synthetic statements are a posteriori
What kind of concepts did Kant think rationalists and empiricists had neglected?
Concepts that don’t rely on experience of the world but could not have been known through reason alone e.g. space between objects, numbers, time
Things we must experience to exist
According to Kant, what is the condition of having a mind?
Having synthetic a priori concepts e.g. space and time
What does transcendental mean?
Going beyond what we already have metaphysically
What are the two realms Kant proposes and what do they mean?
- The phenomenal world: the world as we experience it; world as a human experience
- The noumenal realm: the world how it is as itself independent of experience
How does Kant explain causation?
Causal relations are “projected” onto the world by us, the experiencing consciousness
Why did Kant believe empiricism alone is wrong?
The mind is not mere tabula rasa which passively receives knowledge of the world through the senses
Why did Kant believe rationalism alone is wrong?
Reason alone can never give rise to knowledge since knowledge demands both concepts and raw data supplied by the senses
What did Kant say to explain that reason provides the structure of form of what we know and the senses provide the content?
“Thoughts without content are empty; intuitions without concepts are blind”
Without a rational faculty of the mid, what did William James say would be left over?
“a blooming, buzzing confusion”
What did Kant explain is needed to make sense of experience?
Conceptual schemes: a system to classify sense impressions
