Philosophy of
Knowledge
a German thinker
who is considered
the central figure
in Modern
philosophy
Sapere Aude
DARE TO THINK FOR
YOURSELF
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We often hear complaints of the
shallowness of thought in our own time
and the decay of sound knowledge.
Our age is the age of criticism, to which
everything must be subjected. The
sacredness of religion and the authority
of legislation are by man regarded as
grounds of exemption from examination
of this tribunal. If they are exempted,
they become the subjects of just
suspicion, and cannot lay claim to
sincere respect, which reason accords
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The history of the life of Immanuel Kant is
hard to write, inasmuch as he had neither
life nor history, for he lived a mechanically
ordered and abstract old bachelor life in a
quiet retired street in Koenigsberg, an old
town on the northeast border of Germany. I
do not believe that the great clock of the
cathedral there did its daily work more
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Rising, coffee drinking,
writing, reading college
lectures, eating, walking,
all had their fixed time,
and the neighbors knew
that it was exactly half
past three when Immanuel
Kant in his grey coat, with
his bamboo cane in his
hand, left his house door
and went to the Lime tree
avenue, which is still called
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PHYSICS VS METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics
does not work
Physics works as it brings
because its forth no new
principles are knowledge but
completely instead leads
oriented the
toward philosophers
experience and to contradict
it declares one another
nothing that absolutely and
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THE CRITICAL PROBLEM
an operation of thought
whereby a connection is
made between the subject
and the predicate, where
the predicate qualifies the
subject in some way
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TYPES OF JUDGMENT
ANALYTIC SYNTHETIC
judgments in
judgments in
which the
which the
predicate is
predicate is not
known in
contained in the
knowing the
subject
subject
ANALYTIC
The predicate SYNTHETIC
does not give The predicate
any new adds to the
information subject a new
about the information not
subject, but the true of similar
judgment is subjects thus
always and increasing our
necessarily knowledge.
true. Saint Thomas of Villanova Institute
TYPES OF JUDGMENT
A
A PRIORI
POSTERIORI
express
have to do
factors
with particular
independent of
facts of sense
sense
experience
experience
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Scientific knowledge is
necessary and universal and
increases our knowledge.
SYNTHETIC A PRIORI
SYNTHETIC A PRIORI
rests on has an element
experience in the from the mind
sense that the and is the source
matter for of universality
knowledge is and necessity
derived from
sense experience Saint Thomas of Villanova Institute
What is received from
experience is a disorganized
and disunited matter; it is
unified and shaped by the
form that
is innate in the mind.
A PRIORI FORMS
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Sense knowledge carries within
itself the following requirements:
Every sensation must be located in
space, i.e., above or beneath, to
the right or to the left, and in time,
i.e., antecedent, consequent, or
concomitant to other sensations.
Space and time therefore are
conditions not of the existence of
things, but of the possibility of
their being manifested to us. They
areSaint Thomas of Villanova Institute
The effect of an object upon
the faculty of representations,
so far as we are affected by the
said object, is sensation. That
sort of intuition which relates to
an object by means of
sensation, is called an empirical
intuition. The undetermined
object of an empirical intuition,
is called phenomenon.
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Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure
Reason
Quantity of
Quantity
UNIVERSA All metals are TOTALITY
L elements.
PARTICUL Some plants are PLURALIT
AR trees. Y
SINGULAR Napoleon was an UNITY
emperor.
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JUDGMENTS AND CATEGORIES
Quality of Quality
AFFIRMATI Heat is a form of REALITY
VE energy.
NEGATIVE Whales are not fish. NEGATION
INFINITE Mind is unextended. LIMITATION
Relation of Relation
CATEGORICAL The body is heavy. INHERENCE
and
SUBSISTENCE
HYPOTHETIC If man is mortal, he CAUSALITY
AL will die. and
DEPENDENCE
DISJUNCTIVE A volcano is either COMMUNITY
live or dead.
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JUDGMENTS AND CATEGORIES
Modality of Modality
PROBLEMATI The liquid may be POSSIBILITY
C poisonous. IMPOSSIBILI
TY
ASSERTORIC This chemical is a EXISTENCE
poison. NONEXISTE
NCE
APODICTIC Every father must have NECESSITY
a son. CONTINGEN
CY Institute
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The mind which perceives in
certain ways (space-time) and
judges or thinks in certain
ways (categories) makes
possible the universal and
necessary
knowledge of objects of
experience.
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Knowledge is the application of
the pure concepts or the
categories of the
understanding to the objects
furnished us by the senses
which are perceived as spatial
and temporal.
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Without the categories the
objects of intellectual knowledge
would be given in experience but
not known. They are the
conditions of possibility for
knowledge.
There is a transcendental
element in our knowledge of
the empirical world ~ the a
priori forms of sensation and
the categories of
understanding which make
empirical knowledge possible
although they do not add to it
either in
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ANALYSIS OF KANTIANISM