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Epistemology: Kant II

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Phenomenon v. Noumenon. Phenomenon the way that things appear to us. ... The concept of noumenon has negative meaning, in that, it reminds us that there ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Epistemology: Kant II


1
Epistemology Kant (II)
  • Introduction to Philosophy
  • Weber State University
  • Spring 2007

2
Are the Categories separable from sense
experience?
  • No, they cannot be used apart from sensible
    intuitions to give us knowledge of objects
    because the Categories are merely forms of
    thought.

3
A Comparison
  • One may compare the Categories to mathematical
    functions, e.g., x2
  • Until some number is given for x, we have no
    object.
  • If a content for x is supplied, say 2 or 3, then
    an object is specified in these cases the
    numbers 4 or 9.
  • The x is an operator, the function of which is to
    unite in one consciousness the manifold given in
    intuition.

4
How do we know that x is an object?
  • If a certain manifold of sensations is given, our
    possession of the concept substance allows us
    to produce the thought of a book.
  • A different manifold of sensations produces the
    thought of a printing press.
  • And the category of causation allows us to
    think a causal relation between the two.
  • Objects, thus, are the result of the application
    of the categories as operators to some sensible
    material.

5
Avoiding Illusions
  • A concept is just a formal rule for structuring
    some material.
  • The material is supplied by our intuitions.
  • Without sensible intuitions, there are no
    objects.
  • If it seems as though there could be objects,
    this is an illusion.

6
How so?
  • For example, the category of substance is not
    inherently limited to the objects of sensory
    experience or to space and time.
  • It seems we can have the idea of a nonmaterial,
    nonspatial, nontemporal substance.
  • But this, according to Kant, is profoundly
    illusory because the concept substance is not a
    complete concept in its own right. It is only a
    kind of rule for organizing some content or
    other.

7
Phenomenon v. Noumenon
  • Phenomenon the way that things appear to us.
  • Noumenon something as it is in itself.

8
The Noumenon is purely illusory
  • We cannot know the way things are in themselves
    apart from the way they appear to us.
  • The concept of noumenon has negative meaning, in
    that, it reminds us that there are things we
    cannot know namely what the things affecting
    our sensibility are really like (if by really
    we mean what they are like independently of our
    intuitions of them).

9
Kants System
  • Understanding and sensibility, with us, can
    determine objects only when they are employed in
    conjunction. When we separate them, we have
    intuitions without concepts, or concepts without
    intuitions in both cases, representations which
    we are not in a position to apply to any
    determinate object. (CPR, 274)
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