Notes on Introduction to Philosophy -- Phil A201

William Jamison - Instructor

Lecture 9

Slide 1:

Immanuel Kant and his development

Critique of Pure Reason - 1781

What our reason can and cannot achieve

Knowledge is possible because our minds play an active role, organizing and systematizing experience

Space, Time and Substance are creations of our reason without which we could not comprehend the world

The thing in itself is beyond our knowledge

Slide 2:

Kant

Critique of Practical Reason - Ethics

Man is capable of following rational law but also liable to be swayed by non-rational desires of our physical nature

Moral action is a struggle suppressing all desires except reverence for moral law

Do your Duty for the sake of Duty

Critique of Judgment - Aesthetics

Harmony of understanding and imagination in contrast to the reasoning aspects of human nature

Explanation: Kant successfully answers Hume and shows one way there can be a synthetic a priori. The structure of reality is rational because it is imposed on reality by our minds.

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