Kant Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by faminconnue

Kant was mostly interested in logic, metaph­ysics, physics, geography, and anthro­pology
He was affected by Hume's problem of causality; he thinks that the problem is even more expansive, and wants to make necessary knowledge about objects possible again and to make physics possible again
He was also influenced by the Copernican revolu­tion* and wanted to unite freedom and morality with Newtonian physics

the revolution made people realize that what is knowable is limited, there is no necessary univer­salia (e.g. a cat) in the external world, experi­encing a world requires necessary univer­salia, and there can only be a knowable object in as far as it conforms our mind

-> the concept of transc­end­ent(al) (= outside of the knowable) came to be.
transc­end­ental: the structures of the knowable; demarcates what we can and cannot know
transc­end­ental idealism: the structures of the knowable lie in the subject

Two-ob­jects interp­ret­ation: TI is a metaph­ysical thesis describing two different kinds of object­s/w­orlds

Two-as­pects interp­ret­ation: TI is either
- A metaph­ysical thesis describing two different aspects of the same object
- An episte­mol­ogical thesis describing that we are limited to our human viewpoint

Kant claimed that classical metaph­ysical concepts (god, soul, a whole world) were regulative ideas.
He stated that actions are free, but we do have to determine ourselves by means of reason (catego­rical imperative)

is there a first time?
-> according to Kant this is something we cannot think about

as by trying to think about this, we find ourselves in contra­dic­tion: antino­mies*
Thus: we shouldn't think those things

hume:
- no necessary connection or laws in the world outside of us
- no necessary knowledge
- there is a subjective habit

domains of knowledge:
- no theore­tical knowledge about metaph­ysics and theology outside of experience
- necessity only in relations between ideas: analysis

kant:
- the world is knowable as far as our mind allows it
- the structure of the mind determines the world in its appearance
- there is necessary knowledge

domains of knowledge:
- states that Hume destroys tradit­ional concep­tions of necessity
- discus­sions defending causality are missing the point

According to Kant, pure reason is something that is not yet tainted by empirical subjec­tivity
critique then is finding the line of what we can and cannot make truthful claims about

His primary aim is to determine the limits and scope of pure reason. That is, he wants to know what reason alone can determine without the help of the senses or any other faculties

Phenomena: what we can know
-> are determ­inistic (should not have happened any other way)
-> phenomena include a priori knowledge relying on concepts and a posteriori knowledge relying on structures experience

Noumena: what we cannot know
-> also known as ding an sich; the world as it is outside of our experience
-> e.g. classical metaph­ysical concepts such as God, soul, world as a whole

as far as we are a noumena being we are free, as phenomena beings we are not

Kant tried to resolve scepticism by giving a different concept of the mind.

transc­end­ental logic contains transc­end­ental analytic and dialect
-> analytic: discusses what the categories of our thoughts are; it breaks apart to show what the different categories are
->d­ialect: discusses what happens when you go beyond the limits of the categories

The latter is impossible according to Kant, as nothing can go beyond the limits* and thus leads to contra­dic­tions

Kant distin­guished different types of knowledge:
1. analytic: no new knowledge , it could not be different (e.g. i know the ball is round)
2. synthetic → new, and necessary knowledge (e.g. i know 1+1=2)
- pure: without any concepts that have an empirical component
- a priori: having knowledge before­hand; does not rely on a concrete experience (i.e. the substance in things is permanent)
- a poster­iori: knowledge afterw­ards; uses a concrete experience (i.e. the apple is red)
→ pure knowledge is always a priori, a priori knowledge isn’t always pure

According to Kant, knowledge comes from experience
new and necessary knowledge must be synthetic, a priori and use pure reason. Critique is necessary when gaining new knowledge

we can achieve a necessary structure of knowledge because the object conforms to our subjective structure -> this structure consists of:

intuit­ions: determine meaningful content
-> they are the structure of experi­ence, e.g. time and space

concepts of unders­tan­ding: structure content
-> unders­tanding is always with an object; as basic logic is without an object, e.g. the categories
judgement relies on logical form; which makes use of categories