Immanuel Kant 17241804

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Immanuel Kant1724-1804
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Basic Kantian Terms
Unit 4 Modern Philosophy Activity 6 Kant
Source F. F. Centore. A Brief Philosophical
Lexicon
A POSTERIORI (to come after in time) That which
follows upon or depends upon sense experience a
knowledge of things which cannot be arrived at or
deduced from definitions alone. E.g., if it is
raining today I could not know that fact simply
by knowing the definitions of "rain," "today,"
etc. I must learn about it by either observing it
for myself or having some other observer convey
the information to me.
A PRIORI (prior to in time) That which comes
before sense experience that which does not
require sense knowledge to be known as true. Cf.
"armchair" mathematicians. E.g., I know a circle
is round by definition, even if I had never seen
a circle in my life.
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ANALYTIC STATEMENT (see A Priori).
APPEARANCE (ad-parere to come forward and show
yourself) That which shows itself in any way,
either to the senses or to the mind. Cf.
PHENOMENON (phainein to show).
CONTINGENT (comtangere to touch upon) That
which need not be the case something which could
be otherwise the accidental something which
just happens to be the case.
NOUMENA The thing in-itself, as opposed to the
PHENOMENA, which is the thing as it appears to
us. The noumena is unknowable, according to
Kant.
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UNIVERSAL (unusvertere one turn) Covering the
whole taking into account the entire situation,
etc. In logic, a UNIVERSAL PROPOSITION is one
which states something about the nature of the
subject, e.g., the statement "All men are mortal"
tells us that it is of the nature of humans to be
liable to death to be a human is to be liable to
death. This means that the predicate, in this
case "mortal," must apply to each and every
possible case considered under the subject term,
"men." Thus the use of "all" is justified.
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Recall that in Aristotle, the categories were
categories of real being. The tree is really a
substance existing outside the mind, as well as
its space and time, relation, quantity and
quality, etc.
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With Kant we see a 180 degree reversal. The
categories become conditions for the possibility
of knowing anything. They exist as forms inside
the mind. It is the mind that gives substance to
what it knows. It is the mind that provides the
notion of necessity, and cause and effect, etc.
As a result, all we know are things as they
appear to us, not as they are in themselves.
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The situation can be compared to a man who has
always worn glasses with a pink tint. If he has
never taken them off, the world appears to him as
pink. All white things are really pink. He does
not know the colors of things in themselves
(noumena), but only as they appear to him
(phenomena).
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