Kant

Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Quote 1: My purpose is to persuade all those who think metaphysics worth studying that it is absolutely necessary to pause a moment and, regarding all that has been done as though undone, to propose first the preliminary question, "Whether such a thing as metaphysics be even possible at all?" (Page 3)

Quote 2: First, as concerns the sources of metaphysical knowledge, its very concept implies that they cannot be empirical. Its principles (including not only its maxims but its basic notions) must never be derived from experience � It is there a priori knowledge, coming from pure understanding and pure reason. (�1 Page 13)

Quote 3: [T]he generation of a priori knowledge by intuition as well as by concepts, in fine, of synthetic propositions a priori, especially in philosophical knowledge, constitutes the essential subject of metaphysics. (�2 Page 19)

Quote 4: [W]e find that all mathematical cognition has this peculiarity: it must first exhibit its concept in intuition and indeed a priori; therefore in an intuition which is not empirical but pure. (�7 Page 28)

Quote 5: My doctrine of the ideality of space and time [�] far from reducing the whole sensible world to mere illusion, is the only means of securing the application of one of the most important kinds of knowledge (that which mathematics propounds a priori) to actual objects and of preventing its being regarded as mere illusion. (�13 Page 39)

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as within it an infinite set of qualities (predicates) coupled with a unique "subject". However, only a subset of these predicates is actually in effect. This subset is also unique, making each monad what it is. For Berkeley, only two structures actually exist, both of them mental: one is the finite or individual mind; the other God, or infinite mind. Everything else exists only in its being perceived (Luce & Jessop, 1949-58). A comparison can be easily made to Leibniz's monad. Berkeley's "simple, undivided being" also has no extension (there being no such thing in Berkeley's universe) and can't be reduced to anything else. However, Berkeley goes Leibniz one better in that he doesn't have to worry about how this mind can effect changes in the outside world. Because this world exists only in being perceived, what our mind sees is simply its own ideas and sensations. Thus, there's no danger of falling into the "substantial form" trap, into trying to explain how an incorporeal substance can influence the material world. How do these philosophers match up to the ideas outlined in the Prolegomena? With reference to quote 1, it seems none of them actually addresses the question of how a metaphysics can be possible. A metaphysics is

Category: Philosophy - K