Kantianism

Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term Kantianism or Kantian is still often used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and ethics.

Epistemology

Kant's philosophy is mainly an epistemology growing out of a response to dogmaticism and Newtonian physics.

Traditional scholastic metaphysical theories had proved no longer applicable to the realities which were being uncovered by physics. Kant credited David Hume for awakening him from his "dogmatic slumber." Hume challenged the traditional notions of causality, i.e. cause and effect relations, arguing that it is simply from habit that man reasons back to a necessary connection between effect and cause.

Hume effectively argued that "synthetic a apriori propositions" were impossible. Synthetic (from the Greek "to put together") a priori (Latin "from before") propositions are statements for which the predicate of the sentence is not contained in the subject (hence synthetic), yet absolute and necessarily true (hence a priori).

The law of causality stating that "every effect has a cause" is an example of a synthetic statement. However for Hume, this statement is not a priori (absolutely and necessarily true) but rather simply a posteriori, that is, from experience. Hume, as said above, concluded that all causal relations are merely a matter of habit, thereby denying the existence of synthetic a priori statements.

The entire Kantian project can be said to justify one thing, namely, synthetic a priori statements, in particular the law of casuality as the non-existence of this law has serious repercussions within the realm of Newtonian physics. Kant - realizing that if Hume was right, then Newtonian physics would be simply false - sought to justifiy contemporary physics on the basis of an epistemology, namely an epistemological turn to the subject, which would prove the existence of synthetic a priori statements, or at least demonstrate why these propositions proved true. Kant's epistemology therefore begins with a turn toward the human subject, often referred to as Kant's "copernican revolution."

Kant distinguished between two realms of reality, the phenomenal and the noumenal. The phenomenal pertains to the world of appearances, whereas the noumenal is simply the realm of the thing-in-itself (ding-an-sich). Man only can know the phenomenal realm,where the noumenal realm remains ever hidden and beyond the comprehension of man's finite intellect. It is in the phenomenal realm then where Kant constructs his theory of knowledge. The subject has certain structures of the mind, certain categories, which categorize and order reality. These categories apply not only to intellectual thought and reasoning, but also to sensation itself. Therefore when a subject senses or "intuits" (Kantian language) something, it is already determined by a priori categories of intuition (sensation). Kant identifies these a priori categories of sensible intuition as space and time. Space and time then are the condition for the possibility for any sensation whatsoever. Therefore Man can never know a thing "in-itself" but rather only what "appears" phenomenologically through the lenses of the a priori categories of the subjects mind, namely, space and time. Yet Kant's categories extend well beyond mere sensation. Kant has categories for every act of understanding that a subject makes. Kant calls these categories the "categories of the understanding." Every time therefore a subject understands - that is, "judges" or categorizes a sensation - the subject does so within the realm of the categories of the understanding. Thus far we have noted that Kant's epistemology consists of two main features: 1, the respective differences between the phenomenal and noumenal realm, and 2, sensation and understanding (we have shown that even sensation, however, requires categories -pure categories of space and time, without which all sensation would be impossible).

Synthetic a priori judgements are possible then, on the basis of certain categories of the mind -here the category of casaulity - with which man imposes upon the phenomenal reality he experiences. Therefore, for the subject, there is a necessary casual conntection between events, that is, between cause and effect, for cause and effect are the way in which the understanding "understands" reality. Whether or not this is true for reality in-itself, the subject can never know. However, the subject can engage in physics (the notion of causality being the ground of newtonian physics) since according to his phenomenal reality, synthetic a prioiri propositions are indeed possibe. For Kant then, logical principles like the principle of identity, the principle of sufficient reason, are simply categories imposed on reality from the subject.

Kant's theory of knowledge has drastic implications on traditional metaphysics. For Kant believed that the categories of the understanding need sensations to be applied to, and sensations need to be categorized. Sensations without categories were blind, and categories without sensations were empty. Yet traditional metaphysics, since the time of Plato and his deivions between the sensible and the supersensible, claimed to go beyond sensible reality. Kant believed that such a "transcendence of sensible reality" was impossible, for this was simply a vain attempt to apply categories of the mind beyond the limits of sensation. In short, the understanding only works when applied to sensible reality, to the phenomenal realm, and seeking to apply these categories beyond to any noumenal realm is impossible and results in all the problems of metaphysics (Kant calls these problems of metaphysics "antinomies").

Yet there is an explanation as to why man seeks to apply categories beyond experience, namely, why metaphysics is a natural disposition in man. Why? Because of the very nature of human reason which seeks to totally unify all reality into a systematic whole, thus resulting in notions such as "God" and "the eternal soul." The idea of proving the existence of God, for example, thinks of God as the first cause, using the principle of sufficient reason or casuality beyond the proper realm of phenomenal reality. In reasoning back to God then human reason simply oversteps it's boundaries. This applies to all metaphysical categories of God, soul, and world. Thus for Kant metaphysics is not possible as a science, but is possible in man as a natural disposition due to the systematic nature of reason itself. Kantianism had one goal in mind - "how are synthetic a priori judgments possible." The answer is that the human mind structures reality so, that is applies universal categories to phenomenally structured reality. Therefore for all intents and purposes, synthetic a priori's are true and true for everyone - since every subject has these same categories of the mind. Based upon Kant's epistemology physics is then justified as a science, and Kant has answered and refuted Hume's attempt to dismiss physics as a possible science.

Today Kantianism still adheres to the main distinction between phenomenal and noumenal reality. Even though Newtonian physics has been surpassed by theories of relativity etc., the Kantian explanation of physics, euclidian geometry, and the natural disposition of metaphysics in man still stands. Kant's turn to the subject has greatly influenced post-modernism.

Ethics

Kant's ethics are deontological, revolving entirely around duty rather than emotional feelings or end goals. All actions are performed in accordance with some underlying maxim or principle, it is this that the moral worth of an action is judged according to. Kant's ethics are founded on his view of rationality as the ultimate good and his belief that all people are fundamentally rational beings. This lead to the most important part of Kant's ethic, the formulation of the Categorical Imperative, which acts as a test for whether a maxim is good or bad.

Simply put the test is that one must universalize the maxim (imagine that all people acted in this way) and then see if it would still be possible to perform the maxim in this world. For instance take the maxim, 'kill anyone who annoys you' and imagine everyone held this maxim. The world would very soon be devoid of people and then you would no longer have anyone left to kill, holding this maxim is irrational as it ends up being impossible to hold it.

Kant's ethics focus then only on the maxim that underlies actions and judges these to be good or bad solely on how they conform to reason. Kant showed that many of our common sense views of what is good or bad conforms to his system but denied that any action performed for reasons other than rational actions can be good (if I save someone who is drowning simply because I felt a great pity for them, the act was not a morally good one). Kant also denied that the consequences of an act in any way contribute to the moral worth of that act, his reasoning being (highly simplified for brevity) that the physical world is outside our full control and thus we cannot be held accountable for the events that occur in it.

Teleology

In teleology, Kant's positions were neglected for many years because in the minds of many scientists they were associated with vitalist views of evolution. Their gradual rehabilitation recently is evident in teleonomy which bears a number of features, such as the description of organisms, that are reminiscent of the Kantian conception of final causes as essentially recursive in nature.

Political philosophy

In political philosophy Kant has had wide and increasing influence with the major political philosopher of the late twentieth century, John Rawls drawing heavily on his inspiration in setting out the basis for a liberal view of political institutions. The nature of Rawls' use of Kant has engendered serious controversy but has demonstrated the vitality of Kantian considerations across a wider range of questions than was once thought plausible.

Bibliography

• Thomas Auxter (1982) Kant's Moral Teleology (Mercer University Press)
• Lewis White Beck (1960) A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (University of Chicago Press)
• R. Beiner and W.J. Booth (eds.) (1993) Kant and Political Philosophy (Yale University Press)
• Gary Banham (2000) Kant and the Ends of Aesthetics (Macmillan)
• Gary Banham (2000) "Teleology, Transcendental Reflection and Artificial Life" Tekhnehma: Journal of Philosophy and Technology Number 6.
• Gary Banham (2003) Kant's Practical Philosophy: From Critique to Doctrine (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Howard Caygill (1989) Art of Judgment (Blackwell)
• Howard Caygill (1995) A Kant Dictionary (Blackwell)
• Mary Gregor (1963) Laws of Freedom: A Study of Kant's Method of Applying the Categorical Imperative in the Metaphysik Der Sitten (Basil Blackwell)
• John Rawls (2000) Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy (Harvard University Press)

See also

• Neo-Kantianism
• Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy

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