A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'Smith, Norman Kemp
Philosophy
A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'
Smith, Norman Kemp
Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804. Kritik der reinen Vernunft
=A 3-4 = B 7-8.=--The reasons, here cited by Kant, for the failure of
philosophical thinking to recognise the difference between immanent and
transcendent judgments are: (1) the misunderstood character, and
consequent misleading influence, of _a priori_ mathematical judgments;
(2) the fact that once we are beyond the sensible sphere, experience can
never contradict us; (3) natural delight in the apparent enlargement of
our knowledge; (4) the ease with which logical contradictions can be
avoided; (5) neglect of the distinction between analytic and synthetic
_a priori_ judgments. Vaihinger points out[238] that in the
_Fortschritte_[239] Kant adds a sixth reason--confusion of the concepts
of understanding with the Ideas of Reason. Upon the first of the above
reasons the best comment is that of the _Methodology_.[240] But the
reader must likewise bear in mind that in B xvi Kant develops his new
philosophical method on the analogy of the mathematical method. The
latter is, he claims, _mutatis mutandis_, the true method of
_legitimate_ speculation, _i.e._ of immanent metaphysics. The one
essential difference (as noted by Kant[241]), which has been overlooked
by the dogmatists, is that philosophy gains its knowledge from concepts,
mathematics from the construction of concepts.
=Remain investigations only.=[242]--Cf. _Prolegomena_, § 35.
=The analysis of our concepts of objects.=[243]--Vaihinger’s
interpretation, that the concepts here referred to are those which we
“form _a priori_ of things,”[244] seems correct.[245] The rationalists
sought to deduce the whole body of rational psychology from the _a
priori_ conception of the soul as a simple substance, and of rational
theology from the _a priori_ conception of God as the all-perfect Being.
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