A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' — Kant — John Shaqi
A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'
Kant · en
The positive character of Kant’s conclusions cannot be properly
appreciated save in the wider perspectives that open to view in the
_Critique of Practical Reason_ and in the _Critique of Judgment_. Though
in the _Critique of Pure Reason_ a distinction is drawn between
theoretical and moral belief, it is introduced in a somewhat casual
manner, and there is no clear indication of the far-reaching
consequences that follow in its train. Unfortunately also, even in his
later writings, Kant is very unfair to himself in his methods of
formulating the distinction. His real intention is to show that
scientific knowledge is not coextensive with human insight; but he
employs a misleading terminology, contrasting knowledge with faith,
scientific demonstration with practical belief.
As already indicated, the term knowledge has, in the Critical
philosophy, a much narrower connotation than in current speech. It is
limited to _sense_-experience, and to such inferences therefrom as can
be obtained by the only methods that Kant is willing to recognise,
namely, the mathematico-physical. Aesthetic, moral and religious
experience, and even organic phenomena, are excluded from the field of
possible knowledge.
In holding to this position, Kant is, of course, the child of his time.
The absolute sufficiency of the Newtonian physics is a presupposition of
all his utterances on this theme. Newton, he believes, has determined in
a quite final manner the principles, methods and limits of scientific
investigation. For though Kant himself imposes upon science a further
limitation, namely, to appearances, he conceives himself, in so doing,
not as weakening Newton’s natural philosophy, but as securing it against
all possible objections. And to balance the narrow connotation thus
assigned to the term knowledge, he has to give a correspondingly wide
meaning to the terms faith, moral belief, subjective principles of
interpretation. If this be not kept constantly in mind, the reader is
certain to misconstrue the character and tendencies of Kant’s actual
teaching.