![]() Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is thus as well known for what it rejects as for what it defends. Metaphysics, that is, is inherently dialectical. The answer to question three is found in the Transcendental Dialectic, and it is a resoundingly blunt conclusion: the synthetic a priori propositions that characterize metaphysics are not really possible at all. The answer to question two is found in the Transcendental Analytic, where Kant seeks to demonstrate the essential role played by the categories in grounding the possibility of knowledge and experience. The answer to question one is broadly found in the Transcendental Aesthetic, and the doctrine of the transcendental ideality of space and time. In answer to it, Kant saw fit to divide the question into three: 1) How are the synthetic a priori propositions of mathematics possible? 2) How are the synthetic a priori propositions of natural science possible? Finally, 3) How are the synthetic a priori propositions of metaphysics possible? In systematic fashion, Kant responds to each of these questions. “How are synthetic a priori propositions possible? This question is often times understood to frame the investigations at issue in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. “I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge, in order to make room for faith.” But this benefit becomes positive as soon as we become aware that the principles with which speculative rea son ventures beyond its boundary do not in fact expand our use of reason they unfailingly narrow it, as we find when we examine them more closely.” “A cursory survey of this work will leave one with the impression that such a metaphysics benefits us only negatively, viz., by instructing us that in speculative rea son we must never venture beyond the boundary of experience and this instruction is indeed its primary benefit. Hence it can complete its work and put it aside for the use of posterity, as capital that can never be increased.” “Once metaphysics has been brought by this critique onto the secure path of a science, it is able to encompass completely the entire realm of the cognitions pertain ing to it. ![]() “For the main question is always this: what, and how much, can understanding and reason cognize independently of all experience?” ![]() He is attempting to maintain both the authority of reason with the authority of religion. ![]() CPR shows that a critique of reason through the means of reason alone is able to bound the domain of reason to its appropriate use, namely science and math but not metaphysics and religion. This mechanistic view coupled with the universal urge to put ideals under the microscopic of rational criticism threatened traditional moral and religious beliefs. Kant wrote CPR in the age of the enlightenment which was an age of sharp criticism founded on a mechanistic metaphysics influenced by Newtonian physics. With that said, I’ve decided to share these unedited notes on the off chance they are helpful to other readers. These notes were created during my reading process to aid my own understanding and not written for the purpose of instruction. My preferred way of engaging with books is reconstruction. ![]()
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