Kant's A Priori Synthesis: Space, Time, and the Self

Kant's A Priori Knowledge and Epistemology

The philosopher Immanuel Kant was influenced by rationalism, but reading David Hume forced him to rethink his assumptions. As Kant stated, Hume awoke him from his "dogmatic slumber."

According to Kant, "all knowledge begins with experience, but not all knowledge comes from experience." This statement allows us to understand Kant's theory as a synthesis between rationalism and empiricism:

• Rationalism: Not all knowledge comes from experience.
• Empiricism: No experience, no knowledge.

This synthesis is called the a priori approach. Kant believed that experience is the beginning of any process of knowledge, but a priori structures of the mind are engaged in this process.

According to Kant, the subject requires a priori conditions to capture reality, specifically space and time. Space and time act like a mold that orders and gives meaning to the information received from the senses. This means that no one comprehends reality as it is in itself (the Ding an sich), but rather as it is perceived, conforming to the conditions of sensibility.

Skepticism and Relativism in Philosophy

Skepticism questions human knowledge and even the human capacity to possess knowledge worthy of the name. It questions whether we are ever able to reach the truth through reasoning.

Savater on Believers in Revealed Truth

For Savater, the revelation of believers represents a style opposed to reason, since they have acquired their knowledge through a privileged form of supernatural vision.

The Philosophical Concept of the Self

Hume's View: What is the Self?

For Hume, the self is something that we build; it is not a substance or a phenomenon that necessarily corresponds to reality. What makes me feel like I am "me" is that I receive feelings, but we cannot be sure that the self exists because it is a complex substance that we construct in our mind by means of memory storage. We use this storage as an instrument for views and ideas over the years, and we mistake this collection for identity. Thus, the self is not truly there because I do not perceive the same thing today as yesterday; that is, every day is different because we perceive different things. Likewise, we cannot have direct impressions of the self, meaning the self is not truly present.

Kant's View: The Transcendental Self

Kant argues that the I think (the transcendental unity of apperception) cannot be known empirically. It is the logical 'I'—the condition of the possibility of knowledge. It is foundational, not empirical. Therefore, the 'I think' can be distinguished from the sensible intuition affected by internal sense or by time, assuming two subjects: an 'I' subject and an 'I' object (the 'I' that senses and the 'I' that is intuited). The representation of the I think must be able to accompany all my representations. Thus, one could speak of a logical ego and a psychological ego.