Kant's Transcendental Idealism: A Philosophical Analysis

Kant's Transcendental Idealism

The philosophical currents of Kant's transcendental idealism. Idealism, while sounding similar to the Platonic concept of separate ideas, was not directly associated with it by Kant. Instead, Kant analyzed everything through reason, critically examining the powers of human knowledge.

Idealism, in Kant's view, posits that the subject of knowledge (the cognoscente) imposes structures or forms of knowledge (transcendental) that make experience possible. These forms transform things into subjects of knowledge. For Kant, these structures are universal and empty of content, shared by all human beings. These empty structures are filled at the moment of knowledge. The forms transform things into objects of knowledge.

Before Kant, knowledge was seen as having two independent elements: the subject and the object. Kant reversed this by emphasizing the forms of knowledge produced by the subject. This is known as the Copernican revolution of knowledge in Kant.

The German Enlightenment

Kant is considered a key figure of the German Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, which began in England, is characterized by confidence in the power and autonomy of reason. It represents the liberation of man from self-imposed immaturity.

The critical spirit is a hallmark of the Enlightenment, particularly its opposition to tradition, which is seen as a burden hindering human emancipation. Reason is used to establish its own limits. Kant's critique aimed to bring reason before its own court. The Enlightenment also championed religious tolerance, advocating for peaceful coexistence among different faiths and preventing religious institutions from being instruments of government.

There was also an admiration for science, understood as practical and experimental. Physics began to supplant metaphysics, with Newton's system serving as a scientific ideal.

Philosophers and scientists of the eighteenth century sought to describe the world without relying on God. The Enlightenment proclaimed the autonomy of the world and of human reason.

Key Figures of the Enlightenment

The main figures of the Enlightenment include:

• In England: Hume and Locke.
• In France: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Diderot.
• In Germany: Wolff, Lessing, and Kant.