I prepared myself for the theme by
reading all the material on the weekend before the pre-theme deadline. By doing
so I had time to reflect and try to make sense of the thoughts that arose. During the first seminar, we discussed different
aspects and concepts from the previous lecture. We talked about a priori,
synthetic knowledge, how we can judge different things by math and metaphysics,
critic of pure reason and how knowledge of the world is always structured
according to time and space.
In our group, we discussed in detail the 12
categories which structure aprioir knowledge according to Kant and focused on
this quote by Kant “Perception without conception is blind, conception without
perception is empty.”
- Quantity: unity, plurality, totality
- Quality: reality, negation, limitation
- Relation: substance, causality, community
- Modality: possibility, existence, necessity
Because of the discussion during the seminar,
we clarified that Kant questioned how knowledge could be structured and not
where knowledge might come from. Kant discusses basic forms, e.g. space and time,
which are hardly reduced to a linguistic concept. Language can form our souls
due to learning. In addition to these “basic” forms, we mentioned higher
categories such as race and gender. Nevertheless, we figured out that there is
no pure knowledge according to Kant, since our sense making is bound to experience,
cultural context and environment. For example, unlike gas a person is bodily
located in space and time; therefore it is not possible for a human being to
avoid these forms. Even though Kant wants us to elevate us to God’s point of
view, it is impossible to achieve due to the mentioned boundaries. To quote Kant: "Let us assume that our
faculties of knowledge do not conform to the objects, but the objects do
conform to our faculties of knowledge."
Hi Corinna,
AntwortenLöschenComparing your two blogs I think you did a good job to pick up where you left off and to explain more in detail what Kant was referring to. I also find it interesting how Kant says, that we can only see the world structured through categories and not differently. Still, I think that Kant wanted to climb down from God's point of view and not to elevate. If I recall this correctly, this is basically what the Critique of Pure Reason is about; that is to say to change the way we see things and to revolutionize metaphysics.
Altogether good job!
Hi Corinna,
AntwortenLöschenYou can tell that you have thought a lot about the texts by reading the two posts about theme 1 and understood what Kant and Plato want to convey through their texts. Really good job! Another point that was discussed during the seminar is that because people use experiences, cultural contexts and environment it is impossible to achieve pure knowledge, Since it is impossible (as you have written) we must instead choose a point of view when looking into the world. Have you considered this aspect?
Thanks for sharing us with your thoughts! Your conclusion on Kant's theory toward knowledge is very impressive. Nice comment on the categories structuring apriori knowledge. Some ideas come up with by your group are never thought of before by me. You did a really good reflecting job.
AntwortenLöschenGreat reflection!
AntwortenLöschenI like that you clarified what Kant was questioning and why there is no pure knowledge according to him during the seminar.
Isn't all we know constricted by space and time (even gas)?
Hi,
AntwortenLöschenThank you for sharing your thoughts. By reading your blogs for theme1, you really did a lot of work for this course and you have a good understanding for Kant and Plato's method. And it's worth mention that your categories is really good job.
Hi,
AntwortenLöschenThank you for sharing your thoughts. By reading your blogs for theme1, you really did a lot of work for this course and you have a good understanding for Kant and Plato's method. And it's worth mention that your categories is really good job.
You were one of the few ones to mention the quote about conception without perception being blind, which I too thought was a somewhat thought-provoking statement. It seems like a rather obvious direct attack on the entire field of metaphysics, and seems to indirectly propose the possibility of synthetic a priori knowledge.
AntwortenLöschenHi Corinna,
AntwortenLöschenNice reflection! I agree with your point that it's impossible to get pure knowledge since knowledge cannot exists apart from us. But as far as I understood very simple categories as space and and time that according to Kant is considered as a priori knowledge can be examples of pure knowledge, how do you think?
Hej :) I like how you point out that Kant did focus on the structure of knowledge and not on where it comes from. That was my biggest problem while dealing with the two texts. I always questioned where Kant says that knowledge comes from until I realized that this is not his main goal and he is not really covering the origin of knowledge. At least Kant talks about God's point of view which for me is very hard to get but it helped me to focus on the way he structured knowledge according to space and time and the twelve categories. Your reflection also shows how your understanding of the texts did improve by discussing and questioning it.
AntwortenLöschen