202008222130 Immanuel Kant
Argued that we can have synthetic a priori experiences.
Synthetic experiences = not analytic (definitional)
A priori knowledge does not require some sense or experience to convince that the knowledge is true.
An example is a predicting a solar eclipse - we can predict to great accuracy when a solar eclipse will happen. We don’t need for it to happen for us to know it will happen, and it isn’t a definitional truth either.
Another example (brought up by Kant) is 7+5 = 12. I’m slightly confused how this isn’t analytic, but according to Kant it isn’t.
This is relevant because, under the analogy that all human experience is tinted rose colored glasses (with the glasses being the human mind), we can reason about the nature of mind, the type of rose colored glasses that we’re wearing, even though we’ll never know about the numinal world.
On Kant’s views on moral philosophy, he thought that morals have everything to do with rationality and logic, and nothing to do with emotions. He thought that we should all follow categorical imperatives, like “don’t lie”, and maxims, which are universal and would make sense for everyone to follow. In contrast to Aristotle, who claims that emotions and the meaning behind things is a big part of virtue, Kant’s morals allow people who don’t naturally feel emotions to be moral.
uuid: 202008222130 tags: #knowledge #writeup