School of thought

Kantian Critical Philosophy

Intellectual current

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Classification

Period
c. 1781-1804 CE
Regions
europe
Domains
Aesthetics , Epistemology , Ethics , Metaphysics

Overview

Kant's critical project argues that experience is structured by a priori forms of sensible intuition (space and time) and by a priori categories of understanding, including substance and causality. Theoretical cognition is limited to appearances: things in themselves can be thought, but they cannot be theoretically cognized. In ethics, Kant grounds morality in the categorical imperative: act only according to principles you could will as universal laws.

Key ideas

  • Transcendental Idealism: Space and time are the a priori forms of human sensible intuition, while the categories are a priori concepts through which the understanding organizes experience. Neither gives theoretical cognition of things as they are in themselves.
  • Categorical Imperative: 'Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.' Morality is grounded in rational duty, not consequences or desires.
  • Synthetic A Priori: Kant argues that some knowledge is both informative about the world (synthetic) and knowable independent of experience (a priori) — mathematics and the principles of natural science.

Key figures

Immanuel Kant

Methods used

Positions held

Influenced by

Later connections

  • Bergsonian Intuitionism Influenced by this tradition
  • German Idealism Influenced by this tradition
  • New Confucianism Influenced by this tradition
  • Phenomenology Influenced by this tradition
  • Philosophies of the Will Influenced by this tradition

    Schopenhauer builds directly on Kant's distinction between appearance and thing-in-itself, keeping the distinction and identifying the thing-in-itself as Will. He set out the debt and the disagreement together in the Appendix to the first volume.

  • Pragmatism Influenced by this tradition

    Peirce took the very word 'pragmatic' from Kant, and his system of categories and architectonic method are deeply indebted to the critical philosophy.

  • Romanticism Influenced by this tradition
  • Transcendentalism Influenced by this tradition

    The name 'transcendental' derives from Kant's epistemology, reaching Emerson mediated through Coleridge and the German Idealists rather than from Kant directly.

  • Speculative Realism Reacted to this tradition

    Rejects correlationism — the post-Kantian thesis that we can only think the correlation of thought and being, never the world in itself — seeking access to a mind-independent reality.

  • Classical Utilitarianism Reacted to this tradition
  • Virtue Ethics Revival Reacted to this tradition
  • Neo-Kantianism Renewed this tradition after a break

References