Metaphysics · Epistemology · Philosophy of Mind

Space, Time, and Experience

Are space and time features of things as they are independently of us, or forms through which human sensibility presents them?

Positions

  1. Transcendental Idealism

    Space and time are forms of human sensibility through which objects appear, not features of things as they are in themselves.

    Held by Kantian Critical Philosophy

  2. Transcendental Realism

    Space and time belong to things as they are independently of human sensibility.

Methods used to investigate this question

Discussion

Experience presents objects as spatial and temporal. The dispute is whether that order belongs to things as they are independently of human sensibility or whether space and time are forms through which human beings can experience objects at all.

This is narrower than asking whether knowledge comes from reason or experience. Transcendental realism and transcendental idealism give directly opposed answers about space and time without implying that the mind creates empirical objects.

References