Precis: Kant's Cans and Can'ts

Precis: Kant's Cans and Can'ts

In "Critique of Pure Reason," or, "Kritik der reinen Vernunft,"
Immanuel Kant attempts to outline his understanding of human reason.
Kant's first postulation, and the basis for the rest of his outline, is
that though "cognition commences with experience" (148), not all
cognition comes from experience. There are certain cognitions that can
be known without sensory experience. This type of cognition Kant
refers to as "a priori," as opposed to "a postieri" knowledge, which
derives from experience.

Kant further separates a priori knowledge into two separate realms of
judgment, analytic and synthetic. Analytic judgments are those in
which the assertion (B) made about a given subject (A) is part of the
identity of said given subject. For example, a judgment such as, "10 is
a number," could be considered an analytic judgment. Conversely, there
exist also synthetic a priori judgments. These are the focus of Kant's
"critique," and they are those judgments in which the assertion (B)
about the given subject (A) are a concept separate from the identifying
qualities of subhect (A).

post by Charles Carter