Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Kant pushes the idea that judgment and intuition share a common root which is called the pure concept of understanding. "The same function that gives unity to the different representations in a judgement also gives unity to the mere synthesis of different representation in an intuition, which, expressed generally, is called the pure concept of understanding."(CRP 211) He then creates a Table of Categories, similar to his previous table the Table of Judgments, in A70/B95, but this table lists categories that Kant believes are of a pure concept, not attained through any sensuous means.

Somehow I find it amusing that Kant thinks his table is uncommonly useful, a little egotistic don't you think? (CPR214) He goes on to show how his table of Categories have some bearing on the nature of understanding, such as the mathematical and the dynamical categories. Unity, truth, and perfection are the criteria of all cognition of things, which I believe Kant is emphasizing in the last bit of his doctrine of The Analytic of concepts.

Kant's second chapter of The Transcendental Analytic begins with an examination of how concepts can relate to objects a priori, which he calls transcendental deduction, and tries to clarify its difference from empirical deduction, which is a concept acquired from experience. (CPR 220) However, due to my limited knowledge/understanding, I don't fully understand how Kant arrives to these two terms because the way I see it, our cognition allows us to deduce certain concepts whether they are attained through empirical means or a priori. In other words, how is it that deductions itself can be distinguished from empirical or a priori?



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