Critique of Pure Reason, Volume 19Colonial Press, 1900 - 480 pages Metaphysicians have for centuries attempted to clarify the nature of the world and how rational human beings construct their ideas of it. Materialists believed that the world (including its human component) consisted of objective matter, an irreducible substance to which qualities and characteristics could be attributed. Mindthoughts, ideas, and perceptionswas viewed as a more sophisticated material substance. Idealists, on the other hand, argued that the world acquired its reality from mind, which breathed metaphysical life into substances that had no independent existence of their own. These two camps seemed deadlocked until Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason endeavored to show that the most accurate theory of reality would be one that combined relevant aspects of each position, yet transcended both to arrive at a more fundamental metaphysical theory. Kant's synthesis sought to disclose how human reason goes about constructing its experience of the world, thus intertwining objective simuli with rational processes that arrive at an orderly view of nature. |
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absolute totality according analytical analytical proposition antinomy apodictic apperception applied argument belong causality cause cendental ception complete connection consciousness consequently constitution contains contingent cosmological cosmological argument determined dialectical discover ditions dogmatical empirical conditions empirical intuition employed ence existence extensive quantity external intuition faculty former given ground human illusion inasmuch infinite intelligible internal sense judgment knowledge lative latter laws limits logical manifold mathematics means merely metaphysics mind mode moral nature necessity never nihil negativum nomena noumenon ourselves perception phenomena phenomenon philosophy possess possible experience predicate present presupposes principles priori laws proof pure conceptions pure reason pure understanding quantity question rational psychology regard regress relation representation rule schema sensibility sensuous intuition series of conditions space speculative speculative reason sphere substance supreme synthesis synthetical propositions systematic unity term things thinking thought tion transcendent transcendental ideas transcendental theology truth uncon unconditioned world of sense