Immanuel Kant--Rationalism and Empiricism

Immanuel Kant really halted philosophy as the world knew it when he proved parts of rationalism and empiricism wrong. Essentially he is the philosopher who first came up with the idea that our mind constructs our experience. Just because humans think or feel about things does not make what they think or feel reality. No matter how hard we think or feel, we cannot overcome the constraints of our own minds. Kant legitimized the idea of perspective meaning everything, which opened the door to all kinds of other movements.

Rationalism hinges on the idea that humans should not trust their senses. They should rely only on reason for their knowledge. Subjects like math with hard facts would be important to a rationalist. However, there are some innate ideas like concepts of self and identity.

On the other hand, the philosophy of empiricism hinges on the idea that knowledge that comes from the senses is the only way to know anything about the world. Therefore, a field like math would give no knowledge. There are no innate ideas; all ideas are derived from other ideas. The only source of morality is about feelings since there are no absolutes.

Kant's philosophy blends these two. He states that both of these philosophies assume one thing-that there is a "reality" versus how things seem to each person. Kant says there is a difference, and we must be able to distinguish between the world as we perceive it to be and the reality (what things are in themselves). These he calls the phenomenal (apparent) world versus the noumenal (real) world. Kant states that we must trust our senses in the phenomenal world; our senses are all we have there, so rationalists are wrong in not trusting their senses. However, in the noumenal world, reason is what we need, so empiricists are wrong to only focus on the senses. However, this perception does not come from the mind. According to Professor Dale Cannon, "Knowledge and experience (phenomena) for Kant are not, however, created by the mind. Their content comes from raw sense impressions that come from without, but its form comes from the active sense-making and conceptualizing power of the rational mind" (Cannon).

Kant is revolutionary in the field of philosophy for bringing in the idea of perspective, and how perspective affects reality. There is no real "truth" out there because our version of reality or truth is based on our own experiences.

Works Cited

Cannon, Dale. Well Being and Knowing Website. Accessed April 30, 2009 at http://www.wou.edu/las/humanities/cannon/kant.htm