1.3: Kant, Positivism Hermeneutics

Immanuel Kant

Philosopher who aimed to save scientific knowledge from Hume’s skepticism.

Kant’s project

Kant combines empiricism and rationalism to explain how universal and necessary knowledge is possible.

Hume’s challenge

Hume argued that causality and natural laws cannot be justified by experience.

A priori knowledge

Knowledge independent of experience.

A posteriori knowledge

Knowledge dependent on experience.

Analytic judgment

A judgment that does not add new knowledge but unpacks what is already contained in the concept.

Synthetic judgment

A judgment that adds new information to a concept.

Analytic a priori

Statements that are necessarily true but uninformative.

Synthetic a posteriori

Statements that are informative but depend on experience.

Synthetic a priori

Statements that are informative and necessarily true.

Synthetic a priori (Kant)

Kant argues that such knowledge exists and makes science possible.

Causality (Kant)

Causality is known a priori and structures all experience.

Everything has a cause

This is a synthetic a priori judgment according to Kant.

Phenomenal world

The world as it appears to us and the only world we can know.

Noumenal world

The world as it is in itself and fundamentally unknowable.

Phenomena

Objects as they are structured by human cognition.

Things-in-themselves

Reality independent of human cognition.

Transcendental philosophy

The study of the conditions that make knowledge possible.

Forms of sensation

Space and time as the necessary ways in which we perceive.

Categories of reason

Concepts such as causality and substance that organize experience.

Mind-world relation (Kant)

The mind actively structures experience rather than passively receiving it.

Copernican turn (Kant)

The world conforms to the structure of the mind, not the other way around.

A priori necessity

Experience is always structured by space, time, and categories.

Science saved (Kant)

Scientific laws are possible because the mind imposes lawful structure on experience.

Noumenal problem

Kant claims the noumenal world causes sensations while denying causal knowledge beyond phenomena.

Newtonian laws (Kant)

Kant treated Newton’s laws as synthetic a priori.

Scientific error problem

Later science showed Newtonian laws are false, challenging Kant’s claim.

Kant and skepticism

Kant limits skepticism but does not fully overcome it.

Positivism

The view that science should focus only on observable facts and laws.

Scientific explanation (positivism)

Explanation consists of discovering regularities and laws through observation.

Rejection of metaphysics (positivism)

Claims about unobservable reality are meaningless.

Human sciences problem

Human behavior does not easily fit law-based explanation.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Philosopher who distinguished natural sciences from human sciences.

Explanation (Erklären)

The aim of natural sciences to find causal laws.

Understanding (Verstehen)

The aim of human sciences to grasp meaning and intentions.

Hermeneutics

The method of interpretation used in the human sciences.

Interpretation

Human phenomena are understood by interpreting meaning, not by laws.

Subjective meaning

Understanding human action requires grasping intentions and context.

Natural vs human sciences

Natural sciences explain; human sciences understand.

Limits of prediction

Human sciences cannot make precise predictions like natural sciences.

Peirce Critique of Methods

Doubt can be paper or living, clear and distinct method is subjective

Scientific Method (Logical Positivists)

[1] identify problem, [2] formulate hypothesis, [3] try to refute hypothesis

Constructivists and Relativists

Facts are constructed, truth is relative to these facts

“Anything Goes” (Feyerabend)

Any method may be used in science