1 Bautista, Gascon, Sayson

The Kantian Concept

The Kantian Concept
Immanuel Kant
A German philosopher born in Königsberg in
East Prussia on April 22, 1724.
He entered the University of Königsberg, where
he studied philosophy, mathematics, and the
natural sciences under a young instructor named
Martin Knutzen, who first introduced him to the
philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and
Christian von Wolff
His philosophy is essentially a "criticism",
because it is an examination of knowledge, and
"transcendental", because its purpose in
examining knowledge, is to determine the a
priori, or transcendental, forms.
Human Consciousness and Conduct
Kant reached back to Plato's concept of reality
Kant indicated that the nature of his philosophic
thought goes beyond the realm of sense
experience
ideas and concepts can be formed and organized
in the human intellect independently of feelings
and inclinations
For Kant, Hume's idea is not pure knowledge but
only experimental knowledge
"there is, therefore, a priori knowledge"
The Principle of Rightness

Two Periods of Kant’s Literary Activity

Pre-Critical Period
Kant, taught the philosophy then
prevalent in Germany, which was
Wolff's modified form of dogmatic
rationalism.
Apparent contradictions which he found
to exist in the physical sciences, and the
conclusions which Hume had reached
in his analysis of the principle of
causation, "awoke Kant from his
dogmatic slumber"
Starting from the year 1770, Kant
showed his tendency of forming an
independent philosophy and he spent
the following years in preparation for
his first major work considered in his
critical period, which is, the “Critique
of Pure Reason”
Precepts of natural law are the telos that the legal
Critical Period
order should strive to attain
It will be found most convenient to
Precepts of the natural law are not prompted by
divide the study of Kant's critical
sense-experience but by the ethical attitude to do
philosophy into three portions:
what is right and avoid what is wrong with the
1. "Critique of Pure Reason" use of the unique faculties of human
2. "Critique of Practical Reason“ consciousness, namely: thinking, volition and
3. "Critique of the Faculty of judgment
Judgment"
"Critiques" -- so named because, in the Critique of Pure Reason
true sense of the word, "to criticize" Kant teaches that there is another type of
means to discuss and judge.
judgment called synthetic a priori.
Kant's entire work is a careful
For the formation of any synthetic a priori
examination and judgment of
judgment it is necessary to have form and matter.
Rationalism and Empiricism, with a
The form is given by the intellect, independent
view to determining the merits and
of all experience, a priori, and signifies the
deficiencies of the two.
function, manner and law of knowing and acting,
 2 Bautista, Gascon, Sayson
which the subject finds in itself prior to all
experience.
The matter is the subjective sensations which we
receive from the external world.
This work is divided into three parts:
Transcendental Aesthetic – investigates
the elements of sensible knowledge in
reference to a priori forms of space and
time
Transcendental Analytic – an inquiry
into intellectual knowledge
Transcendental Dialectic – has for its
object that reality which lies beyond
our experience; namely, the essence of
God, man and the world
Critique of Practical Reason
Kant makes the universality and necessity of the
moral law dependent, not on the empirical act
and the end that we might intend in our actions,
but on a categorical imperative, in the will itself.
"Duty for duty's sake"
Among all the imperatives that can determine
the will to action it is necessary to distinguish
the hypothetical from the categorical
Hypothetical imperatives - impose a
How and Why Something May be Considered Moral
command in order to attain an end and
are hence conditioned on that end.
Categorical imperatives - impose
themselves automatically.
Only categorical imperatives enjoy universality
and necessity, and hence only they can be the
foundation of morality.
Critique of Judgment
Both the Critique of Pure Reason and the
Critique of Practical Reason have established a
Application of Kant’s Principle of Rightness
dualism -- of phenomenon (knowable by the
senses) and noumenon (thing in itself), of the
sensible and suprasensible, the conditional and
unconditional, mechanical necessity and liberty.
Kant maintains that such a synthesis is possible
through the judgment of sentiment, the study of
which he presents in the Critique of Judgment.
In the Critique of Judgment Kant presents only
two reflecting judgments -- that which arises
from the finality of nature (teleological), and that
which is called aesthetic.
Teleological Judgement
-creative activity of nature
develops itself in a successive series of
phenomena connected with one another
mechanically, thatThe Kantianthe
is, through Concept
laws of
causality.
-this teleological view, in which
we consider the world of beings and of
events as ordained to an end and
ultimately to our spiritual exigencies,
finds its reason in sentiment and not in
the intellect.
Aesthetic Judgement
-we judge an object to be
pleasurable
-begins by our separating the
object from every determined concept
and from every practical interest, and
by referring the object thus freed to the
subject
-the object of an aesthetic
judgment is the "form" of the object
considered in itself and referred to the
subject
-In becoming aware of aesthetic
pleasure, the subject (ego) feels himself
free of any theoretical or practical
interest; he feels himself to be one, a
person, the subject of spiritual activity.
“Everyone must admit that a law, if it is to hold
morally, i.e., as a ground of obligation, must
imply absolute necessity; he must admit that the
command, “Thou shall not lie,” does not apply
to men only, as if other rational beings had no
need to observe it. The same is true for all other
moral laws properly called.”
Morality exists a priori.
Morality is the unconditional ought.
Deals with the problem of determining when
conduct and decisions are or are not injurious to
others.
“How may conduct and decisions be considered
in accord with the principle of rightness with
certainty?”
It is unsound to deal with the problem relating
principle of rightness with conduct and decisions
by relying on the empirical nature of sense-
experience.
Principles of natural law would not be binding
on all rational persons at all times.
Kant relied on the “ethical ought” rather than on
the “legal ought.”
 3 Bautista, Gascon, Sayson
Universal Criterion
Must be absolute and obligatory.
It can never be hypothetical nor tentative.
Hypothetical v Categorical Imperative
Categorical Imperative
Imperative
A command.
It commands people to exercise their
wills in a particular way, not to perform
some action or other.
Categorical
People possess rational wills.
Without reference to any ends they
might or might not achieve.
A test or method of determination on whether or
not a specific act is considered to be morally
right, morally wrong or somewhere beyond
moral realm.
“Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at
the same time will that is should become a
universal law.”
In order for an act to be categorically
imperative, it must be thought to be
good in itself and in conformity to
reason.
Whether or not a person can
“universalize” his actions.
Whether others would act in accordance
with the same rule in a similar
circumstance.
The Kantian
It commands each individual to regardConcept
him as
determining, by its decision to act in a certain
way. That everyone (including himself) will
always act according to the same general rule in
the future.
No person would accept a proposal that would
contradict itself.
It is an impetus whether an act is moral or not.
The Conception of Rightness
Right has regard only to the external and
practical relation of one person to another, in so
far as they can have influence upon each other ,
immediately or mediately , by their actions as
facts
The conception of right does not indicate the
relation of the action of an individual to the wish
of the mere desire of another , as in acts of
benevolence or of unkindness, but only the
relation of his free action to the freedom of
action of the other
In this reciprocal relation of voluntary actions,
the conception of right does not take into
consideration the matter of act of will in so far as
the end which any one may have in view in
willing it, is concerned
Kant on the Golden Rule
Kant states that what he is saying is not the same
as the Golden Rule; that the Golden Rule is
derived from the categorical imperative with
limitations. That, under the Golden Rule many
things cannot be universal.
aaa
Metalegal Basis of Law
A Priori v A Posteriori
Kant distinguishes between a priori knowledge,
which is based on reason, and a posteriori
knowledge, which is based on experience. A
priori knowledge may be pure, if it has no
empirical element, or impure if it has an
empirical element. A priori truths are logically
necessary truths, while a posteriori truths are
empirical, contingent truths. A priori judgments
are characterized by logical necessity and by
strict universality. A posteriori judgements are
not characterized by logical necessity or by
absolute universality.
Transcendental Aesthetics
The beginning of knowledge is in sensibility, in
the reception of sensations. In order to constitute
 4 Bautista, Gascon, Sayson
knowledge, sensations must be located in space,
if they come to us through the external senses;
and in time, i.e., succeeding one another, no
matter what their origin -- even if they be simple
states of consciousness, such as pleasure and
pain.
The pure intuitions of time and space give us a
manifold but disorganized knowledge of nature.
The human spirit, which tends to the unification
of knowledge, cannot stop at these confused
intuitions. It feels impelled to progress to a
higher degree of understanding which is
centered in the intellect and whose activity
consists in organizing the sensible data dispersed
in space and time. This is possible through the a
priori forms or categories with which the
intellect is endowed.
The classification of sensible intuitions,
performed by the intellect through its categories,
does not attain perfect unity. It remains always in
the world of phenomena, in a phenomenal series
which extends itself indefinitely in space and
time. Within us, however, there is the tendency
to achieve a definite unification of phenomena,
and as a consequence there arise in us certain
"ideas" which serve as a point of reference and
organization for the totality of phenomena.
These "ideas" are personal ego, the unifying
principle of all internal phenomena; the external
world, the unifying principle of all phenomena
coming from without; and God, the unifying
principle of all phenomena, regardless of their
origin.
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The Kantian Concept
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