Kant's Theory of Knowledge
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Immanuel Kant is considered one of the greatest philosophers of all time. He claimed to have initiated a "Copernican Revolution" in philosophy, and his ideas have been as influential as Plato and Aristotle's. His epistemology (philosophy of how we obtain knowledge) attempted to resolve a great dispute between the rationalists (Descartes, Leibniz) and the empiricists (Locke, Hume). So what did he actually say? And did he succeed in his mission?
In this session, we'll discuss some of the basics of Kant's epistemology. His greatest work, the Critique of Pure Reason, was so dense that virtually no one understood it, so he wrote a short book called the Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, which is what I will be mainly working from.
We'll look at questions like:
- What is the nature of mathematical and scientific truth?
- Can we have absolute certainty about the way the world is?
- How do our own subjective perspectives influence how we see and understand the world?
The Prolegomena is quite dense, so I don't expect anyone to read it beforehand, but this website seems pretty good at explaining the basics.
https://www.artofreasoning.com/?p=741
And here's the link to an online version of that book:
I've turned on fundraising for the group because Meetup charges a fee for me to use it, but there is no cost to attend! Donations are purely voluntary.
Happy thinking!