Immanuel Kant
Prussia, eighteenth century
Critical philosophy investigates the conditions that make experience and knowledge possible.
Historical context
The three Critiques appeared in the final decades of the eighteenth century. The first addresses knowledge, the second practical reason, and the third judgment.
Overview
Investigating the conditions of experience means asking what our cognitive capacities contribute. This inquiry sets limits on where categories such as causality can legitimately be applied.
Main claims
Knowledge of objects of experience depends on conditions that make it possible to organise them as such.
Debates and nuances
His transcendental idealism is compatible with empirical realism.
This entry provides educational context.