Sunday, May 4, 2008

Hume’s mistake according to Kant

Kant talks about Hume’s mistake in not understanding the nature of experience. Like many before Kant including Hume, believed that experience is simply a set of impressions. Thus ideas and impressions are constructed by compounding simple impressions. Kant would say that these are sensations, things we take in by our senses. Kant then argues that experience is more than these simple impressions and it all happens in space and time. Kant says that space and time are not impressions or sensations because they are pure intuitions. Thus everything that happens in time and spare are bound by the laws of cause and effect. Cause and effect in this case are also not impressions but rather concepts of understanding. So intuitions and concepts combine to make an orderly experience for us to understand.

1 comment:

Sandy Rizzo said...

Great summary, Matt.