4 Synthetic A Priori Judgments - Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Dan Robinson)

Dan Robinson gives the 4th lecture in a series of 8 on Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

Kant claims that, "our sense representation is not a representation of things in themselves, but of the way in which they appear to us. Hence it follows that the propositions of geometry... cannot be referred with the assurance to actual objects; but rather that they are necessarily valid of space... [and] space is nothing else than the form of all external appearances". [Prolegomena 286-287]

This series looks at German Philosopher Immanuel Kant's seminal philosophical work 'The Critique of Pure Reason'. The lectures aim to outline and discuss some of the key philosophical issues raised in the book and to offer students and individuals thought provoking Kantian ideas surrounding metaphysics. Each lecture looks at particular questions raised in the work such as how do we know what we know and how do we find out about the world, dissects these questions with reference to Kant's work and discusses the broader philosophical implications. Anyone with an interest in Kant and philosophy will find these lectures thought provoking but accessible.

This is series of lectures was given in 2011 at Oxford. Note, the audio has been improved.

#Philosophy #Kant #Epistemology

[MV-vvsg]

35:30 I haven’t read the paper on this observation of the Rhesus Monkey, but couldn’t it be quite equally as possible that it’s not an a priori selectivity to perception, rather the behaviour; the distress cries, have Evolved through natural selection
such that it best triggers the response which aids distress. That is to say, the cries have arrived at a tone pitch etc that arouses the cells Robbins refers to, as these cells give way to behaviour that reacts to distress which is best oriented to preserve life.

This could all come under, quite nicely, Wittgenstein’s Tractus and that language is the solution to this kind of philosophical debate of a prior knowledge at existence before experience, between the Rationalists and Empiricists.

[Mal]

35:30 I don't know if this is supposed to be just an analogy to what the a priori is. But the Rhesus monkey analogy adds confusion to the mix, as the transcendental proof does not rely on the idea that the forms and categories are innate.

[garybaste]

anyone knows what passage the thales qoutation is from?

[davidstein]

I wish this man all the best, in developing a persona.

[vgzvusr]

34:07 Can you deduce a mitochondria out of your living experience?

[vgzvusr]

22:07 That knowledge bomb dropped harder than Fat man on Nagasaki.

[shanejohns]

It's a shame this man wasn't smart enough to realize how terrible his choice for President turned out to be. The article on Quartz "An Oxford professor who teaches moral philosophy on why he supports Donald Trump" is quite telling -- he's sloppy, and tells half-truths.