The Problem of Certainty by Kant PDF

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I. :itrYnljNj*fl:1:'::.iri.... " (]FIAPTER B Ttre ProbleffiI of Certainry ':ll I T MAv be fitting to conclude this part of the book with a chapter ott cettainty. To see that certainqy really does pose a probleffi, just ask yourself whetler you are certain of any of the following propositions, and whether you are certain about them in different ways: :r.. 2 +2 - +. ' In fourteen hundred and ninery-cwo Columbus sailed the ocean blue. -':,. I exist.. You exist.. The sun will rise tomorrow.. Right low I am perceiving this page.. Barking dogs bark.. Ffumans have evolved from lower animals. ' Every eyent must have a cause. 198 t i^-F-'-'- L--.:r \) "../  Tna P n cint.pn,l o'F- CER1-AIi-N"Iy 199 As you can see, the idea of certairrry is not a simple one. In this chapter :l' we wili consider the problem in only one of it.s aspecrs, but, philosophically, a vet17 basic one- Still rnore specifically, wc will discuss one philosopher,i"at- tempt to account for certainty, especially iu lig'lrt of the preceding chapter. A warning: This may not be easy going, iurrl rhc tlLLotedmaterial will be a good challenge. KA,I{-| AI{D IILI ML;. ,! i i i "f openly confess my recollecdon of l)rrvitl Iltrrrrc wils the very thing j t which many years ago first interruptecl rrry rlogrnrrtic.sltrrrrlrer and gr,r. *| ! l i investigations in the field of speculirtive phil().$(,;rlry a quite new t j $ direction-"i Thus spoke the Germarr 1r[rilosophcr- [rrrrrraluel Kantz I ; (L724-1804), who marks a turning point in rnodern e1>isrcrrrology. { i I Kant observed that there must be sornething radically wr(,,r[ *ith t6e I i whole way of thinking that led finally to the phenomenalispr *,-,cl skepti- ii cism of Flume. For, I(ant says, I aru certain of some of the ffgr6s *hi.h I ir i Ffume called "matters of fact." He cites, ?ls an ex4mple, all mathematical i 1 il propositions, such as 7 + 5 = 12 (though most philosophers now regarcl 4 mathematical truths to be ffue by definition); from narural science he cites i as an example l{ewton's Third Law of Motion, that in all motion acrion i ,, g i and reaction must always be equal; ancl from metaphysics he cires the r principle of caos"liry that every event must have a cause. For Kant it was *I hapter ? I not a question of whetber we possess such larowledg. bat how. In his expla- n, just nation of how propositions can be at once genuinely infornrative aboui re- itions, aliry and absoluteiy certain, Kant signals an altogether differenr approach to the problem, provides us with a sort of halfway point berween Rrtlonal- ism and empiricism, and establishes himself as one of the grearest episte- mologists of all time r blue. S OME IMP ORTAI{T TtrRMINOLO GY But, to begin at the beginning, it is necessary to srudy some rerminology which Kant himself introduced into philosophical discussion. rfmmanuel Kant, Prolegontena t0 Any Funtre Metapblsics, tr. Lewis W. Beclc (Indianapo- lis, II\: Bobbs-Merrill, 1950), p, B. zRh)rme s wirh font. il - "-' g ,f *"J t' {.',  240 'l't tt, (.)l;r,s I l( )N ot. [rxOtdrL,EDGL Knowledge a priori a posteriori ? Derived independently Derived through of sense experience sense experience ri ', ,. liirst, the distinction berween a priori knowledg. and a posteriori knowl- c