Context
During the Enlightenment in 18th century Northern Europe physics proposed a deterministic reality as the approach to understanding nature, replacing Revelation. The traditional confrontation of thought continued between the human and the divine, physics and metaphysics.
An empirical vision predominated in the British Isles and philosophers faced a culture of scientific materialistic perception of the world. In an extreme form of empiricism Berkeley argued that we cannot directly know anything outside our minds. Hume also adopted a more limited empirical approach saying that the brain constructs sense from an otherwise chaotic reality. Adam Smith's economic theory proposed a free market, which although it appeared chaotic was guided by an invisible hand. In Germany Emmanuel Kant proposed a vision, in the Homeric tradition of immanence, arguing that knowledge resulted from a synthesis of experience and concepts. He also placed limitations on human knowability stating that we could know appearances (phenomenon) but not the thing in itself (noumenon). Kant worked towards a synthesis of rationalism and empiricism arguing that knowledge resulted from a combination of experience and concepts. He distinguished between rational truths, explainable by words, and factual truths that need further explanation. He also proposed a priori concepts, rational deductions, and a posteriori knowledge that result from experience. Starting from the notion that it is not possible to know objects themselves, he theorized in an innovative way that the mind is creative in its representation of reality because it is stimulated by objects and is not subject to knowing them in themselves.
Summary
Kant published his book Critique of Pure Reason in 1781. It is a theoretical work on the limitations of metaphysics and the understanding of experience in the same line as Berkeley and Hume who dealt with the question of how we know. Kant proposes that the way we think is what determines what we know. The mind manages reality through cause and effect and everything outside this logic is incomprehensible. In effect we do not simply absorb input from experience but actually organise it so that experience is controlled by the mind, not the opposite.
Kant's basis is causality. We experience the existence of the universe through our sensory systems and we theorise that it came into being through a chain of events. This causality principle explains existence.
The author distinguishes our thinking categories between a priori and a posteriori assumptions. A priori knowledge is that which we accept with or without experience, for example mathematical rules or the world. A posteriori affirmations can only be proven through evidence or through direct experience. The empiricists agreed with the second category and rejected the first one.
For Kant philosophy is a priori so in the Critique he focuses on that. He argues that despite not experiencing everything we can have knowledge and judge things by shaping input data to our experiences. We know that we can know and learn. Knowledge of the world comes from our shaping of our own experiences and from a collective fund of knowledge. This means that knowing reality is another way of saying that we create it.
Reasoning for Kant is 'understanding' and that allows us to form ideas about the information we receive about the world. Imagination helps us to put the ideas together. We know a chair is a chair because our imagination composes ideas made by our mind through its experience of chairs.
However, some things are simply unknowable yet it does not mean they do not exist. That is where Kant stands out from his contemporaries.
Themes
Critique
“Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds for exemption from the examination by this tribunal, But, if they are exempted, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination.”
Kant's approach to philosophy is not speculative but rather a criticism of how we think in order to ascertain what we can know, understand how we know and define the limitations of our knowledge. He argues that the answers to philosophical problems lie not in metaphysical cogitations but in an examination of our mental abilities. One conclusion he came to was that the mind, far from passively receiving external data actively formulates our vision of reality through dynamic perception. Another is the emphasis on how we can know reality more that what we can know about it.
Transcendental Idealism
“Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality.”
When forming our experiences mentally Kant distinguishes between phenomena and noumena knowledge. Noumena are 'things in themselves' which exist independently of our minds. We can never be certain of these realities and so we will never know what these external realities are. Phenomena are realities created by our mental faculties while making sense of the world. This is the filtered data of which we know since it is what the mind presents us with. The author argues that noumena are unknowable and that all human knowledge is phenomena.
The philosophical claim that the world consists basically of mental ideas and not physical objects is named idealism. Unlike Berkeley Kant does not deny external reality but he establishes the limitations of human knowledge on the information offered by the mind and this cannot be transcended. We will only know reality which is provided by phenomena. (Thus the name: transcendental idealism.)
Synthetic A Priori
“The schematicism by which our understanding deals with the phenomenal world ... is a skill so deeply hidden in the human soul that we shall hardly guess the secret trick that Nature here employs.”
Hume posed the problem of how to infer generalisations from particular experiences in the sense that we have specific sensory experiences of tastes, smells etc..., but we cannot directly experience a physical law or a cause and effect. If we cannot see or hear causation through the senses how can we infer that one event causes another? Kant's expression of this question is to ask how synthetic a priori knowledge is possible. His answer that synthetic a priori knowledge is made possible through the ability of our mental faculties to organise experience into categories which then become general features of our experience. In short we cannot NOT find causation in Nature. This is the way our minds work - we perceive cause and effect everywhere. As such synthetic a priori is how we achieve essential knowledge of reality.
“Our knowledge springs from two fundamental sources of the mind; the first is the capacity of receiving representations (receptivity for impressions), the second is the power of knowing an object through these representations."
Ethics
In his essay “What is Enlightenment?” Kant defines it as “man’s emancipation from his self-imposed immaturity.” Humanity’s “immaturity” for Kant is the period when people did not truly think for themselves, and instead, typically accepted moral rules handed down to them by religion, tradition, or by authorities such as the church, a feudal lord, or the king.
The loss of faith in previously recognised authority, which characterised the Enlightenement, was viewed by many as a spiritual crisis for Western civilization. If God is dead, how do we know what is true and what is right? Kant’s answer was that people simply had to work those things out for themselves. For him, morality was not a matter of subjective whim set forth in the name of god or religion or law based on the principles ordained by the earthly spokespeople of those gods. Kant believed that the moral law was something that could only be discovered through reason. It was not something imposed on us from without. Instead, it's a law that we, as rational beings, must impose on ourselves.
"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason."
Kant distinguished between a moral an immoral act on the basis of the protagonist's motivation. Our actions can be judged as morally correct because we are able to think about and offer reasons for them. As reason is responsible for the approval or censorship for our behaviour only our actions and their motivation are liable to moral judgement.
As Kant argues that reason is the only moral reference and so good and bad should be decided by reason. Bad actions mean behaving against the tenets of our reason or advocating precepts which you reasonably would not wish as universal laws.
"There is, therefore, only one categorical imperative. It is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
Immorality then is a sort of irrationality. He adds that reason is what makes us human so that irrational behaviour dishonours our humanity. It is only by acting according to reason that we demonstrate that we are autonomous beings in control of our passions which lead us into immoral behaviours.
For Kant, when a person freely chooses to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do, their action adds value to the world through moral goodness. According to the author in most situations duty is obvious. If we're uncertain, we can work out the answer by reflecting on a general principle that Kant calls the “Categorical Imperative.” This, he claims, is the fundamental principle of morality and all other rules and precepts can be deduced from it. He offers several different versions of this rule of reference:
“Act only on that maxim that you can will as a universal law.”
Kant also believed that human reason permits us to choose between biological impulses and other ways of behaving. The animal kingdom does not have reflective reasoning and so cannot choose to override their natural necessities but reason allows humans to exercise free will and select behaviours which cancel their biological appetites and are morally correct.
Critique of Rationalism and Empiricism
Kant aimed to extend knowledge through metaphysics yet not disregard physics. He avoided the Rationalist/Empiricist debate between the use of a priori or a posteriori concepts in seeking knowledge by adopting the synthetic a priori model. He agreed with the Rationalists that the mind classified knowledge and he also incorporated sensory experience. However he rejected the Rationalist concept of a priori knowledge as redundant, for example the proposition 'red is a colour', since it tells us nothing new. On the other hand he did not accept the Empiricists' synthetic a posteriori model, either, since he thought the senses could be deceived. He could not approve of counting solely on empirical evidence which could not be tested through a priori logic. The author's synthetic a priori proposition was both logically verifiable and also extended knowledge.
Kant's Influence on 21st-Century Philosophy
Bayesianism and Predictive Processing in Anil Seth's Neuroscience
In his book Being Yourself: A New Science of Consciousness (2016), Anil Seth often echoes Kant's central assertion that we never perceive things as they are, but only brain-mediated appearances. As he writes,
“Perception is not a passive 'mirror' of the world, but an active process of hypothesis testing: the brain continually predicts the causes of its sensory stimuli.”
This formulation corresponds to the Kantian distinction between noumena and phenomena: Seth conceives of conscious experience as an appearance constructed by the brain, rather than direct access to reality.
Seth explicitly links this lineage to Helmholtz and predictive explanations of perception:
“Perception and action are best understood as forms of probabilistic inference: the brain deduces the most probable causes from its noisy sensory data.”
This conception of probabilistic inference constitutes a modern manifestation of the Kantian idea that the mind brings organizing principles to experience. In discussing the attribution of consciousness, he also alludes to ethical implications related to Kantian moral concerns. While he does not directly invoke Kant’s categorical imperative, Seth’s emphasis on how we judge and treat potentially conscious systems resonates with Kantian moral psychology.
Morality and Metaphor
In 1999, Lakoff and Johnson analyzed the metaphorical structure of Kant’s moral theory. Kant’s ethical theory, according to the authors, is a rationalization of the metaphor of the Strict Father’s morality.
The Strict Father issues commands that, because they are based on reason, are moral precepts applicable to all rational beings. This implies that Reason answers the ancient Socratic question: what is best for society as a whole? Correspondingly, it is the duty of the members of society to obey the commands of Reason. This relates directly to the metaphor of the Strict Father, who knows best and is the moral authority. Within this family society, children have a moral obligation to obey their father.
This system also works for the father himself, because Reason gives him a personal perspective on moral precepts. Kant calls this capacity for self-legislation, which all humans possess, "autonomy."
The corollary of this rational morality is behaviour based on emotion, such as compassion for others. Kant does not consider this within the realm of morality, since it derives from feeling, not from Reason.
Kant also insisted that all moral laws were universal, since they were rooted in the universal laws of Reason. This reasoning is based on the ancient philosophical tradition of essences, which was also embraced by Enlightenment thought. An essence is something common to all humanity; in this case, the capacity to reason. All humans have the same capacity to reason, so it is considered universal, and its laws apply to everyone.
Kant understood the Judeo-Christian moral tradition through the lens of the Protestant Strict Father tradition. This interpretation of theology taught that God the Father was the ultimate moral authority. His commandments are the moral laws that all humans must obey. Kant did not embrace the idea that God dictates morality, but he rationalized other claims from his Protestant tradition. In fact, he replaced the theology of God's Reason with the concept of Universal Reason, which is believed to be innate in all rational beings. The Christian duality of body and soul in Kant translates into a division between our rational and corporeal nature.
A central concept in Kant's morality is his "categorical imperative." This involves the rejection of ethical conduct based on subjectivity and the universal requirement to obey the moral law based on Reason. This concept has its roots in the morality of the Strict Father, since the child must follow the orders he gives. Subjective needs, purposes, or personal feelings are not considered relevant. The Strict Father's orders are defined as good for everyone, and there is a duty to be moral.
Lakoff and Johnson argue that Kant's use of metaphorical reason demonstrates that his moral theory is not actually based on "pure reason," as the title of their study proclaims. It is also noteworthy that it is rooted in concepts that are inconsistent with empirical scientific analysis.
However, Kant's analysis was created by a highly systematic mind, using ordinary metaphors in his reasoning in the most original way. More importantly, it also sheds light on how human thought operates: it rationalizes a metaphysical basis.
Quine's Naturalized Epistemology
Quine asserts that philosophy is a continuation of the natural sciences:
"The naturalistic epistemologist is content with what he can learn about strategy, logic, and mechanics, by which our elaborate theory of the physical world is projected, or could be, or should be, from that amorphous neuronal intake."
In the Kantian tradition, Ayer believed that science and philosophy were quite distinct. He claimed that philosophy is not concerned with physical properties, but only with their reflections in language.
Quine rejects this explanation and believes there is no difference of kind between philosophy and science. He criticizes Ayer's assumption that there is an analytic-synthetic distinction in which philosophy is committed to discovering analytic and conceptual truths, and empirical science to synthetic truths. The author insists that there is no division of labor between science and philosophy. Even parlor philosophy is acceptable to Quine. However, this has both advantages and dangers. The benefit is that the philosopher can incorporate the supposed findings of other disciplines. The danger is that the theories of other systems are only as sound as their own theorizing.
Ayer and the Synthetic A Priori
Ayer rejected metaphysical thinking and preferred what he called verifiability. This meant that propositions only had meaning if they could be empirically verified. However, he recognized that no statement can be conclusively confirmed, only supported by observations to determine its falsity or truth. This implies that he rejects the Kantian notion of synthetic a priori propositions. (Example: “Some bodies are heavy” is a synthetic statement because the notion of heaviness is not necessarily contained in that of bodies. However, “All husbands are men” is an analytic proposition because masculinity is contained in that of husband.)
Ayer insisted that no general proposition about a fact can be known to be absolutely valid. He argued that the function of the words "true" and "false" in a statement was to indicate affirmation or negation. However, no empirical proposition is certain, including those concerning immediate experience.
Consciousness and Chalmers & Clark
Clark and Chalmers' Extended Mind introduces the concept that cognitive processes can extend beyond the brain and even the body, exploring the interaction between the mind and external tools. Extended mind theory raises philosophical, social, and moral implications, challenging traditional perspectives on the limits of cognition and identity.
Hume in the 18th century and Mill in the 19th century were proponents of associationist psychology. Their goal was to discover the principles by which conscious thoughts or ideas influenced one another. In the late 18th century, Kant was a critic of associationist psychology and argued against this explanation of consciousness through a succession of associated ideas. He believed that consciousness must be the experience of a conscious self situated in an objective world, organized through space, time, and causality.
Greene's Morality
The moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant influenced Joshua Greene primarily as an intellectual counterpoint. Kant’s emphasis on duty, universal maxims, and the intrinsic moral value of people contrasts with Greene’s judgment of actions based on their results and helps shape his argument about why affective intuitions can be misleading and when impartial reasoning must intervene.
Kant’s categorical imperative:
“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law,”
provides the archetype of a rule-based ethics that Greene repeatedly contrasts with utilitarian thought to clarify what reason and impartiality demand.
Kant maintains a strict prohibition against treating people merely as means:
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”
This clearly highlights the moral conflicts that Greene investigates (e.g., the trolley problem). Greene's empirical findings — that people's intuitive responses often reject sacrificial harm even when it would maximize overall well-being — are presented as instances where intuitions of duty (of a Kantian spirit) driven by emotional aversion conflict with consequentialist calculations obtained through reflective reasoning. Greene uses this contrast to argue that intuition can prevail over impartial moral reasons, but that reason can and should correct intuitions when they produce results that conflict with impartial considerations of well-being.
Kant also indirectly influences Greene by prompting an analysis of moral motivation and the authority of reason. Kant famously asserts that moral worth depends on acting out of duty and respecting the moral law, regardless of inclinations. Greene, in contrast, emphasizes that moral motivation is largely affective and that reason often functions instrumentally. In this way, he challenges Kant’s claim that pure practical reason can provide a motivational force independent of feeling. Greene’s position—which connects normative statements to psychological facts—treats Kantian duty as an objective. It is a plausible, principled system that, nevertheless, can be psychologically unworkable or dangerously provincial when used as public policy without considering the consequences.
Kant’s rigor and his demand for impartiality (an impartial law applicable to all rational agents) compel Greene to refine his own normative proposals. His call for an impartial “metamorality” that coherently integrates the reasons of individuals evokes Kantian universalism in its pursuit of consistency and fairness. However, he substitutes utilitarian general welfare for Kant’s categorical imperative as the reference point. In this way, Kant shapes Greene’s project by providing a parameter for duty. Greene must demonstrate, contrary to Kantian intuitions and principles, why the morality of an action, judged solely by its consequences, better resolves the moral conflict in pluralistic societies.
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