To what sort of novel view did the previous conclusions lead Kant?
Somewhat confusingly, Kant proposed that we could actually specify the form of any possible experience that he designated as a "metaphysic of nature." He thought that we could spell out and think out what the form of any possible experience must be. Consequently this would lead to a body of doctrine, which would tell us also about the world.
He acknowledged that there are analytic truths and that there are synthetic truths, but he also concluded that there is a third category of truth (Transcendental Truth) which he divided into two categories.
First Kant spoke of the form of sensibilities. According to Kant we could spell out and work out the fundamental character of space and time and he argued that these two categories are imposed on our experience by the nature of our sensibilities. In short, these two categories help us to make sense of the world and are therefore "forms of sensibilities."
By this conclusion, Kant contended that the categories of space and time do not characterize things as they are in themselves but are modes of experience in us. In other words, the dimensions of space and time do not exist independently of our experience. Reality has no such categories of space and time.
The other form of which Kant spoke was the form of understanding. The fundamental principle of this realm was the principle of causal determinism. Through the utilization of this category, Kant argued that all of our knowledge comes to us through sense or through forms, which are sense dependent. This is the realm of the physical sciences. This "data" is actually a part of the real world and not projected onto reality.
Part of Kant's mission became investigation the internal forms. The implications of his examination were gigantic. He concluded that through these internal forms we get the foundation for theological speculation about God and metaphysical speculation in general about the cosmos.
However, he ultimately concluded that there couldn't be any such firm foundations for categories of items such as "God" because all knowledge is limited to the experience and the human apparatus through which we receive the experience. Categories of things such as "God" and the "soul" do not meet this standard. As we will see, these things may actually exist, but their existence cannot be empirically verified.
As previously stated, the problem that launched the Kantian project concerning the conflict between Newtonian physics and ethics was not completely resolved, however. Kant had proposed that by making a clear distinction between appearance and things as they actually are he was in a position to say there is a world of appearance and the physical sciences which give access to the truth, but we should always bear in mind that we are talking about the world of appearances and there is "room" for concepts and realities in the world as it actually is for things such as free will, rational agency, good and bad even though these cannot be regarded as "absolute knowledge."
Since we cannot "receive" information concerning these things empirically it does not mean that they do not actually exist, but like radio waves, while they may exist we simply are not equipped to empirically verify their existence.
