27.2.09

Kant Part 7 - The Transcendental World


Regarding morality, Kant concluded that, whether we like it or not we have moral convictions, which we cannot ignore. These convictions regarding good or bad, right or wrong have meaning and significance only if there is a God to instill them with meaning.

Kant argued that these types of moral categories in the human person, point toward a moral realm.

Most importantly, in thinking about theology and religion, Kant once commented that he "had denied knowledge in order to make room for faith."

For Kant theology is not a possible topic of knowledge.

Theology, in Kantian thought, is a matter of faith.

But perhaps it should be said that Kant's proposals were even more radical than they appear.

He proposed that our capacity for knowledge of reality is so limited, and especially so with regard to knowledge of "God", that even when I talk about God I do not even know what I am saying or what I mean by "God" talk.

This is not because God talk is irrational, but only because it is beyond my capacity to know.

Knowledge of God is simply a matter of faith.

Kant proposed three areas of knowledge. In essence he proposed three worlds.

The first world focused upon the human mind and consists of knowledge derived from the second world, the phenomenal world.

The phenomenal world can only be sensed. It is the world, which we perceive or experience.

These two worlds of knowledge consist of innate apriori knowledge and aposteriori knowledge gained through experience.

However Kant recognized that certain areas of "knowledge" so to speak could not be confined to either of these areas, such as knowledge of "God." Therefore, he proposed a transcendental world, which cannot be sensed and is in actuality also not innate knowledge.

This realm of transcendental knowledge and the transcendental world is the world of faith.