Kant Critique of Pure Reason Term Paper

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Religion through its sanctity, and law-giving through its majesty, may seek to exempt themselves from it. But they then awaken just suspicion, and cannot claim the sincere respect which reason accords only to that which has been able to sustain the test of free and open examination.

Axi[n])

The debate of science and metaphysics arises when one wonders if metaphysics is even a science or do we really need it. Kant puts forward this question to explain why metaphysics is a science and why it is needed. He argues that metaphysics is needed, 'if not as science, yet still as natural disposition' because human reason is naturally pre-disposed 'by an inward need', and not just by 'idle desire', to raise metaphysical questions that science alone cannot answer. (B21-2). For example the questions about soul or the existence of God come to our minds naturally and this is where metaphysics steps in. It is the bridge that covers the gap between philosophy and science. It goes beyond philosophy as it brings scientific terms into explanation but it stops just short of where pure science begins. Kant argues that principles of metaphysics by its nature, 'seem so unobjectionable that even ordinary consciousness readily accepts them' (Aviii); but metaphysics don't want this blind faith. It wants to push questions forward to bring into their explanation some scientific terms such as space, motion and time. This gives more reasonable support to metaphysical arguments and makes them more acceptable under scientific scrutiny.

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In the Critique, Kant invites science 'to undertake anew the most difficult of all its tasks, namely, that of self-knowledge, and to institute a tribunal which will assure to reason its lawful claims'. This tribunal is 'no other than the critique of pure reason' (Axi) and thus in the book Kant presented numerous arguments in favor of the possibility of metaphysics and tried to establish a much-needed link between science and metaphysics. Kant was fully aware of the shortcomings of both pure reason and pure metaphysics. He understood the problems posed by the two fields in exclusivity and hence tried to bridge the gap with the help of priori and posteriori. According to him we need a priori in order to move to posteriori. He feels that at some level all sciences require priori- i.e. A prior knowledge that mind just happens to possess and which happens to be true as well. The mind, Kant maintains, must be capable of holding true knowledge or generating it. For example it is important for it to know that night changes into day and day into night because of some heavenly changes. When it possesses this knowledge, it can move on to posterior to test the truth of it......

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