Highest Principals Of All Synthetic Judgements Philosophy

Kant tasked himself the responsibility of legitimizing what he called synthetic a priori judgement. This term should be broken down to get a better grip on the subject matter. By being synthetic, these judgements go farther than concepts in describing knowledge of a thing. Furthermore, by being a priori in nature, these judgements are both necessarily and universally true. Kant wants to say that these kinds of judgements are possible for humans due to our a priori intutions which were previously understood to be a posteriori. These are better understood as forms of intuitions which we know as space and time. These represent our two sensibilities. Space is our outersense and time can be thought of as our inner sense. There is no other way which an object and be presented to us but through these a priori forms of intuition. These are also known as "subjective conditions" as they are intuitions from ourselves. Furthermore, there are also the categories which much like the forms of intuitions, are a priori concepts and are not derived from experience. Instead, they are what make the experience of any object a possibility. Without these a priori concepts we have no access to objects. In fact, with out these necessary categories and forms of intutions there would be no objects in our lives. We need to make judgements through a priori concepts and a priori intuitions. Due to this requirement of both categories and space and time we can cannot know objects as "thinkgs-in-themselves" for we have no idea of how they exist separate from our forms of intuitions and categories., rather we have appearances of such objects.

This Idea that Kant puts forth regarding our in ability to know things about "things-in-themselves" does not mean there are no real objects, that is empirical evidence through experience should not be branded as not real. Rather, Kant believes that they are real objects that we have sensory experience because the reality of an object is what can be said to interacting with our sensory organs. (B208) Despite these objects known through experience can be thought of as being empirically real, Kant goes further in saying that they are "transcendentally ideal". Yet, not transcendentally real. This implies that there can be no knowledge of anything that transcends the limit of the possible experiences that are brought on through the a priori subjective conditions which allows for the possibility of experience. By allowing for both transcendental idealism and empirical realsism, Kant believes he has just justified his development of synthetic a priori knowledge, which allowed him to use concepts that were not brought about through experience and have not been shown to be true through experience. However, Kant's transcendental idealism demands a difference between things-in-themselves and appearances. This further creates a difference among legitimate and illegitimate use of pure a priori reason. Kant claims that there is a finite experience brought on through metaphysics that can be gained. Furthermore, this allows for the possibility of justifiable synthetic a priori assertions of objects.

Causality is a prime example of this phenomenon. It is understood to be pure and not gained through empirical data, meaning free from experience. Yet, it is also understood to be objectively valid when used in connection with things that are applied through intuitions through the a prior forms of space and time. However, this ability to understand metaphysics stops when we deal with objects that go beyond the possibility of experience. There can be no synthetic a priori knowledge of such objects, and any attempt made regarding these objects which extend beyond the posibiity of experience such as God will ultimately lead reason to false truths and contradictions.

As we can see, Kant believes a prori knowledge regarding objects must be synthetic instead of analytic. This means that transcendental knowledge will deal with the ability in which we are able to have such a thing as synthetic a priori knowledge. This possibility of synthetic a priori knowledge can also be thought of as necessary conditions of possibility. Furthermore, these conditions for the possibility of synthetic a priori knowledge of objects are also able to legitimise the knowledge of objects which are synthetic judgments through a priori forms of intuitions and concepts. When Kant speaks of the highest principal of all synthetic judgements he is talking about what precisely one is able to know a prori regarding the necessary attributes of these objects which is also gained through the conditions of the possibility. "The conditions of the possibility of objects of experience and on this account have objective validity in a synthetic judgment a prori",

The highest principle of all synthetic judgments is: "every object stands under the necessary conditions of synthetic unity of the manifold of intuitions in a possible experience" (B197)

(B193-197)

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