Immanuel Kant Posteriori Knowledge

Immanuel Kant was an 18th century German philosopher who authored the Critique of Pure Reason in 1787. Kant begins this essay by stating that all of our knowledge begins with experience, but it doesn’t always follow that knowledge arises out of experience. Kant describes that there are two different types of knowledge, a priori and a posteriori. Knowledge that is derived from experience is entitled a posteriori. This type of knowledge uses the inductive process and the knowledge in this category is assumed. A priori knowledge is that which is independent of all experience and impressions of the senses. A priori knowledge, through the use of a universal rule, is not derived from experience, but can borrow from experience. For example,

Analytic judgments are those in which their predicates are contained within the subject. These judgments are purely explicative and definitional, and do not offer an extension of knowledge. Synthetic judgments include those judgments whose predicates are not contained within the subject and offer an extension of knowledge. These judgments are ampliative, meaning they offer further knowledge to what is already known (see diagram below). Kant goes on to further define these types of judgments as they relate to a priori and a posteriori knowledge. A priori analytic judgments are absolute truths that everyone agrees upon, and this signifies truth with certainty. An example of this type of truth is what was discussed earlier, “the body is extended”. This is a priori in that is uses a necessity of judgment that is not based on experience. A posteriori analytic judgments do not exist because there is never a need to appeal to experience in support of a purely explicative assertion. The third category, a posteriori synthetic judgments, is that which arises from experience. There cannot be truth with certainty in the category, and an example of this would include, “the body is heavy”. This uses a judgment based from past experience. A priori synthetic judgments remains the backbone of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Kant believed that most human knowledge is derived from this category of judgment and that everything that happens has a cause. He put math subjects (arithmetic and geometry) and natural science (physics) in this category because he believed that the natural sciences depended on math concepts to progress (see diagram