Kant Antinomy

Kant Essay

In this paper I will present and evaluate the views of Kant’s argument on “the World has a Beginning in Time”. I will give my object and explain Kant’s basic critique of this argument. From Kant’s antinomy of Pure Reason. Kant uses Speculative Cosmology or antinomies which is centered around the idea of the world as the totality of causes. An antinomy is when two contradictory propositions can be proved. The thesis of this antinomy represents dogmatic rationalism.

Kant starts his argument saying” let assume that the world has no beginning when it comes to time. In that case, at every moment in time an eternity has elapsed therefore an infinite series of sequential states in the world has went by. Therefore the mass of the series

Resulting in no way of coming to an conclusion. The only way the antinomy can be avoided is if you accept his critical philosophy and reject dogmatic rationalism and uncritical common sense.

My objection to the world has a beginning in time is that is it based on assumption. There is no facts to based this on because it haven’t happen in experience to human knowledge nor is there any way to prove it. To assume such possibility can occur is not realistic. It is a faulty assumption because we can apply to phenomena the principle that if the conditioned is given, then the totality of conditions is also given. A phenomena is an objects as given in sense intuition or as it appears to the subject. His attempt to extend our knowledge of “the world” through synthetic a priori propositions ends in antinomies. Which leads you to question if the world actually has a beginning because without reason how can you be for certain. Overall I would like to agree with this thesis, that the world has a beginning in time. From reading Kant’s first thesis of the first antinomy, I would agree with him. After realizing it was made on an assumption now I think it may not be true. This thesis is apart of an antinomy, so it is used for the purpose of proving “reason has a