Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The philosophy of Kant has influenced a wide range of philosophical movements in modern philosophy, from German idealism and phenomenology to pragmatism and logical positivism . The ‘critical philosophy’ or ‘criticism’ (as both Kant and his followers would prefer to call it) attempts to overcome the opposition between rationalism and empiricism , by limiting the field of our knowledge to objects of experience, yet providing an a priori basis for those propositions, such as the principle that every event has a cause, which are required for empirical science but which, as Hume showed, cannot be justified on the basis of experience. By bringing to light the active role of the mind in the process of knowing, Kant's philosophy is also one principal source of modern antirealism . Yet if ‘Kantianism’ or ‘criticism’ is the name for a distinctive philosophical movement, then it would have to be one whose identity has been a matter of constant dispute over the past two centuries. Nor would strict fidelity to the letter of Kant's own doctrines ever be the chief criterion used in such disputes. Rather the issue has always been: in what direction should one depart from the letter of Kant's writings if one wants to realize the spirit of the critical philosophy? Kant's earliest followers were already concerned to ‘go beyond Kant’ in at least two ways. First, Kant had described the ... log in or subscribe to read full text