Kants Theory of Knowledge - Essay Example

In the formulation of the Knowledge Theory, Immanuel Kant was mainly motivated by the weaknesses he had perceived in the cognitive theories that preceded his. These former theories that had been set before Kant’s Theory were majorly classified as Empiricism and Rationalism. The Empiricists had earlier argued that knowledge of the environment and reason required prior experience. The Rationalists, on the other hand, had stated that knowledge had to come first before experience; that one needed to have a prior experience of something before having the knowledge of the same. As can be seen, these two classical theories contradict each other. Therefore, Immanuel Kant was motivated to try and reconcile the two sides and bring to an end, what he had seen as an era of primitive and unsupported theories of knowledge and human experience. At the same time, he wanted to oppose the concepts and perceptions of Skepticism.

In coming up with a more plausible theory of knowledge, Kant combined the two previously contradicting schools of thought and argued that the understanding of the world by human required both knowledge and experience. According to him, the Experience depends on both perception of the objects in the environment and the prior knowledge acquired about the very objects. In this manner, the external environment is very essential for the ‘self’ establishment. Kant further stated that human experiences are well structured by the vital features of the mind. This concept implies that the human mind plays the sole responsibility of shaping and structuring our experiences such that all experiences have certain structural designs in common. Kant’s theory of knowledge helps us to understand that every aspect of the human is all in the mind and that one cannot perceive what he or she cannot experience.

In as much Kant’s theory of knowledge seems to stand on neutral ground, it has its potential problems, biasness and objections from some of the most recent philosophers. For instance, Kant says that we can only know what we had already experienced in the mind. This concept only implies that one can never have knowledge of things he did not experience and structured in the mind. These include metaphysical beings such as God and the soul. There arises a problem since humans know some metaphysical beings even without having prior experience.  If Kant’s theory is anything to go by then it only means that we can never know whether the perceptions and ideas we have in our minds are actually true or false.

Therefore, for Kant, the mind-body interaction is a process that takes place through forces that are neither mind nor body in nature. According to him, there is always a supernatural world of prior forms such as time and space, which have been pre-designed and programmed in the human brain. He says that whatever imposes on us from the mind-independent world does not come situated on the temporal matrix or spatial world.