Kant's Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics - Essay Example

For an empiricist, a priori knowledge is impossible because this is beyond experience. However, Kant, an empiricist himself, shows how a priori knowledge is possible. By his definition, a priori which he also terms as analytic, is something that is known not before anything else but in relation to the subject of knowing. Given Kant’s example “all bodies are extended” where the concept of extension is always related with the concept of bodies is analytic. In contrast with this is the synthetic judgment (by definition of synthesis is adding) and is clearly illustrated in his example “all bodies have weight” where the concept of weight was observed and was thought of as being added to the concept of bodies.

In other words, something known to be innate or built in with the subject of knowing is analytic while something known to be a description of the subject of knowing is synthetic. Synthetic knowledge is also categorized into those arising from experience and those arising from mathematics. As for those from experience, it is obvious that when I experience a cold soda drink, I put the concept of cold, the concept of soda and the concept that the soda can be taken in the liquid form, and together they form the concept of a cold soda drink.

This is also similar with mathematics, putting the concept of the number 1 and another number 1, adding them produces the concept of number 2. Since synthetic a priori knowledge is possible, then metaphysics is also possible since this is how metaphysics is to be known. According to Kant, “space and time… are therefore pure intuitions that lie a priori at the basis of the empirical ” (Sect 10). The concept of space and time is different from our conception of cold soda drink or extended bodies where we experience them (see, feel, taste) because unlike bodies and soda drinks that are objects in themselves, time and space are not