Kant and Controversy between Empiricism and Rationalism - Essay Example

Kant believed that despite empiricists and rationalists following different paths, they all arrived at a similar skeptical dead end. Evidently, the rationalists had disregarded perception as utterly confused thinking that consequently rendered their theories as mere speculation, impossible of verification or refute. On the other hand, empiricists who theorized that people have access to the actual world in a perceptive sense believed that what people perceive are ideas that manifest in persons through things outside of them. For example, ideas are manifestations of impressions. Consequently, individuals only know their own ideas (Lawhead, pp. 123)

 According to Kant, he believes that people have access only to appearances. This does not imply access to illusory appearances. However, Kant believes that appearances provide people with the foundation of knowledge. Moreover, the mind contributes to experience due to understanding and the constituent pure categories. Moreover, an active role is played by the mind as well as its ability to superimpose experience on specific categories that result in knowledge. Kant further argues that people cannot know the ‘thing in itself. To this end, he goes beyond implying the inaccessibility of ‘reality.’ Over and above this, he implies it is impossible to experience anything beyond the function of the mind.

Moreover, it justifies how people acquire knowledge. The basic difference between ‘extension’ and ‘mind’ contributes to the problem as well backtracked to Descartes. The immaterial nature of the mind rouses the challenge of bridging the disconnect between the outside world and the inner mind. Hume believes that the mind is basically passive while Descartes believes that it aids in intellectual acts.

On the other hand, Kant simulates between empiricism and rationalism. Foremost, he supports Hume by stating that knowledge is impossible without experience. Secondly, he agrees with rationalists by stating that the mind plays a vital part in knowledge. On the contrary, Kant criticizes the rationalists such as Wolff and Leibniz for their illegitimate use of specific metaphysical notions. Kant is highly critical of the pretensions of the reason that cannot be proven. He equally criticizes the skepticism evident in Hume’s empiricism. To this end, he rejects Hume’s subservient role of reason (Lawhead, pp. 129)

Kant’s philosophy is not specific to the problem of whether people are aware of things in themselves. However, his philosophy is a haunting memory to all contemporary philosophy that adheres to a stringent mind-to-body dualism. Kant successfully addresses part of the contentious issues in the empiricism and rationalism debate. However, the contentious issue on how to restore the mind and its immediate and direct connection to the world is not sufficiently addressed up to the point of Husserl’s phenomenology.