Question about how Immanuel Kant defined problems and attempted a solutions - Assignment Example

How Immanuel Kant defined problems and attempted a solutions Immanuel Kant was a great German philosopher from Prussia between 1724 and 1804. He was one of the major influential thinkers in Europe and the last major philosopher. First we must understand Kant’s philosophical background that he was reacting to. Most of his work tried to rectify his predecessors’ positions. In the early modern period of philosophy, there were two major historical movements that had significant impact on Kant.

They are Empiricism and Rationalism (Lucien, 100). Kant’s argument is that both methods and contents of these philosophers had serious flaws. What changed the face of philosophy for the first time in history is Kant’s answer to the problems generated by these traditions.To begin with, Kant argued that the old division between posteriori truths and priori truths which were employed in both camps was quite insufficient in describing the metaphysical claims which were under dispute. Also, an analysis of knowledge requires a distinction between analytic and synthetic truths.

Analytically, the claim lies within the subject. Considering this claim, "Everybody occupies space," the aspect of occupying space simply explains in an analysis of what it means to be a body. Synthetically, the subject of the claim does not contain any predicate. In the claim, "This tree is 120 feet tall," the concepts are brought together to form a new claim which does not have any of the individual concepts. Kant further argues that Empiricists did not succeed in proving the synthetic priori claims like the fact there is a cause behind every.

Their major assumption was that the two resulting categories were exhaustive (Lucien, 100). According to Kant’s arguments a synthetic a priori claim must be true without appealing to experience, without having the predicate within the subject. This is where the empiricists failed as they did not give their justification. Similarly, rationalists made the same mistake.Work CitedLucien, Goldmann. Immanuel Kant. Verso, 2012, pg 100