All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. -Immanuel Kant Kant, one of the most influential philosophers in modern philosophy, tried to take a balanced approach between empiricism and rationalism. The empiricists believed that knowledge comes from experience and the senses, while the rationalists believed that reason is the highest source of knowledge. Kant tries to combine both through this statement. What Kant is basically saying is that first we experience the world through our senses, then our mind organizes and understands those experiences, and finally reason becomes the highest stage through which we reach truth. At first, this sounds like a very complete and convincing structure. But the more we think about it, the more questions starts to surface. The Problem with the Senses Firstly, Kant argues that knowledge starts with the senses. But our senses are not always trustwor...
Picked fragments from my mind: my restless quest to make sense of the world within and around.