Categorical imperative, phenomena and noumena, synthetic a priori, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel's dialectic.
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- What is the categorical imperative?
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Kant's principle that moral laws are unconditional commands applicable to all rational beings; it expresses duty based on reason alone, not consequences.- State Kant's first formulation of the categorical imperative: the formula of universal law.
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Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.- State Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative: the formula of humanity.
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Act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of any other, always as an end in itself and never merely as a means.- What is the difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives?
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Hypothetical imperatives are conditional on desiring a goal ('if you want X, do Y'). Categorical imperatives are unconditional commands binding on all rational agents regardless of their desires.- What is a maxim in Kant's ethics?
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The subjective principle or rule of action that a person adopts; Kant tests maxims against the categorical imperative to determine whether they are moral.- What are phenomena in Kant's epistemology?
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Things as they appear to us through the forms of sensibility (space and time); the world of experience organized by the structure of the human mind.- What is the thing-in-itself (Ding an sich) in Kant?
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Reality as it exists independently of any observer's mind; it grounds phenomena but remains forever beyond our knowledge because we can only know objects as they appear to us.- Define synthetic a priori knowledge in Kant.
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Knowledge that is both informative about the world (synthetic) and knowable independent of experience (a priori); Kant claims this is possible and grounds mathematics and natural science.- What is the distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments?
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Analytic judgments are true by virtue of the meaning of their terms alone (e.g., 'bachelors are unmarried'). Synthetic judgments add new information not contained in the subject (e.g., 'snow is cold').- What is the difference between a priori and a posteriori knowledge?
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A priori knowledge is independent of sensory experience and universal (e.g., mathematical truths). A posteriori knowledge depends on experience and is particular (e.g., 'snow is cold').- Name three examples of synthetic a priori knowledge in Kant's system.
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Space and time (the forms of sensibility), causality (a category of understanding), and the truths of mathematics and physics.- What is transcendental idealism?
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The view that space and time are not properties of things-in-themselves but are forms of human sensibility; reality as it appears to us is mind-dependent, but we can have genuine knowledge of phenomena.- What is Kant's Copernican revolution in philosophy?
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The shift from assuming the mind conforms to objects, to assuming objects conform to the mind; the structure of our cognitive faculties determines how reality appears to us.- How is duty central to Kant's ethical theory?
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True moral action is motivated by duty alone (respect for the moral law), not by inclination, self-interest, or expected consequences; this distinguishes genuine virtue from merely prudent or sympathetic action.- Who was Johann Gottlieb Fichte and what was his philosophical project?
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A German Idealist philosopher (1762-1814) who developed absolute idealism based on the self-positing subject; he radicalized Kant's transcendental idealism by eliminating the unknowable thing-in-itself.
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