QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

Order observed in the world is not followed through passive reception by the mind, but mind
imposes its own order on the world. Human experience of the world is not an objective portrayal
of external reality, but to essential measure it is a product of our cognitive apparatus. Since the
world of phenomena as constructed by the mind inevitably appears to us such as it appears, all
knowledge which results from experience is accompanied by an inseparable conceptual
component. Knowledge is born when the forms of perception and categories of understanding
which belong to a person’s cognitive apparatus are combined with the phenomena arising from
the senses. 327 Categories of understanding such as causality, substance or time make the rational
examination of observed data possible. Since causality is also something that our understanding
locates in the world, it was Kant’s belief, like Hume’s, that causal relationships were not linked
to any degree of inevitability to ”reality” or ”beings as such” level. From the viewpoint of the
realists, Kant simply circumvented Hume’s problem in this way, he did not solve it. 328
Kant attached considerable importance to metaphysics. He saw that the initial presumptions of
metaphysics such as the a priori requirements for understanding and knowledge could not be
abandoned because factual propositions always required, and were based on, some more
fundamental premise: we need some type of metaphysical framework within which we are to be
able to interpret our experiences. On the other hand, Kant understood the significance of Hume’s
criticism for metaphysics: logical argument was no better than experience in judging whether
metaphysical propositions were true or false. Metaphysical speculation could be nonsensical and
often was, but could also lead to the discovery of new connections. Metaphysical theses were
reminiscent of empirical propositions in that they told us something new about the nature of
reality. At the same time, metaphysical propositions resembled logical assertions in that they
were not based on sense-experience. To Hume, propositions founded on pure reason were
tautological and those founded on observations were factual but not necessary. Kant needed a
third category which combined these factors. The fundamental question posed by his
epistemology was whether besides both analytical-a priori knowledge (i.e. logical and analytical
truths) and synthetic-a posteriori knowledge based on experience, there could also be synthetica
priori knowledge. 329
Kant could have judged Hume’s criticism unfounded if he had been able to show that the
326
Kant 1929, 93.
327
Kant took the notion of ’category’ from Aristotle, while at the same time rejecting his list as unsystematic.
Kenny 1998, 257.
328
Trusted 1991, 120-123, Niiniluoto 1980, 46, 144, Niiniluoto 1983, 37.
124