Category (Kant)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Kant's philosophy, a Category is a pure concept of the understanding. The word comes from the Greek κάτέγόρίά, meaning "that which can be asserted about something." A category is an attribute, quality, or characteristic that can be predicated of a thing. A Kantian category is a characteristic of the appearance of any object in general, before it has been experienced. It is the condition of the possibility of things in general, or of things as such.[1]
Contents |
[edit] The table of judgments
Kant believed that the ability of the human understanding to think about and know an object is the same as the making of a judgment about an object. According to him, "Our ability to judge is equivalent to our ability to think."[2] A judgment is the thought that a thing is known to have a certain quality or attribute. For example, "All bodies are divisible" is a judgment. Kant created a table of the forms of such judgments as they relate to all objects in general.[3]
This table of judgments was used by Kant as a model for the table of categories.
[edit] The table of categories
- Quantity
- Quality
- Relation
- Inherence and Subsistence (substance and accident)
- Causality and Dependence (cause and effect)
- Community (reciprocity)
- Modality
[edit] Schemata
Categories are entirely different from the appearances of objects in general. In order to relate to specific phenomena, categories must be applied through time. The way that this is done is called a Schema.
[edit] See also
- Categories of being
- Schema (Kant)
- Schopenhauer's criticism of Kant's schemata
- Critique of Pure Reason
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason, A 139
- ^ Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason, A 80
- ^ Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason, A 71
