Natural Science Forum / Physics / General Physics / July 2008

The Kantian Antinomial View

'Kant's Antinomies:

Kant points out that philosophy, or the use of reason, can seem to
lead to contradictions.  For instance, it can seem (and did to
Descartes) that the world must have a beginning or limit in space and
time.  After all, doesn't everything have a beginning and/or end?  But
it can also seem (and did to Aristotle) that the world must be
infinite in space and time.  After all, what would be beyond the limit
of space, or before time began?

Kant argues that his distinction between noumena and phenomena helps
us to avoid such paradoxes.  Space and time are not things in
themselves (noumena) nor are they objects we experience (phenomena).
They are forms that our experience takes or features of the way in
which our minds present the world to us.   To talk about the beginning
or limit of space or of time is to mistakenly treat space and time as
if they were objects of some kind.

Similarly, we can be led to think that there can be free will in the
world, but also that there can be no such thing, since all events in
the natural world are determined, i.e. caused by prior events.  It is
indeed a law of nature that all events are determined, Kant says, but
this applies only to phenomena.  In the realm of noumena it is
entirely possible that there is real freedom, and indeed ethics
require that we believe in such freedom of the will.

Finally, we can be led to think (as Descartes did) that there must
exist a necessary being (i.e. God) that does not itself need to be
caused to exist by anything else.  But we can also be led to think
that there are no such necessary beings in the world, that everything
that exists depends for its existence on something else.   Kant says
it is true that there is no necessary cause in the (phenomenal) world,
but we can still believe in a necessary cause of the world.  This
would be God.'

Thus, by subjectivising our experience, socially and individually,
Kant imposes necessary limits on our knowledge. Goethe puts it rather
delightfully:

'And next, and most important of all,
To metaphysics we must fall,
And see, with deep discernment plain,
What things won't fit the human brain.
But fit or not - why vex your head?
You use a sounding phrase instead.'
--
'foolsrushin.'