Saturday, April 19, 2014

We, Rationalism, Empiricism

Since We combines Unity and Multiplicity, it eludes the tradtional reductions of both Rationalism and Empiricism--in the former, Multiplicity is irreal, while in the latter, it is Unity that is irreal.  Now, despite his innovative appreciation of Synthesis, Kant remains a Rationalist regarding We.  For, a constant in his system, e. g. as expressed by his Moral Law, is the priority of Noumenon over Phenomenon, and only the latter can be manifold.  However, he does briefly break both molds--Productive Imagination, the ground of e. g. the drawing of geometrical figures, generates schemes, which are both One and Many.  So, if his Kingdom of Ends were ascribed to Productive Imagination, its influence on conduct would be constructive, one scheme of which being We.  In other words, if the Constructivism that is often attributed to Kant's Cognitive theory were extended to his Moral doctrine, a We that is excluded by both traditional Rationalism and traditional Empiricism can be derived.

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