Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
II. TRANSCENDENTAL DOCTRINE OF METHOD
Chapter 3: THE ARCHITECTONIC OF PURE REASON (p. 653)
Architectonic: the doctrine of the scientific in our knowledge. The art of constructing systems.
In accordance with reason, our diverse modes of knowledge must form a system.
A system is the unity of the manifold modes of knowledge under one idea.
This idea is the concept of the form of a whole in so far as the concept determines a priori the scope of its manifold content and the relation of the parts.
The scientific concept of reason contains the end and the form of that whole which is congruent with the above requirement.
The whole is an organized unity, not an aggregate. It may grow from within but not by external addition.
The idea requires a schema for its realization.
The schema which originates empirically yields technical unity.
The schema which originates from an idea in which reason propounds the ends a priori, and does not wait for them to given empirically) serves as the basis of architectonic unity.
When one starts to establish a science, he must have an idea to base it on.
At the start, the schema, and even the definition, is seldom adequate to the idea.
He begins to collect materials in a somewhat random fashion,
He assembles the materials in a merely technical manner,
He then tries to discern the idea in a clearer light and devise a whole architectonic in accordance with the ends of reason.
If I abstract from all content of knowledge, objectively regarded, then all knowledge subjectively regarded is either historical or rational.
Anyone who has merely learnt a system of philosophy has no more than a historical knowledge of it. His knowledge is objectively philosophical but subjectively historical.
Knowledge arising from the construction of concepts (mathematics) can not be subjectively historical.
Philosophy can never be learned except in historical fashion.
Philosophy is the system of all philosophical knowledge.
If we understand it as an archetype for the estimation of each subjective philosophy, it must be taken objectively.
Thus regarded, philosophy is a mere idea of a possible science.
There are two concepts of philosophy:
The scholastic concept which seeks the logical perfection of knowledge.
Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Logic.
Conceptus Cosmicus: the science of the relation of all knowledge to the essential ends of human reason.
Essential Ends: either the ultimate end or subordinate ends which are necessarily connected to the ultimate end as means.
Philosophy of the ultimate end is called Moral Philosophy.
Philosophy has two objects, nature and freedom, and therefore contains the law of nature and moral law.
Philosophy begins by presenting them as two systems but ultimately as one system.
Architectonic of All Philosophy:
Empirical Philosophy: knowledge arising from empirical principles.
Pure Philosophy: knowledge arising from pure reason.
Criticism: pure philosophy which investigates the faculty of reason in respect of all its a priori knowledge.
Metaphysics: the science which exhibits in systematic connection the whole body (true as well as illusory) of philosophical knowledge. Sometimes viewed as including criticism.
Metaphysics of Nature: speculative employment of pure reason. Contains principles that are derived from mere concepts and employed in the theoretical knowledge of things. Considers everything so far as it is by means of a priori concepts. (Excludes mathematics.)
Transcendental Philosophy: treats of the understanding and of reason, in a system of concepts and principles which relate to objects in general, but takes no account of objects which may be given.
Physiology: Treats of nature, that is, of the sum of given objects.
Physical: (immanent) concerned with such knowledge of nature as can be applied to experience. Has as its object either the:
Outer senses: corporeal nature (physics).
Inner sense: thinking nature (psychology).
Hyperphysical: (transcendent) concerned with such connection of objects of experience which transcend all experience. Has as its object either the:
Inner connection: the physiology of nature as a whole, that is, the Transcendental knowledge of the world.
Outer connection: the physiology of the relation of nature as a whole to a being above nature, that is, the transcendental knowledge of God.
Metaphysics of Morals: practical employment of pure reason. Contains principles which, in an a priori fashion, determine and make necessary all our actions.
The whole architectonic, or system, of metaphysics thus consists of four main parts:
To avoid confusion, it is of the utmost importance to isolate the various modes of knowledge according to how they differ in kind and origin.
For example, the fundamental idea of metaphysics was obscured owing to its exhibiting, as a priori knowledge, a certain similarity to mathematics. But we have found their origins are quite different.
How can I expect to have knowledge a priori (and therefore a metaphysics) of objects in so far as they are given to our senses, that is given in an a posteriori manner? And how is it possible to know the nature of things and to arrive at a rational physiology according to principles a priori?
We take nothing more from experience than is required to give us an object of outer and inner sense.
The object of outer sense is the concept of matter.
The object of inner sense is the concept of a thinking being (in the empirical representation 'I think').
Metaphysics of nature and morals alone properly constitutes what may be entitled philosophy, in the strict sense of the term.
Its sole occupation is wisdom.
It is also the full and complete development of human reason.
It is an indispensable discipline for it treats of those elements and highest maxims which must form the basis for the very possibility of some sciences, and of the use of all.