|
Midterm Study Questions
Your midterm exam will consist of one question selected from the following study questions. You should be prepared to write about six pages (double spaced) on any of these questions. There are no word limits; the instructor will read whatever you can write in one hour and twenty minutes. (1) Explain what Kant means by analytic, synthetic, a priori, and a posteriori. Be sure to use examples and point out what Kant thinks are legitimate and illegitimate combinations of these terms. Also be sure to explain the criteria for a prior knowledge. What role does intuition play in allowing us to come to have synthetic a priori knowledge? Do you agree or disagree with his account of intuition and synthetic a priori knowledge in the transcendental aesthetic? Defend your position. (2) What does Kant think space is? What does he think time is? What are his reasons or arguments for thinking of space and time in those ways? Kant thinks that space and time are empirically real and transcendentally ideal. What does that mean? Do you agree or disagree? Defend your position. (3) Explain Kant's Copernican revolution in metaphysics as it unfolds in the Transcendental Aesthetic. This will require you to discuss the relationship between the faculty of intuition and the experience of objects. Be sure to explain how Kant's perceived revolution leads to his understanding of synthetic a priori knowledge. From what you have seen so far, do you think pursuing this approach in metaphysics will allow us to make progress in metaphysics? Be sure to explain what Kant means by metaphysics.
|