HIST 121 Lecture 5: W5 German Idealism
7 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
The enlightenment beyond britain and france: enduring questions of epistemology: is there an objective reality out there & can. Objective reality: different perceiving minds can have differing impressions of the same object. Immanuel kant & german idealism: no: the basics of idealism. Reality is not reducible to material things & processes. It is a mental foundation: even if there is an objective reality out there , we are always limited by the constructs of our mind, kant & transcendental idealism. Mental constructs are the only way we can intuit reality. These constructs don"t exist unto themselves, only are means by which our mind interprets & organizes reality. Kant"s representationalism: connections to bacon, locke, & hume: can we ever know true, objective reality? (the thing-in-itself aka ding an sich) According to kant: no: scientific knowledge: systematic knowledge of the nature of things as they appear to us rather than as they are in themselves.
