PSYC 3140 Lecture 42: PSYC 3140 Lecture 42
9 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYC 3140
Lecture 42
a. Cause of Mental Experience
i. Kant agreed with Hume that we never experience the
physical world directly and therefore can never have certain
knowledge of it.
ii. But Kant believed our sensory impressions are always
structured by the categories of thought, and
iii. our phenomenological experience is therefore the
interaction between sensations and the categories of
thought.
1. We can never know the true physical reality, just
appearances (phenomena) that are controlled by the
categories of thought.
iv. The human mind prescribed the laws of nature. – Human
mind is the center of the universe and creates the universe
(at least as we experience it).
b. Categorical Imperative - Moral behavior (opposite of Empiricist
utilitarianism)
i. Categorical Imperative is the rational principle which either
does or should govern moral behavior.
1. It attempts to clarify the moral principle embedded in
such moral precepts as the golden rule.
ii. Similar to older moral precepts such as the “golden rule”.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
