De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis

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De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis (German: "On the form of the world of the senses and the mind and its reasons") is a text written in 1770 by the philosopher Immanuel Kant . It was written in 1770, at the end of his so-called “pre-critical period”, but it already contains some important elements from Kant's later major work of theoretical philosophy, the Critique of Pure Reason . "De mundi ..." is Kant's inaugural dissertation , which he had to submit in Latin before taking up his position as full professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg and which he defended on August 21, 1770 together with Marcus Herz .

In his work, Kant clearly distinguishes the world of the senses from the world of the understanding and the associated human cognitive faculties and principles (§ 3ff.) He makes a sharp distinction between two independent and non-mutually traceable areas and sources of knowledge: a world of the senses ( mundus sensibilis ) as the epitome of phenomena, how they appear to the senses and the world of the mind ( mundus intelligibilis ) as the epitome of the mental contents that exist in themselves. As metaphysical Kant refers to that philosophy, the "includes the first principles of the use of the pure understanding" (§ 8); she has to pay strict attention to "that the (...) principles of sensual knowledge do not exceed their limits and affect the intellectual" (§ 24). In addition, Kant formulates the doctrine in this work that time (§ 14) and space (§ 15) are not objective givens, but forms ("Schemas and Conditions", § 13) of the sensual perception of finite subjects that precede sensual experience - a view that is also one of the central teaching pieces of the "Critique of Pure Reason". The objects of moral philosophy, on the other hand, are "only known through the pure understanding" (§ 9).

Kant's attempt to specify and supplement the ideas of his dissertation - in § 30 he holds out the prospect of "more careful research" - lead to an extensive process of reflection and structuring that finally ended in 1781, after more than ten years of work and literary "silence" his main theoretical work, the " Critique of Pure Reason ", culminated.

text

Kant, work edition (ed.Weischedel 1977), vol. V, p. 7 ff.

literature

  • Manfred Kühn, Kant. Eine Biographie, Munich 2003, p. 223ff. (with information also on the reception)
  • Gerd Irrlitz, Kant manual. Leben und Werk, Stuttgart ²2010, p. 118 ff. (With bibliographical references)