Friday, May 16, 2008

Kant: How is Pure Mathematics Possible?

"How then is it possible for human reason to produce a cognition of this nature entirely a priori?" (section 6)

A priori is a person's ability to have the idea of something without learning it from experience previously. In reponse to Kant's question I think that it is not possible for a person to know mathematics without first learning or experiencing it. People are born with natural instincts, yes, but I do not think that the knowledge of mathematics is one of them.

1 comment:

Eugenia said...

I agree with you math is not a natural instinct because we are not born knowing it. It only becomes an instinct when we learn it. for example: 2+2=4. This example is an instinct because we know it. This is something that we know without even thinking about. You already know that 2=2=4.