Single Idea 6181

[catalogued under 10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 1. Sources of Necessity]

Full Idea

It is a clear contradiction to try to extract necessity from an empirical proposition.

Gist of Idea

Necessity cannot be extracted from an empirical proposition

Source

Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], Pref)

Book Reference

Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Practical Reason (Third edition)', ed/tr. Beck,Lewis White [Library of Liberal Arts 1993], p.12


A Reaction

This is precisely the idea which Kripke challenged, claiming that the necessary essences of natural kinds such as gold have to be discovered empirically. All my intuitions are with Kant (and Hume) on this, but it is a complex issue…