more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
If one proposed a middle way, that categories are subjective predispositions for thinking, implanted in us so that their use would agree exactly with the laws of nature,..then the categories would lack the necessity which is essential to their concept.
Gist of Idea
Categories are necessary, so can't be implanted in us to agree with natural laws
Source
Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781], B167)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Pure Reason', ed/tr. Guyer,P /Wood,A W [CUO 1998], p.265
A Reaction
Kant might want to rethink this once he got the hang of the theory of evolution. If we have innate categories, they must have some survival value. I don't understand Kant's claim that the categories are necessary. They just reflect nature.