back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 18797

[from 'Critique of Pure Reason' by Immanuel Kant, in 10. Modality / A. Necessity / 1. Types of Modality ]

Full Idea

The categories of modality have this peculiarity: as a determination of the object they do not augment the concept to which they are ascribed in the least, but rather express only the relation to the faculty of cognition.

Gist of Idea

Modalities do not augment our concepts; they express their relation to cognition

Source

Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781], B266/A219)

Book Reference

Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Pure Reason', ed/tr. Guyer,P /Wood,A W [CUO 1998], p.322


A Reaction

A nice summary of Kant's view of modality. It does not arise out of reality, or even out of the nature of our concepts, but out of the relations which our concepts enter into, in the processes of understanding. (Do I understand that?)