Single Idea 22005

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 2. Associationism]

Full Idea

Kant said the representational content of thought could not be explained by patterns of association or by naturalistically understood causal patterns; the cognitive content of thought is constituted entirely by the norms governing judgemental synthesis.

Gist of Idea

Associations and causes cannot explain content, which needs norms of judgement

Source

report of Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 01

Book Reference

Pinkard,Terry: 'German Philosophy 1760-1860' [CUP 2002], p.35


A Reaction

I'd be inclined to say that it needs a concept of truth, rather than Kant's tangle of norms and categories. Maybe the content is there before the associations get to work.