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zvoi
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Posted 10/28/04 - 02:03 AM:	#1
I was in borders today, and since I had two hours to kill I decided to read Kants critique of pure reason. I could barely get past the first two paragraphs without falling asleep. Anyway I got up to the bit where he was talking about time. I think the gist of it was that time isnt linear/ and that without perception it cant exist but I may have got that completely wrong. Can someone please tell me what he is talking about?

Morrandir
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Posted 10/28/04 - 05:08 AM:	#2
zvoi wrote: I could barely get past the first two paragraphs without falling asleep. How vulgar. Anyway I got up to the bit where he was talking about time. While sleeping? Pretty nice. I think the gist of it was that time isnt linear/ and that without perception it cant exist but I may have got that completely wrong. Can someone please tell me what he is talking about? You read him for two hours while asleep, don't get it, and complain then that you can't understand it? With your perseverence and patience, you might want to read some other book . I do not know what you speak about when you say that time is not "linear". Anyway, he is saying that time is not an entity, but a form of perception (in Kant's jargon: sensibility). This means that it (with space) is the coordinates where all things are perceived. Whenever something is perceived, it is perceived IN time, but because of this, time ITSELF cannot be perceived. This makes it a necessary condition for perceiving: to perceive, we must have time into which the perceptions are set. According to Kant, time (and space) are set into the world by us. Our brains, so to speak, PLACE everything in space and time, but they may not actually be in space and time. It is analogous in a vague way to perceiving colours. Everything has a colour, but colours themselves are not in the world, but they are more like our brains' interpretation of something else. Whenever we perceive something, we GIVE it a colour. According to Kant, this can be generalized to every perception, and then what we give to the perceptions is time and space. That is, a moment (when it is perceived) and a location (where it is perceived to be). Hope it helps. More would help if you spent some more time with the guy. He is a difficult philosopher and demands time. ~Morrandir~
Philosophy is disciplined bewilderment. A mathematician is a person who thinks that if there are supposed to be three people in a room, but five come out, then two more must enter the room in order for it to be empty. http://www.beyondappearances.com

nspeds
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Posted 10/28/04 - 05:25 AM:	#3
Capriciously reading the "Critique of Pure Reason" in the middle of a bookstore does not do the text justice... or yourself.
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amos
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Posted 10/30/04 - 02:07 AM:	#4
I had the same experience with Kant. Then with others. What I discovered is that most of this stuff is very tough to read and understand. If these things interest you, however, bounce around, read different stuff, if it bores you, stop. Read something else. At some point something will strike you as interesting because you catch the thread and often it will refer to other works which are relevant. These other works will be more accessible to you now, but only those in the thread so don't mess with the other stuff. Read compilations, follow threads that interest you, after a while you'll be surprised to discover that you actually understand some of this stuff. Start with Bertrand Russells 'problems of philosophy' which is very short and accessible. Or take the more traditional route, philosophy 101, 102, etc., might work don't know, never tried it, I dropped out of high school. You'll certainly learn the material better, but it looks like it takes a hell of a lot of time. If you're just starting, though, Critique of Pure Reason is going to put you off the whole subject for life. (Contains basic ideas, however, which in my opinion are STILL the most comprehensive and relevant in all of what is referred to as 'modern philosophy'. Don't burn the book, put it aside, come back to it.) P.S. This board should encourage people who are trying to take an interest, not trash them. Kant is VERY tough, most peple won't stick with him for two minutes much less two hours. What, philosophy is some golden pinnacle, deserved to be reached only by those ready to torture themselves? Lighten up.

Paul
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Posted 10/30/04 - 03:22 AM:	#5
The CPR is best experienced in a Kant class where you can spend most of the semester on it and get lectures and discussions to explore it along the way, as I was lucky enough to have. To be honest, the lectures and discussions that grew out of it were far more interesting than Kant's book itself. amos wrote: What, philosophy is some golden pinnacle, deserved to be reached only by those ready to torture themselves? Doesn't it seem that Kant thought so? I wouldn't debate Kant.

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