School #30

Kantian Transcendental Idealism

Immanuel Kant

Kantian Transcendental Idealism holds that space and time are not features of things-in-themselves but are forms of the human intuition through which we organize experience. Reality as we know it (the phenomenal world) is structured by the mind; the thing-in-itself (noumenon) remains unknowable.

I. Time

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Emergent
Grain Continuous
Freedom Non-Deterministic
Traversability Linear
Dimensionality One
Direction Uni-directional

Time is emergent — it is the a priori form of inner sense (innere Anschauung), not a property of things-in-themselves. All experience is temporally ordered because the mind necessarily imposes temporal structure on the manifold of intuition. Time is finite (as experienced), continuous, linear, and uni-directional. We cannot know whether time applies to the noumenal realm; it is a condition of the possibility of experience, not a feature of mind-independent reality.

II. Space

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Emergent
Curvature Flat
Dimensionality Three
Locality Local

Space is emergent — it is the a priori form of outer sense (aussere Anschauung), through which the mind organizes all external experience. Space is flat, three-dimensional, and local as experienced, but these are features of the mind's perceptual apparatus, not of things-in-themselves. Kant's "Copernican revolution" makes space a contribution of the knowing subject rather than a pre-existing container.

III. Matter

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Emergent
Conservation Conserved
Dimensionality Three
Locality Local

Matter is emergent — it is an appearance (Erscheinung) constituted by the mind's application of categories to sensory intuition. Matter as we know it is the phenomenal world structured by the understanding; the thing-in-itself behind material appearances remains unknowable. Matter is conserved within the phenomenal realm because the category of substance governs our experience, and local because spatial experience is organized by the form of outer sense.

IV. Observer

Time Instance Single
Space Instance Single
Extent of Knowledge Immediate
Retainment of Knowledge Total
Physicality Embodied
Agency Active
Number Plural
Time Instance: Single — the observer is always situated in the present moment; time is the form of inner sense through which all experience is ordered
Space Instance: Single — the observer's outer intuition organizes experience around a single spatial perspective
Extent of Knowledge: Immediate — knowledge is limited to the phenomenal world; the thing-in-itself (noumenon) is strictly unknowable
Retainment of Knowledge: Total — the categories of the understanding enable systematic, cumulative scientific knowledge of the phenomenal world
Physicality: Embodied — the empirical observer is embodied; the transcendental subject is the non-empirical ground of experience, not reducible to the body
Agency: Active — the observer's cognitive faculties (intuition, categories, schemas) actively constitute the structure of experienced reality
Consciousness: Present — the transcendental unity of apperception ("I think") is the supreme condition of all conscious experience
Number: Plural — all rational observers share the same forms of intuition and categories, yielding a universally valid structure of experience

V. Energy

Extent Finite
Ontological Status Emergent
Conservation Conserved
Dispersibility Irreversible

Finite and emerging — energy as a scientific concept is a phenomenal category applied by the understanding to appearances; it says nothing about things-in-themselves. Conservation: Conserved within the phenomenal realm — the understanding necessarily applies causality and conservation to organize experience. Usage: Multiple within the phenomenal world.

VI. Information

Ontological Status Emergent
Conservation Conserved
Granularity Continuous

Information is structured by the mind's a priori categories — we do not passively receive raw information but actively organize it through the forms of intuition and the categories of understanding.

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