Kantian Transcendental Idealism
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 |
V. Energy
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
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.