Why Can't We Perceive Necessities, Kant?

Dr Colin Marshall (University of Melbourne)

Abstract: It is a basic principle in Kant's theoretical philosophy that we cannot learn necessary truths directly from experience. My aim in this paper is to investigate why Kant thought he was entitled to this principle. Though the principle is dialectically effective against Hume, it would have been denied by certain scholastic, rationalist, and commonsense views which Kant should have been aware of. I consider, and reject, analytic or empirical defenses of the principle. I conclude with a tentative proposal for what Kant might have said in defense of it.