Kant's Epistemology (Essay Sample)

Kant's Epistemology Name Institution Course Date Kant is widely remembered for postulating the epistemological dualism, which partly explains the thought process and how people know (Sober, 2001). This paper offers a brief discussion of Kant's epistemology, comparing it to Hume’s perspective. The paper also delves into the question of how one gets to know what they know. In his epistemological dualism, Kant identified two aspects of knowledge and reality that often co-exist, namely noumena/phenomena. As a world of reality, the noumena (nouminal worlds) depicts the objective external reality whereas the phenomena or phenomenal world represents the conscious experience of a person (Sober, 2001). He was of the view that the nouminal world is not easy to observable. However, it could be observed through the effect that it has on the phenomenal world. The most controversial bit of this philosophy related to phenomena (external world), whereby the philosopher held the view that it was different from the material world discernable by science. Rather, it was a world of the mind as filtered and arranged by the mind of God rather than that of the recipient. Since the phenomena depended on the mind of God, it was difficult to ascertain materially. They would, therefore, depend on the interpretation that the human mind eventually gave them, as there would be no way to establish the mind of God scientifically. However, for Hume, consciousness has no unifying basis because there is no mind or other permanent spiritual substances (Sober, 2001). The postulation that reality is a product of mind is therefore distorted. What one believes to exist are simply ideas of less or greater vividness. In other words, and unlike Kant, Hume sees reality not as a filtrate of the mind but as a spiritual substance in itself. To conclude, "what it is" and "how one perceives it" is controversial. It may be viewed as an interpretation of the mind, according to Kant or an abstract entity in its right as per Hume. References Sober, E. (2001). Core questions in philosophy: A text with readings. New York: Prentice Hall.