Transcendence is the main category in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. So the German philosopher designated something excellent, inaccessible to experienced knowledge. A similar meaning is the concept of transcendence - a set of parts from different limits. In our article, you can find an affordable explanation of each of these categories.
The concept of transcendence
With the word "transcendence," most people associate with meditation or esoteric teachings. This is something unconscious, not accessible to empirical perception. However, the history of the concept is not rooted in eastern, but in German philosophy. For example, the Latin word "transcendens" means something superior to everyday consciousness, destroying limits.
Transcendence is a concept whose origins can be found in the philosophy of Neoplatonism. The ancient thinker Plotinus developed the doctrine of the One - universal and all-good beginning, which cannot be understood with the help of feelings or thoughts. The idea of Plotinus was picked up and tried to develop by the German thinker Immanuel Kant. His transcendental philosophy is still considered one of the most important in world science.
Transcendence
Immanuel Kant developed the theory of "things in himself" that exist independently of human consciousness, and therefore remain unknowable. These objects do not affect the organs and senses, and therefore can not be applied in practice. Transcendence is a characteristic state of "things in oneself."
Below: Plotinus is the founder of the school of Neoplatonism.
Things surrounding us are immanent. The universe, God, or soul is transcendental. Immanence is the opposite of transcendence. This is an integral internal connection of the object with its quality.
Kant introduces the concept of transcendence. This is an opportunity to perceive the otherworldly, to realize the unconscious. The thinker believed that a dying person achieved transcendence. A transition was made from the immanent world to the divine space, not conscious of the simple senses.
Types of knowledge
Kant's main scientific work is called "Critique of Pure Reason." In it, the philosopher reflects on the possibilities of human knowledge. How far can we go in our judgment? Is it possible for a person to comprehend something special, inaccessible to the rest of the world? In an attempt to find answers, Kant divides knowledge into scientific and synthetic.
Scientific thinking is based on judgment. A person does not go further than beyond the framework of the analysis of individual predicates (concepts). This method of thinking cannot expand knowledge. Therefore, Kant turns to thinking that does not have an analytical framework. Its object is synthetic judgment. The only possible way to know the subject is intuition.
Limited scientific thinking is objective and necessary, but free synthetic knowledge is random and subjective. Both methods are unsuitable. Kant forms a new kind of knowledge - a priori. It combines synthetics and necessity.
A feature of Kant's philosophy is the active development of an old antique theme. The German thinker is trying to solve the question of the possibilities and boundaries of human knowledge. He takes all the best of the two types of thinking known to him and forms a completely new judgment, while unknown to anyone. This proposition becomes the subject of Kant's scientific research.
Things in ourselves and for us
Immanuel Kant was the founder of German classical philosophy - the era most important for science. The thinker began by understanding things. He divided all world entities into "things in himself" and "things for us." That "in itself" is inaccessible and unknowable to people. This is a world of objective ideas. “Things for us” are revealed by people in the process of cognition.
Both groups of entities are inextricably linked. “Things for us” cannot be known without the influence of supernatural elements. Moreover, all things accessible to a person are only an appearance, an illusion of something larger and more objective. The transformation of "things in ourselves" into "essence for us" is the basis of the famous dialectical materialism.
Unrecognition, supernatural nature, the essence of “things in oneself” are all synonyms of transcendence. But how is antinomy related to this concept? Let's try to figure it out.
Antinomies
What prevents a person from knowing? Materialist philosophers spoke of the elements of being and the world. Immanuel Kant considered such reasons to be too trivial, and therefore expressed his theory. The difficulties of cognition are not in the object surrounding reality, but in the subject - the man himself.
A person who talks about the world and the universal will inevitably be captured by contradictions - antinomies. Moreover, conflicting judgments may be either provable or inaccessible to understanding and analysis. It is possible and necessary to overcome the antinomy of reason. In this, Kant sees the main task of his philosophy.
How to solve antinomies? The German thinker begins to talk about duty and ethics. Reason is under the pressure of will and morality, and therefore all answers must come in an inexperienced way (a priori).
Transcendence and transcendence
Transcendence in Kant's philosophy is a combination of a priori conditions and formal premises of cognition. The elements of the transcendental are in the transcendental: the parts make up the whole.
Judgments similar to Kantian can be observed in scholastic philosophy - medieval religious teachings. Then thinkers talked about aspects of being that go beyond the limits of human existence. Such aspects cannot be verified by empirical methods, put into practice, or analyzed. They are generally inaccessible to humans.