Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Reason

PART A Immanuel Kant’s essays Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason led to his critique Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone. In Critique of Pure Reason Kant discusses the dispute between rationalism and empiricism. The empiricists argued that all ideas are derived from sensation, and that objects of sensation are the only proper objects of knowledge. The rationalists argued that some ideas are not derived from sensation but are instead innate to reason, and that these ideas provide one with knowledge of supersensible realities such as God. Kant argues how knowledge is devoted to the power of demonstrating the truth or falsity of an idea, and that this power is restricted to the domain of sensibility. He stated that …show more content…
Kant states that objects of belief are based on a priori reasoning, that the idea of a maximally great and omnipotent God is an a priori idea about a supersensible reality in the world of the noumena. A priori elements of cognition are innate to reason, whereas a posteriori elements are derived from sense, and he argues that both are equally crucial for knowledge. A priori perceptions and concepts also provide some a priori knowledge. For something to become an object of knowledge, it must be experienced, primarily, as Kant argues, by the senses. He concludes that it is impossible to prove the truth about God or any other supersensible concept such as the immortality of the soul or the freedom of the will which belong to the world of the noumena as theses supersensible concepts are matters of faith and therefore objects of belief – it is a common error to employ a priori reason beyond the domain of the senses and beyond the facts of empirical knowledge. God is not a fact, as facts are given by empirical knowledge, observation and the …show more content…
Nietzsche witnessed the decay of institutional Christianity, claiming that “churches are tombs of God” and “we are all God’s murderers”, as more people turned to atheism and had a disbelief in God in general. He accepted Kant’s critique of pure reason but rejected his one argument for God and freedom of the will as postulates of practical reason. Nietzsche refers to Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution of a species by natural selection. He claimed that this natural selection denies humans as special and that God was a creator. His quote “God is dead” means that the idea of God can no longer provide