Was reading about Schopenhauer and how he was critical about Kant’s view of Transcendental Idealism. Every explanation I find online is rather confusing and explained in this way: “Man can only perceive appearances, which are dependent on the mind, and cannot access the mind-independent world of things in themselves.” What does this mean?
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Transcendental idealism is a very simple concept. All it suggests is that the way I experience is different than the way you experience. That’s because experience is shaped by the mind, and because you are I are individuals, the two of us have have similar but different perceptions of the world. For instance, the way I taste an apple is not exactly the same way you taste an apple. The flavor is modified by our individual senses.
It goes a little deeper to explain how we process emotion and other intangible experiences, but it’s the concept is the same. The difference between individuals guarantees a spectrum of experience and that there is no such thing as an objective perception of the world.
It’s a concept I fully agree with. It’s why we must rely on science to guarantee an objective understanding, otherwise we’re mired in subjective reality. I should note some of this is what Kant says about his theory, and some of it is what I draw from Kant’s reasoning which he may or may not agree with. I think that only goes further to prove the point.
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