On 10/31/2010 10:50 AM, Avril Styrman wrote:
> The first step of Kant’s thought —the first moment of it, if you like
> that phraseology— is to recognize that all our knowledge is, and
> forever must be, relative to human experience and to the nature of the
> human mind. (01)
That is the foundation for Kant's claim that there are certain things
that can never be known if they cannot be formulated in the innate
categories -- or his synthetic a priori. (02)
C. S. Peirce studied Kant line by line with his father Benjamin, and he
began his career as a dedicated Kantian. But he eventually outgrew the
Kantian assumptions, although he always had a high respect for Kant. (03)
I won't go through the details, but Peirce's replacement for the
synthetic a priori is *abduction*. That allows entirely new
assumptions to be added to the mix and be explored in depth.
Modern physics (relativity, quantum mechanics, and newer variants
such as string theory) go far beyond anything that Kant imagined
that anybody could ever imagine. (04)
Unlike Kant, who assumed that there were unknowable "noumena", Peirce
claimed that anything that can have any causal influence on what we
can perceive is, in principle, knowable. Modern examples include
neutrinos, dark matter, dark energy, and whatever happens inside
a black hole. (05)
For years after neutrinos were postulated, many physicists thought
that they could never be observed. But they now have abundant
evidence about them. They are now beginning to get better ideas
about the others as well. (06)
Peirce would claim that there is no reason for assuming that there
is anything that could be unimaginable and therefore unknowable.
I believe him. (07)
John (08)
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