Throughout Kant’s writings about his ethical system, he stresses that the only way to effectively base an argument is entirely on a priori knowledge. Kant believes that using a posteriori knowledge or experience as the basis of any idea undermines the idea and therefore renders the idea invalid. Kant’s philosophy that rationalism is the key to understanding is not necessarily correct in the real world though. Rather, experience is an essential part to understanding in the real world and, in some cases; experience is the only way to really know something. While Kant believes that using any a posteriori proof cripples his argument, his use of pure rationalism causes his ethical system to be unrealistic, and seemingly impossible to achieve in the real world. In writing his paper about the categorical imperative, Kant forgets about the validity of experi
Throughout his work, Kant discounts the value of empirical knowledge. While it might be good to have at least some portion of the roots of his system based in purely a priori knowledge, it is impractical and foolish to believe that a successful ethical system can be based wholly in a priori knowledge without any reference to a posteriori knowledge. By excluding experience from his ethical system, Kant causes his ethical system to become useless in the practical world, for without the knowledge that we gain from experience it is impossible for us to even conceive of a categorical imperative.
Kant also misses the fact that there is some knowledge that can only be gained by experience. Although a person might be able to reason out an answer for any question, a base in rationalism does not necessarily guarantee that the answer is correct. A person could reason about the colo
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