Kant's A Priori and Plato

Like we talked about in class, defining, understanding, and memorizing Kant’s terminology is an integral part of even beginning to understand his philosophy. While reading the introduction, I thought I had a decent grasp on what a priori judgments are, but actually coming up with examples of knowledge that fits the description a priori is not an easy task. There were two examples in the introduction that made my understanding a bit clearer. The first regards mathematics: “Mathematics gives us a shining example of how far, independently of experience, we can progress in a priori knowledge.  It does, indeed, occupy itself with objects and with knowledge solely in so far as they allow of being exhibited in intuition” (46-47). This explanation and its inclusion of intuition sheds some light on how a priori knowledge can exist and what it entails. I can have an intuition without any experience, and it is still a real and tangible judgment.

Also, in that same paragraph, Kant articulates a fault in Plato’s philosophy that made me understand a priori a little better. He states: “It was thus that Plato left the world of the senses, as setting too narrow limits to the understanding, and ventured out beyond it on the wings of the ideas, in the empty space of the pure understanding. He did not observe that with all his efforts he made no advance—meeting no resistance that might, as it were, serve as a support upon which he could take a stand” (47). This made me think of Plato’s forms and whether or not they are known a priori. In a sense, they are separate from experience. However, one must study and contemplate the forms and go through education and training to reach a real understanding of the forms, which sounds like experience to me. I’m not sure if a priori can even be applied to abstract, metaphysical subjects like this, and if so, how. Either way, it seems that Kant is criticizing Plato’s venture into the “empty space of the pure understanding.” I’m sure that as we analyze Kant more and consider different examples, the particularities of a priori will become more clear.