Skepticism, Knowledge and Metaphysics in Kant's Antinomy of Pure Reason

Abstract

The Antinomy of Pure Reason is a main chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason. In these passages, reason discovers an inherent confrontation between irreconcilable philosophical positions regarding the fundamental questions of rational cosmology. This confrontation consists of a set of contradictions originating in pure reason, which leads Kant to the task of developing his critical project of evaluating the epistemological aptitudes of human cognitive faculties. In this paper, I explore Kant?s solution to the antinomy of pure reason. I will start by explaining the problem posed by the antinomy and its solution (which I call the negative solution). Then I will focus on different possible solutions to the antinomy. Here I will pay special attention to what I call the censorship strategy. Finally, I will compare the censorship strategy and the negative solution in order to establish why Kant chose the latter over the former. I stress that the censorship strategy and the negative solution lead to what I call theoretical-metaphysical skepticism. Nevertheless, Kant's actual solution differs from the censorship strategy in avoiding the even greater danger of integral theoretical skepticism. While the censorship strategy leaves the contradiction unresolved and allows reason to deduce any statement driving Kant's critical project into a dead end, the negative solution provides an escape from integral skepticism.