DISTINCTIONS HUME KANT MISS!
1968
The relationship between Hume and Kant’s distinctions can be briefly summed-up by making a small chart and placing within it the ideas, or rather the theories, of each man under the headings. It is not intended that this chart force a strict adherence to any set rule or category. It is obvious that there are differences in the meaning of each category, but we are trying to show simply how Kant and Hume are similar. In a way, they were working within the same theory, only differing to the degree to which they extended each part. For instance, Hume accepted A Priori, but felt it had no real concern in the real world, while Kant felt that A Priori Knowledge was very necessary to our understanding of the world. One could almost agree with both, if it was not a contradiction to do so. In the end, Kant had the sounder theory. And that is the main difference between them, for it is in a contradiction. Hume felt A Priori Knowledge, which he called matter of fact, was of no concern because there was nothing we could do about it. Kant called A Priori analytic in his theory, but argued that it was necessary, not that we could do anything about it, but that certain knowledge that was A Priori was important to our understanding of certain sciences and events in out world. In other words, the difference between Kant and Hume was that Hume felt A Priori was not concerned with the real world and Kant felt it was necessary for a real understanding of the real world.
The similarities between the two theories are shown in the chart below by relation of category under A priori and Empirical knowledge.
A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE | EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE
_________________________________________________________ HUME matter of fact | relations of ideas
_________________________________________________________ KANT analytic | synthetic
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