Introduction to Kant

From Hume’s empiricism and other philosopher’s contributions, Kant developed his own philosophy. Unlike Hume he did not believe cause and effect was primarily from experience. For example, if one feels that a room is warm (subjective order of cognitions) and then notices the stove is on, the person would rightly assume the stove being on caused the room to be warm. One perceives this by applying their objective time relations. Just because one felt the room was warm and then noticed the stove is on, one would not assume that the warm room caused the stove to turn on. That would be an incorrect statement (Introduction, xii).
Hume believed for one event to be considered the cause of another there are three conditions that must be met. First off, the cause must come before the effect in time. Secondly, “the cause and effect are contiguous in space.” Lastly, the cause and effect are found constantly next to the other in experience. Kant argued against these arguments. The cause does not have to necessarily come before the effect in time. The cause and effect can occur at the same time, such as when the cause of boiling water. Water boils when the water reaches 100 degrees C. Contrary to Hume, Kant believed the “causal ordering of cognitions is what makes experience and is not an ordering derived from experience.” (Introduction, xiii) He believed our perceptions are only possible through the sensible intuitions, space and time. Kant believed there is an a priori synthetic and that Geometry and Arithmetic would be classified as this (Introduction, xi).