Intuition (Anschauung)
The immediate, sensible representation of a single object — for Kant the indispensable material source of all knowledge.
Kant distinguishes empirical intuition, given to us through the senses, from pure intuition a priori: space and time, which as mere forms of our intuiting underlie every perception. Whatever appears to us appears in these forms.
Knowledge arises only in cooperation with the understanding: “Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.” Intuition supplies the material, the concept supplies the order — neither can replace the other.
Where it appears
- Knowledge — Space, time — and the twelve categories
- Critique of Pure Reason — Structure & core ideas
- On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy — Genesis & context
- FAQ
- Being human — Why the three questions flow into the fourth
- Teaching — 4 · Theory of knowledge: rationalism, empiricism, Kant's turn
- Knowing