Pure Intuition and Kant's Synthetic A Priori

The chapter discusses the account of construction in pure intuition that allows Immanuel Kant to give a more detailed answer to the three open questions about mathematical knowledge from the Prize Essay. It traces the development of Kant&s;s views about mathematical cognition in order to outline the broader metaphysical and epistemological issues about mathematics that also contributed to the development of Kant&s;s Critical philosophy. It explains how Kant addresses these issues by analyzing the conditions of possible experience. The publication of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant entered into a debate over the relative claims to truth of mathematics and metaphysics. Kant&s;s general project in the Critique of Pure Reason is to explain the possibility of synthetic a priori cognition. The doctrine of pure intuition allows Kant to distinguish his claim that geometry is necessarily true and applicable to the world from the metaphysicians&s; claim that it is "an empty delusion of the imagination".