Considerations on the Principles of Epistemology (1937)

| In epistemological discussions, two doctrines oppose each other: that of a priori knowledge, and that of exclusive empiricism. The a priori view is characterized by the claim that we possess knowledge about nature that is originally contained in reason but comes to actuality only through sensory stimulation. This knowledge, when brought to full consciousness, can be expressed in the form of general laws in a definite way. This doctrine furthermore claims that those general laws that are knowable a priori include the principles of the exact natural sciences and that, in particular, the method of the construction of physical theories is determined by them in an unambiguous and definite way, so that, after having found these principles, no further development of theoretical physics occurs in any essential sense. Thus, according to Kant, classical kinematics constitutes the necessary framework for all of physics. Kant also regards the principles of Newtonian