KANT : DE LA CONNAISSANCE OBJECTIVE À LA CONNAISSANCE SYMBOLIQUE

Kant’s Copernican revolution, which emerged from a critical reflection on the possibilities of knowledge considering the progress of science, marks a fundamental turning point in modern philosophy. Kantian criticism seeks a balance between empirical realism and transcenden- tal idealism, emphasizing the need to introduce universal laws to ensure the objectivity of knowledge, while also raising questions about the possibility of knowing what lies beyond sensible experience. Just as the unity of experience requires the synthetic function of the understanding, so the understanding regulates itself in pursuit of the unity of reason. This unity, although not directly concerned with its own object, nonetheless enables the extension of knowledge derived from experience. What is not objectively knowable, however, requires a form of language that shifts focus from the object itself to a mode of expression adequate for signifying entities that are only thinkable. In this way, Kant introduces symbolic knowledge as a means of establishing a connection between the human being and the world of ideas. The symbol is a form of representation that, through the data of intuition, evokes an idea of rea- son, thereby deepening the reflection on the relationship between reason and reality beyond the limits of sensible experience.