Kant Lexicon

Cognition (Erkenntnis)

A320/B376-7: "An objective perception is cognition (cognitio). This is either intuition or concept (intuitus vel conceptus)."

B146:"Cognition involves two factors: first, the concept through which an object in general is thought (the category); and secondly, the intuition, through which it is given."

Kemp Smith translates 'Erkenntnis' as 'knowledge.' In contemporary theory of knowledge, it is generally held that knowledge requires truth. But the following passage then would make no sense:

"If truth consists in the agreement of knowledge with its object, that object must thereby be distinguished from other objects; for knowledge is false, if it does not agree with the object to which it is related" (A58/B83). For example, the judgment expressed by the sentence 'Immanuel Kant is now alive' is "false knowledge," because the attribution of the property of being alive now does not agree with the object, Kant..

The contemporary concept of knowledge is expressed by the German word 'Wissen.'

Kemp Smith translates the plural, 'Erkenntnisse,' as 'modes of knowledge.' These 'modes' are concept and intuition.

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