Human's Limited Theory:The Foundation Of Kant's Critical Philosophy

"What is human" is the core issue of critical philosophy,based on that developed Kant's epistemology,moral philosophy,aesthetics and even historical philosophy.Kant conclude that human existence is limited and rational which is,Kant's "human's limited theory" in this thesis.This view,which was described as the "bottom of concept" of Kant's philosophy ",is an important breakthrough for us to clarify Kant's philosophy,is the cardinal point where critical philosophy was formed.Kant,on the basis of the concept developed the systematicness and integration of critical philosophy and finally made a thorough inquiry into the transcendental anthropological proposition of "what is human".Based on profound understanding and systematic reflection on "human limitations",Kant formed a unique of the Human's limited theory.This paper attempts to start with his hold and reconsider about human limitation to investigate the inherent relationship between the thought of "human limitation" and the entire critical philosophy(including his epistemology,ethics,aesthetics and philosophy of history).On the basis of this,we are going to reexamine the admonition and introspection of enlightenment rationality of “limited human being" on Enlightenment rationality,by which we may get some inspirations for the moment.We set off with Kant's touch on the "limited human being",its basic connotation and its uniqueness then gradually go deep into the human limitation itself which include the limitations of theoretical rationality,the limited practical rationality,limit and historic rationality expect to reveal its foundation to construction-style system of the whole critical philosophy.Kant consider human rationality mainly point to the finiteness itself.Limitation was gradually explained by through the analysis of the priori structure of human's knowing,sense and passion,as well as recognizing the limitations of human being in exploring the pattern of history.In the process of revealing this,it essentially implies an important idea of critical philosophy,that is,the ruin of traditional metaphysics and the possibility of the freedom fulfilled by limited human.This fact forces Kant to start his theory from rational self-criticism.Since human has only sensual intuition but no intellectual intuition.therefore,the intellectual and rational existence,based on the sensibility and intuition,also has its own insurmountable limitation.It digs out the unknowing of the "thing in itself" in human's cognitive field,and then suspends knowledge for freedom;In the process of discussion the possibility of finite people achieving freedom,since human beings are the dual existence of sensibility and rationality,people's practical activities can only clarify "should" but can't effect the tension during “actual","due" and "real",which hinders the freedom,therefore all those views,including the existence of moral decrees,the law of respect,the dissolution of the moral contradictions,the "hanging" of concept of "perfect ",are built on limitation;then,in order to explain the division between nature and freedom,Kant dissects it is difficult to transmit the human appreciation which is a kind of reflective emotion.Due to the limitation of human priori knowledge,there are also some limitations in reflecting the law of historical development.It makes Kant reintroduce the principle of purpose to reflect on the entire human history,and try to understand the unknowing of human beings on the historical ontology and its predicament in predicting the general historical development,then he formed a unique view on history,finally the grand and strict system of critical philosophy was completed.It is significant meaning that the thought of "limited person" to critical philosophy,moreover,it has a profound impact on many other thinkers after Kant and also on their academic issues.Generally speaking,there are three aspects which were mainly influenced by this thought : Firstly,the theory of "limited human” had an important impacts on thoughts of thinkers such as Fichte,Hegel,Kierkegaard,Marx,Heidegger,and Cassirer.To some extent,it can be said that they put forward their own theory about human studies on the basis of inheriting and criticizing Kant's philosophy.Secondly,it has great meaning on the study of certain human art issues because "one-time life" determines the irreproducibility of individual art and the superposition of the cultural life of the communities.Thirdly,it also provides useful enlightenment for us to analyze the hot topics in nowadays and reflects on enlightenment rationality.