Page "Problem of universals" Paragraph 11

After Kant, the problem of universals becomes a problem of human psychology and questions about conceptual models we use to understand universals, rather than the same old metaphysical arguments about what universals “ really ” are.

The second part of the 1st Critique is Kant ’ s examination of the rationalist claims to absolute knowledge, taking on the most famous of these, the ontological proof of God ’ s existence, and showing that he can, through pure, non-experiential logic, both prove the affirmative and the negative of a proposition about a “ noumenal object ” ( i. e. an object like “ God ” which can never be an object of direct experience for a contingent being ).

Given that both A and not-A are seen to be “ true ,” Kant concludes that it ’ s not that “ God doesn ’ t exist ” but that there is something wrong with how we are asking questions about God and how we have been using our rational faculties to talk about universals ever since Plato got us started on this track!

He goes on, in subsequent Critiques and other works, to demonstrate his model for the proper use of concepts like “ God ” “ the Good ,” and “ the beautiful ,” effecting the most radical re-evaluation of these ideas since Plato, and changing forever the course of western philosophy.

It is perhaps no small exaggeration to claim that most western philosophers since Kant, even if they disagree with him, have had to find some way to respond to his revolutionary ideas.