Genetic epistemology ana kant’s concept of a priory knowledge

Abstract

By its approach to the problem of knowledge, genetic epistemology can be said to belong to the naturalistic epistemology, the basic characteristic of which is that it tries to understand what knowledge is using the description of the knowing subject, as we find it in the contemporary science. Genetic epistemology uses the results of genetic (developmental) psychology of knowledge and evolutionary biology in order to discover the mechanisms of the development, of mental structures showing the relevance of empirical knowledge for any epistemological interest. On the one hand, there is a purely psiihological epistemology as Kant’s is, and we are interested in the relation between these two epistemologies. If Kant’s expression »before all experience« is correctly understood, that is, as logical priority, there is no impediment in principle to view the genetic epistemology as a kind of scientific corroboration for Kant’s standpoint. On the other hand, it makes certain revisions of Kant’s conception, but their relation is a good example of interaction between science and philosophy. This interaction and coordination is, among other things, one of the most important characteristics of genetic epistemology in a wider sense - interdisciplinary approach which includes empirical and normative (deductive) disciplines as well.