apodictic (or apodictive) - Clearly established, necessary. Apodictic (necessary) judgments are contrasted with problematic (possible) and assertoric (actual) judgments.
Kant: "As far as certainty is concerned, I have myself pronounced the judgment that in this kind of inquiry it is in no way allowed to hold opinions, and that anything that even looks like an hypothesis is a forbidden commodity...For every cognition that is supposed to be certain a priori proclaims that it wants to be held for absolutely necessary...which is to be the standard and thus even the example of all apodictic (philosophical) certainty" (p102)
My thought: What can we really know with absolute certainty? Math and science have a necessity to them, and Kant wants to capture what provides that necessity and apply it to metaphysics. The result will be destructive, not constructive. We cannot have mathematical certainty about the most important things in life.
apperception - A subject's consciousness of itself
Kant: "Any difficulty in this depends merely on the question how a subject can internally intuit itself; yet this difficulty is common to every theory. Consciousness of itself (appreception) is the simple representation of the I" (p189)
My thought: Descartes said, "Cogito ergo sum". I think therefore I am. But there is a wonder in the reflexive nature of our thought. We are conscious of our own consciousness. Cogito quod cogito. Kant is challenging us to see how precise and reliable our self-perception is.
propaedeutic - preparatory or introductory teaching (http://en.wiktionary.org)
Kant: "We can regard a science of the mere estimation of pure reason, of its sources and boundaries, as the propaedeutic to the system of pure reason. Such a thing would not be a doctrine, but must be called only a critique of pure reason" (p149)
My thought: Kant realizes he can't actually say that much. The best he can hope for is to draw boundaries and show the finite capacity of man's understanding. We go this far and no further.
subreption - unfair representation through suppression or fraudulent concealment of facts (http://en.wiktionary.org)
Kant: "Yet this [transcendental] ideality [of time] is to be compared with the subreptions of sensation just as little as that of space is, because in that case one presupposes that the appearance itself, in which these predicates inhere, has objective reality, which is here entirely absent except insofar as it is merely empirical." (p182)
My thought: We can only think of time as real in reference to our own perception and thinking. A succession of observations, either physical or imagined, creates the essence of time. Our daily observation of the world dulls us to the thought.
transcendental - thought concerning a priori concepts, not objects or sense perceptions
Kant: "I call all cognition transcendental that is occupied not so much with objects but rather with our mode of cognition of objects insofar as this is to be possible a priori" (p133).
My thought: It's always wise to back up and consider where you are. The Greeks challenged us, "Know thyself." Paul commanded, "Examine yourselves." I find Kant's transcendental philosophy quite compatible with Christian theology because it puts man in his place as a finite creature. Kant is looking at the metaphysical Tower of Babel and says: tear it down.
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