"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason"

Immanuel Kant’s statement traces the hierarchy and process of human cognition. Knowledge originates with our sensory experiences: everything we know first impresses itself upon us through sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Our awareness of the world, perception of objects, and recognition of events all depend on these senses, which provide the raw material for any kind of understanding. Without the faculties of sensation, there would be no data for the mind to work with.

From sensory input, the process of understanding begins. The mind actively organizes, categorizes, and interprets these sensory experiences. This is not a passive recording but involves cognitive faculties that shape chaos into order, impressions into coherent thoughts. Understanding allows us to perceive patterns, recognize causality, and establish connections between disparate sensory inputs. For Kant, this stage of cognition is structured by the categories of the mind, innate ways our mind shapes experience.

As the process continues, reason engages with the products of understanding to form higher-order knowledge. Reason is the faculty that lets us judge, analyze, and abstract from experiences and concepts. It seeks unity and coherence, aiming to resolve contradictions and grasp universal principles. With reason, humans transcend mere perception and analysis; we structure knowledge into systems, construct science and philosophy, and pursue ultimate questions about existence, morality, and the cosmos.

Kant’s assertion that "there is nothing higher than reason" places rationality at the zenith of human intellectual activity. While sensation roots us in the world and understanding organizes our experience, only reason can guide us toward truth, autonomy, and wisdom. Reason is what enables critical thinking, ethical deliberation, and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Thus, Kant dignifies the rational faculty above all, making it the foundation not merely of science, but of moral action and the possibility of enlightenment itself.