Final answer:
Kant's philosophy suggests that although we must be able to conceptualize objects as existing independently of our perception, we can never fully know these "things in themselves" due to the inherent structures of the mind. Our experiences, governed by space, time, and mental categories, limit the extent of our knowledge of the empirical world. This idea is a key aspect of Kant's transcendental idealism, differentiating between the noumenal (things in themselves) and the phenomenal (empirical) world.
Step-by-step explanation:
Immanuel Kant's assertion that "we must yet be in a position at least to think objects of experience as things in themselves" reflects his complex philosophies surrounding epistemology and metaphysics. Kant's idea here revolves around the human capacity to conceptualize objects beyond our senses, while acknowledging our limitations in knowing these objects in their pure form. In his philosophy of transcendental idealism, Kant argues that while all our experiences are filtered through the innate structures of the mind—space, time, and categories of understanding—we must still be capable of conceptualizing objects as existing independently of our perception (things in themselves). This inference suggests that our understanding of objects is not their representation in full actuality due to the colored glasses of our perception, dictating the extent to which we can know anything.
Kant explains that our experiences are the product of a combination of sensory inputs and mental faculties; these experiences shape our knowledge of the empirical world, but fall short of allowing us to grasp the complete essence of objects as they exist outside of that perception. As such, our mind contributes actively to the experience of objects, but without the capability to experience these objects in their entire reality, positing a differentiation between the empirical and the noumenal world. Moreover, Kant postulates categories of thought, which are innate rules necessary for understanding our conceptualizations and judgments about the world around us.
While concepts such as causation and substance emerge from our experiential realm, the ultimate nature of these concepts, as they exist independently of human perception—things in themselves—remains unknowable to us. Hence, according to Kant, we must be able to conceive of objects as they are in themselves, even though we can never fully comprehend them in that unmediated state.