Why did Kant argue that time space and causality are imposed by the human mind?

Immanuel Kant argued that space, time, and causality are imposed by the human mind to solve the problem of how synthetic a priori judgments are possible—judgments that provide universal, necessary knowledge about the world without being derived from experience.12

In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant proposed a "Copernican revolution" in philosophy. He maintained that instead of the mind conforming to objects, objects must conform to the mind's own structure. He categorized these mental contributions as follows:13

• Space and Time: These are a priori forms of human sensibility (intuitions) that condition everything we perceive. We cannot experience anything without first placing it within this mental framework.13
• Causality: This is an a priori category of the understanding. Unlike David Hume, who viewed causality as a habit of expectation based on constant conjunction, Kant argued that causality is a necessary concept the mind "reads into" experience to order it.41

By functioning as the framework for all possible experience, these elements allow for scientific knowledge while simultaneously limiting our understanding to the world of phenomena, leaving "things-in-themselves" (noumena) beyond our reach.134