The Contribution of Kant’s Lectures on Metaphysics to a better Comprehension of the Architectonic, in B. Dörflinger, C. La Rocca, R. Louden, U. Rancan (eds.), Kant’s Lectures, Berlin-New York: de Gruyter, 2015, pp. 233-246 (original) (raw)
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A Suspicion of Architectonic in Kant's Transition Project
Angelaki (Taylor and Francis), 2019
This essay explores the undervalued methodological elements underpinning Kant’s Transition from Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science to Physics in Opus postumum. I do this by drawing a line between the Architectonic of Pure Reason in Critique of Pure Reason and the Transition, although this line is problematized at various points. What emerges is the call for an explicitly architectonic understanding of the concept of transition in Opus postumum. According to the architectonic of Transition, instead of only devising the strict division of metaphysics and physics we must devise systematic ways of building bridges between them and finding their points of interconnection. When extended to the wider critical edifice this implies a radical departure from the Architectonic of Pure Reason as it was understood in Critique of Pure Reason and a complication of Kant’s theorization of metaphysics, physics, and physiology throughout his corpus.
The Fallibilism of Kant's Architectonic
When Kant explicitly considers the status of the claims he advances in his Critique of Pure Reason, he maintains that they should provide apodictic certainty. This contention is strongly connected to his conjunction of the concepts of the a priori, necessity, and certainty. Thus, Kant explicitly argues that a priori justification for claims to knowledge requires infallibility, where this fact has understandably cast doubts on the possibility of finding relevant relationships between his philosophy and pragmatism. However, his infallibilist account of a priori justification for claims to knowledge contrasts with his own characterization of reason and its powers, as well as with his concept of philosophy as an archetype. I begin by introducing Kant’s criteria for justified claims to knowledge, especially as they are presented in the section “On Having Opinions, Knowing, and Believing” of the first Critique. Then, I illustrate Kant’s modest account of reason and philosophy, paying particular attention to the “Discipline of Pure Reason” and the “Architectonic of Pure Reason.” Next I identify what I see as a sustainable account of a priori fallible epistemic justification. To finish, I develop a more modest criterion for the justification of our claims to knowledge starting from Kant’s account of conviction (Überzeugung).
Con-textos Kantianos: International Journal of Philosophy, 2016
Kant's Construction of Nature is an extraordinarily thorough and stimulating reading of one of Kant's most difficult and underestimated works, the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (MFNS) It also represents, as the author himself recognizes, the «culmination of an intellectual journey of more than thirty years» (p. ix). If one considers Friedman's first book on this topic, Kant and the Exact Sciences (1992), followed by the English edition and translation of the MFNS (2004) and by a number of important articles, this book appears as the accomplishment of a double methodological objective. First, Friedman wants to consider Kant's lifelong engagement with the natural science of his time as the «best way» to inquire into the relationship of Kant's views to successive scientific developments and in particular to «our modern (Einsteinian) conception of space, time and motion» (p. xi), thus considering Kant's philosophical understanding of natural science as the beginning of a «conceptual transformation» that eventually led to modern philosophy of science.
CONVIVIUM, 2022
Although the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787) has been one of the most thoroughly interpreted works in the history of philosophy, De Boer's book is evidence that the possibility of fruitful contemporary re-readings of Kant's critical work is open and still yields polemic inertia. The study, composed by an Introduction, eight Chapters and a Conclusion, connects Kant's Critique to its past and to its future. First, in the link to its past, De Boer depicts Kant's transcendental philosophy as connected to, instead of severed from, the Wolffian tradition; secondly, in the connection to its future, the Architectonic of Pure Reason chapter of the Critique is presented as a united system of pure reason, that is, a blueprint of how Kant anticipated that a complete and scientific system of pure reason or metaphysics should be outlined. Both these key ideas in turn support the book's principal purpose, namely, to present a reading of Kant's first Critique as the examination into the faculty of reason necessary for reforming instead of demolishing metaphysics. The main advantages of this perspec-RESSENYES RESEÑAS / REVIEWS
Kant's Lectures on Metaphysics: A Critical Guide (CUP 2018)
Kant lectured on metaphysics at least fifty-three times over the course of his long academic career, which is more than any other subject except for logic. In these lectures, Kant critically evaluated and reformulated the definition and structure of metaphysics, as well as of its four major divisions: ontology, cosmology, psychology and natural theology. He also developed and refined key positions taken in his public writings in direct dialogue with the traditional doctrines that they were intended to replace. Several sets of these lectures were transcribed by students and substantial portions of at least ten such transcripts, ranging in date from the mid-1760s to the 1790s, have been preserved in volumes 28 and 29 of the Akademie-Ausgabe of Kant's writings.
Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn
2019
Kant can often seem to have more in common with our secular age than with preenlightenment Christian thinkers such as Augustine and Luther. Think of his denial that we can know that God exists, of his rejection of organized religion in his personal life, of the priority he gives to human freedom and dignity over any supernatural authority. His philosophy is frequently seen as engaging in projects similar to our own, for example in giving an 'analysis of the discursive nature' of our cognition (Allison) or defending a form of phenomenalism (van Cleve). However, more recently some commentators have started to investigate Kant's theological commitments, for example Christopher Insole and Stephen Palmquist. In Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn, Edward Kanterian offers a similar approach. He examines Kant's early work, up to around 1770, to demonstrate that Kant was firmly embedded in the eighteenth century, and especially in the German, broadly Protestant, philosophy of that age. During the period under investigation, Kant was almost obsessed with formulating (a priori and a posteriori) proofs for the existence of God. Additionally, before, and even after his so-called critical turn, Kant adopted a Lutheran 'motif of weakness', stressing the limits of man's reason, and conceding that there are some things humans cannot know. Further, Kant is repeatedly shown as influenced by Christian thinkers working within a typically Lutheran, Protestant or Pietist framework, and replying to thinkers in that tradition. For this reason, Kanterian challenges the common assumption that Kant is closer to us than to his own age. The book consists of seven chapters. Chapter one begins with Erasmus and ends with Hume, thereby covering a span of more than 200 years. Here we are introduced to major philosophers and theologians prior to Kant, most of whom shared a broadly religious outlook. Chapter two deals primarily with Kant's most important early philosophical works, Universal Natural History (1755) and the New Elucidation (1755). The author demonstrates that the theological theme is at the centre of Kant's thought from the outset, since the former book offers a wide-ranging teleological proof for the existence of God (using and expanding upon Newton's cosmology), while the second book develops an a priori existence proof, based on modal considerations. Chapter three covers Kant's work just prior to The Only Possible Ground in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1763). These works deal very much with Leibniz and Newton. However, reference is also made to three figures whose relation to Kant is less often discussed, namely Pope, Spalding and Crusius. Again, the focus here is with Kant's theological commitments, especially on the question of 'optimism' much debated in the period, i.e. whether this is the best of all possible worlds, assuming it was created by a benevolent God. As it transpires in this chapter, and in fact is defended throughout the book, in his early decades Kant was driven by a 'reconciliation' project,