Kant and the creation of freedom: a response to Terry Godlove (original) (raw)
Related papers
Kant's Transcendental Idealism, Freedom and the Divine Mind
Modern Theology, 2011
Without denying the importance of a range of independent epistemic and metaphysical considerations, I argue that there is an irreducibly theological dimension to the emergence of Kant’s transcendental idealism. Creative tasks carried out by the divine mind in the pre-critical works become assigned to the human noumenal mind, which is conceived of as the (created) source of space, time and causation. Kant makes this shift in order to protect the possibility of transcedental freedom. I show that Kant has significant theological difficulties ascribing such transcendental freedom to creatures in relation to God, and that he intends transcendental idealism to be a solution to these difficulties. I explain how this provides Kant with a powerful motivation and reason for denying the so-called ‘neglected alternative’, and conclude by suggesting that the nature of any theological response to Kant will depend upon some fundamental options about how to conceive of the relationship between the creator and creation.
Bolstering the Keystone: Kant on the Incomprehensibility of Freedom
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 2020
In this paper, I give an explanation and defense of Kant's claim that we cannot comprehend how freedom is possible. I suggest that this is a significant point that has been underappreciated in the secondary literature. My conclusion has a variety of implications both for Kant scholars and for those interested in Kantian ideas more generally. Most notably, if Kant is right that there are principled reasons why freedom is beyond our comprehension, then this would lift an undesirable explanatory burden off the shoulders of his ethical and metaethical views. It would be a boon for Kantians if they could ground their lofty claims about the unique, elevated status of rational agency without committing to an implausible view of libertarian freedom. On the negative side, there are certain debates concerning moral motivation and transcendental idealism that might have to change in response to Kant's claims about the incomprehensibility of freedom.
Hegel Bulletin, 2010
George di Giovanni's admirable, fascinating book allows itself to be characterized in two ways. First, it provides a detailed, richly scholarly and yet lucid study of a body of post-Kantian literature which has received in the English-speaking world comparatively little attention, and which di Giovanni shows provides rich philosophical pickings. Since the publication in 1989 of Frederick Beiser's groundbreaking The Fate of Reason important work has been done, mostly in piecemeal form, on the relatively minor players in the early German development in the wake of Kant, as it has, in more extended form, on Fichte, but the territory is large and very far from exhausted, and di Giovanni, by focussing at full monograph length on a particular set of themes and debates bearing on the foundations of Kantian practical philosophy, makes a major contribution to the aim of achieving a detailed systematic understanding of what went on in Germany in the period between Kant and Hegel. The second general thing to say about the book is that it pursues through the medium of its historical story a broad systematic agenda which is original and provocative, and of high interest for all concerned with the interpretation of German Idealism and the question of its place in modern philosophy. The two aspects of the book are thoroughly interconnected but it will help to begin by considering them separately. I will describe them in turn.
Kantian Review, 2021
The subject of Insole’s immensely rich and well-researched book is Kant’s concept of the highest good. It serves the author as a fitting pretext for a fresh treatment of an encyclopedic range of topics, including freedom, morality, happiness andGod, as they are developed byKant from the pre-critical period of the s–s to the mature critical period of the s–s. The book challenges our understanding of both Kant’s ethics and his religious philosophy. Insole’s religious-philosophical approach to Kant’s ethics is unparalleled in the extent to which it takes seriously its metaphysical commitments. The result is an in-depth and sustained investigation of two concepts whose nature and systematic function have not yet been well understood in the literature, namely, the proper self and the moral world. Insole’s unique appreciation of what Kant’s radical conception of freedom as autonomy entails for his philosophical theology leads him to portray Kant as making a cleaner break w...
A Response to Critics of In Defense of Kant’s Religion
Faith and Philosophy, 2012
This essay replies to four critics of In Defense of Kant's Religion (IDKR). In reply to Gordon E. Michalson, Jr., I argue that the best pathway for understanding Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (Religion) is to conduct close textual analysis rather than giving up the art of interpretation or allowing meta-considerations surrounding Kant's personal and political circumstances to govern one's interpretation. In response to George di Giovanni, I contend that his critique is dismissive of theologically robust readings of Kant for reasons that have very little to do with what Religion actually asserts. Pamela Sue Anderson's essay, I argue, reads Kant on God according to an empirically-biased stream of British interpretation which makes Kant's transcendental philosophy appear foreign to its rationalist heritage. Lastly, in response to Stephen R. Palmquist, I suggest that his reading of Kant's two experiments is done not only in a vacuum, but also according to a perspectival interpretation of Kant that goes beyond what Kant's writings actually maintain.
Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: an Interpretation and Defense
2014
This book offers a complete and internally cohesive interpretation of Religion. In contrast to the interpretations that characterize Religion as a litany of “wobbles”, fumbling between traditional Christianity and Enlightenment values, or a text that reduces religion into morality, the interpretation here offered defends the rich philosophical theology contained in each of Religion’s four parts and shows how the doctrines of the “Pure Rational System of Religion” are eminently compatible with the essential principles of Transcendental Idealism. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415507868/
Kant and the Question of Theology: Title Page, Table of Contents, and Introduction
Kant the Question of Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 2017
God is a problematic idea in Kant's terms, but many scholars continue to be interested in Kantian theories of religion and the issues that they raise. In these new essays, scholars both within and outside Kant studies analyze Kant's writings and his claims about natural, philosophical, and revealed theology. Topics debated include arguments for the existence of God, natural theology, redemption, divine action, miracles, revelation, and life after death. The volume includes careful examination of key Kantian texts alongside discussion of their themes from both constructive and analytic perspectives. These contributions broaden the scope of the scholarship on Kant, exploring the value of doing theology in consonance or conversation with Kant. It builds bridges across divides that often separate the analytic from the continental and the philosophical from the theological. The resulting volume clarifies the significance and relevance of Kant's theology for current debates about the philosophy of God and religion.
Kant (an introduction for readers interested in Theology)
Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth Century Theology (ed. David Fergusson, Oxford: Blackwell, 2011), 2010
"""'I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith’ (Critique of Pure Reason B xxx).1 This remark, taken from the preface to the second version of the Critique of Pure Reason, is one of Kant’s most famous. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (17241804) has unparalleled significance for the theology and philosophy of the nineteenth century and beyond. The roles of knowledge and faith are central to that philosophy, a fact that until recently was heavily downplayed by philosophers who investigated epistemology and ethics in ways that ignored theological and historical questions. In this article, Kant’s philosophy will be presented in ways that make his theological commitments explicit, in two sections. The first section will sketch the shape of Kant’s thinking, and the second will present some of the technical arguments in relation to what are known technically as his theoretical, practical and aesthetic philosophy. These divisions will be explained in due course. Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""