Questions tagged [kant]
Immanuel Kant was a German Enlightenment philosopher.
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Is the Categorical Imperative Simply Bad Math? :)
The title is clickbait, but the question is not.
First, The Categorical Imperative:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
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Did Kant come to believe that we have access to things-in-themselves after all?
Kant's position on things-in-themselves is often described Socratically, of them we know only one thing, that they are. However, in an old but apparently still popular history of philosophy book I ...
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What are the more complex/interesting examples of synthetic a priori statements?
The usual examples of synthetic a priori statements are – it seems at least since Kant:
"Nothing can be simultaneously red and green all over"
7 + 5 = 12 (or any other basic arithmetic statements).
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Kant's universalization explained, How does one universalize a thing?
I am having some doubts in understanding the universalisation of maxims in Kant's Categorical Imperative.
For instance, one can determine whether a maxim of lying to secure a loan is moral by ...
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Was there a Kantian influence on Hilbert's formalist programme?
In this paper by Cassou-Nogues which is on an aspect of the mathematical philosophy of Cavailles he quotes the mathematician Hilbert (a colloborator of Einstein in Gottingen)
...We find ourselves ...
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What are some examples of categorical imperatives/universalizable maxims relevant to modern ethics?
I know this question has been widely asked, and that the answer may not be as straightforward as the question, which is partly why I'm asking. It's been a long time since I sat in a philosophy class, ...
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What would Kant do when two categorical imperatives conflict? Could he ever justify lying?
Suppose a German SS officer knocked on my door, asking me whether I had any Jews. And suppose further that I had two Jews in a secret compartment in the attic that he'd never be able to find. ...
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What are examples of analytic a posteriori knowledge?
There is the analytic/synthetic distinction and the a priori/a posteriori distinction. These two distinctions form four types of knowledge:
analytic a priori
synthetic a priori
analytic a posteriori
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How did Kant define knowledge?
A recent question about the Plato's formula K=JTB (knowledge is justified true belief) made me curious as to what Kant thought on the matter. In the prefaces and the Introduction to the first Critique ...
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What are the counterexamples to Kant's argument that existence is not a predicate?
Kant argued that considering existence as a predicate is wrong. A predicate is a feature or characteristic of an object. But logically, existence adds nothing to the characteristics of that object, ...
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Is Kant's "noumenal self" argument on freedom flawed?
This is what is supposedly his claim:
My noumenal self is an uncaused cause outside of time, which therefore
is not subject to the deterministic laws of nature in accordance with
which our ...
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Is Reality an intersection of Incompatible Ontologies?
Empiricists do not ask questions about the ontological status of mathematical or logical structures. Idealists don't explain how Ideas are developed, or how technological advancement in general takes ...
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Why did Kant think that you should be responsible for the consequences of lying but not for the consequences of telling the truth?
Can someone here clarify what Kant meant with the following statement:
if you have by a lie prevented someone just now bent on murder from committing the deed, then you are legally accountable for ...
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Why is there only one Categorical Imperative?
I am currently reading Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals.
In section 2, he says:
There is therefore only a single categorical imperative, and it is this: act only according to that ...
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Is Kant's ethical theory adequate to the complexities of universalisation?
Kant argues that one should only act according to those principles which can be universalised. However human actions are often complex and motivated by multi-layered reasonings. They can rarely be ...
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In what fundamental ways, if any, does Husserl break with Kant?
I've read only slim secondary works on Husserl some time ago, and recently started "The Crisis in the European Sciences." So far, the framework seems faithfully Kantian. Husserl, for example, ...
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Are the first and second forms of the categorical imperative actually equivalent?
I will put aside any question of possible imprecision of the formulations, I will assume that the Kant's intentions can be understood intuitively reasonably precisely.
Kant gives two forms of the ...
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Which of Kant's writings would be a good introduction to his work?
I've been planning to read some of Kant's work for a while, but have no idea where to start. Which of his writings would be a good initial introduction to his philosophical views?
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How can Hegel call philosophy a science?
At the tail end of Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason Gardner discusses Kant's influence on his successors. He claims---and I'm paraphrasing here---Hegel wanted his metaphysics to be scientific, i.e....
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What is "intuition" for Kant?
Intuition appears to be a relatively abstract concept, an incomplete cognition, and thus not directly experienceable. Kant says that all knowledge is constituted of two parts: reception of objects ...
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What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
How does that invalidate the ontological arguments? and how can he show that it's not a predicate?
By predicate, I think he means a "property"...
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Why shouldn't you lie to the future murderer of your children?
I've heard two versions of this anecdote about Kant's ethics:
You are at home and a man with an axe rings the bell. He asks where your children are so that he can kill them. It is, according to ...
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Does Sartre imitate Kant in moral philosophy?
This is not originally my question but someone deleted their question while I was typing an answer to it. Consequently, I'm reposting the question and then my answer -- n.b., I've changed the title ...
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How does Kant derive the categories of the understanding from the logical forms of judgment in the Critique of Pure Reason?
I didn't arrive at any cogent and clear conception of the exact relation between Kant's logical forms of judgment and his categories, and most importantly, how he derives the latter from the former.
&...
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If one agrees with Quine's dissolution of the Analytic/Synthetic distinction, what is left of Kant's epistemology?
One of Kant's most important (if not the most important) result is his argument (proof?) that synthetic a priori knowledge is possible.
If one agrees with Quine's argument against Analyticity as being ...
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How does capacity for reason 'exist undifferentiated in all of us'?
Source: Prof Michael Sandel, Justice: ..., Episode 06: "MIND YOUR MOTIVE" [in this episode, Prof Sandel introduces Kant.]
25:35: How many moral laws from Kant’s point of view are there in this room,...
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How does Kant justify the introduction of the noumenon?
Kant introduces the notion of the noumenon in his critical philosophy; he also later demonstrates in his system that solipsism isn't possible.
Is the introduction of the noumenon essential to this ...
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Why does Kant say the conservation of matter is a priori rather than empirical?
In the Critique of Pure Reason Kant writes that conservation of matter is a priori synthetic:
Natural science (physics) contains a priori synthetic judgments as principles. I need cite only two such ...
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Kant's Refutation of Idealism
from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-transcendental/#RefIde
Dicker reconstructs Kant's Refutation of Idealism as saying:
I can be aware of having experiences that occur in a specific temporal ...
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Why were Kant's categories used in the mathematical category theory?
I am curious exactly how mathematical categories were inspired by Kant's categories. The SEP article on category theory says:
In order to give a general definition of the [natural transformation], ...
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Are we born with Kantian Categories?
Following this question; given that Kantian Categories are required to sythesise Concepts and for the conditions of experience; does this mean that we are born with them?
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How does Kant assert existence of the noumena, if indeed he does?
According to Kant the thing-in-itself or noumena is strictly hidden from us and phenomena are conditioned by the categories of the mind such as time, space, causality amongst others. These categories ...
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A companion or guide to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Which companion, or guide, would you recommend to someone trying to read and understand the original work, The Critique of Pure Reason? Why?
I'm inclined towards these two, The Cambridge Companion to ...
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What was the impact of the discovery of non-euclidean geometry on Kantian thought?
This is mainly a historical question. In Gary Hatfields introduction to Kants Prologomena, he says:
After the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, Kant’s claims for the synthetic a priori status of ...
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A contradiction in Kant's Universalizability Principle
I figured a contradiction in Kant's Universalizability principle, but I'm very surprised that it was so easy to prove that wrong, so I think that I might be wrong somewhere.
Let us first begin with a ...
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Why do philosophy of mind courses tend to bypass Kant?
All of the philosophy of mind courses I've seen seem to follow a basic pattern:
Start with Descartes and substance dualism
Jump to the 20th century and discuss behaviorism, functionalism, identity ...
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Would Kant choose to sacrifice one life to save another?
If what I know about Kant is correct- watching the Harvard Justice series on Kant and some summaries of his work- then Kant believes in an absolute morality where everything is either right or wrong ...
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How does Kant respond to Hume's problem of induction?
It's generally well-known that Kant was responding, amongst other influences, to Hume's critique of the empirical method on purely logical grounds. One could consider him as a modern-day Pyrrhonniste.
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What are the similarities/differences between how Kant thinks 'noumenon' limits understanding compared to C.S. Peirce?
Kant stated in Critique of Pure Reason, pg. 273:
What our understanding acquires through this concept of a noumenon, is a negative extension; that is to say, understanding is not limited through ...
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How did Kant "undermine the soul"?
In the beginning of William James' 1904 paper "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?" he states the following:
At first, 'spirit and matter,' 'soul and body,' stood for a pair of equipollent substances quite ...
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Is number π empirical or a priori?
I used the example of π, but this applies to other transcendental numbers as well, such as e
Kant classified statements into 4 epistemic categories based on two criteria: The Analytic/Synthetic ...
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What views of government were based on Kantian ethics?
Historically, what kinds of government and politics have been influenced by the maxims of Kant's "categorical imperative"?
Take for example, the maxim that one should only act in such a way that the ...
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How does Kant rule out permanent soul in his argument for the existence of external world?
I have been studying Stephan Körner's intro to Kant's philosophy. I'm not sure if in the following excerpt I make sense of the reasoning quoted from Kant.
In fact, I wonder how the permanence must be ...
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Can a machine, lacking reflection, be a Person?
We are well beyond Frankenstein and the experience that the machine—“it’s alive”! As we continue to rely on Suri’s for GPS directions, “self”-checkout aisles, or the artificial intelligence of robotic ...
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For Kant, why are all preferences only conditionally valuable?
It's not clear to me why rational beings are objective ends. It certainly seems possible that every rational being could hold itself as an end, but it is by no means the case necessary that they do ...
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Does a moral act have to be necessarily beautiful?
Kant argues in his Third Critique (sec. 59) that moral uprightness and decency brings us pleasure as in a reflective, judgment of taste:
Now I say that the beautiful is the symbol of the morally ...
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How can one justify Newton's third law?
In one sense it is justified by the overall success if Newtonian Mechanics; still, one can ask are there arguments that can justify it from other principles; ie principle that are * a priori* in ...
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Is it possible for morality to exist?
I used to be fairly convinced that morality existed - because of the numerous different ethical systems available, I was sure that even if I did not know which system was right, that morality, in some,...
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Was Kant right about space and time (and wrong about knowledge)?
According to Kant our empirical experience is synthesized from sensations through categories. Apparently, unconscious "productive ability of imagination" mediates the process using the schemes of ...
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What is the basis for Kant's misquote "If the truth shall kill them, let them die" (murderer at the door)?
I recently discovered that the quote "If the truth shall kill them, let them die" is falsely attributed to Kant, and actually stems from Ayn Rand paraphrasing Kant [1] [2]
Which work/passage could ...
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