Questions tagged [kant]
Immanuel Kant was a German Enlightenment philosopher.
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Does Kant implicitly commit the paralogism of pure reason when saying that to have a representation it is necessary to accompany it with 'I think'?
In Caygill's Kant Dictionary entry of 'I Think' there is this part:
Kant further claims that 'I think' is the necessary vehicle/form/accompaniment of experience: to have a representation it is ...
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Kant on paralogism of pure reason
In the following passage, I am not sure if I understand Kant.
I do not cognize any object merely by the fact that I think, but
rather I can cognize any object only by determining a given intuition
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Self-duality (in category theory) and advaita (non-duality in metaphysics)
In category theory, there are self-dual objects, where A ≅ A∗ (A is isomorphic to its dual), with the strict, but possibly non-coherent, case being when A equals A∗ (see Selinger[??]). In some ...
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Kant’s claim “there are only three kinds of proof for the existence of God”
There are only three kinds of proof for the existence of God possible from speculative reason.
All paths on which one may set forth with this aim either begin from determinate experience and the ...
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Schelling: from where, or how exactly, do the a priori ideas come?
I'm reading Schelling's System of Transcendental Idealism, and in the end of the 3rd part (the end of the theoretical philosophy) schelling disproves the idea that a priori ideas are inherent in us ...
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If the finite-indefinite-infinite distinction is not exhaustive, does this affect Kant's resolution of the antinomies?
From the modern point of view, infinity comes not only in various flavors (some of which Kant seems to have been aware of), but various sizes. So when Kant talks about conceptions as being too small ...
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Kant's transcendental apperception and 'ipseity' in phenomenology
In the writings of various phenomenologists, the concept of 'ipseity' is widely discussed. As far as I can make out from various sources (e.g. Zahavi, Subjectivity and Selfhood, esp. chapter 5), ...
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Confusion surrounding Kant's argument from geometry (Transcendental exposition of the concept of space)
In Max Muller's translation of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant states, in "Transcendental exposition of the concept of space", that:
Space must originally be an intuition; for from a mere ...
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Cassirer and the Categorical Imperative
I've been reading some of the shorter works of the neo-Kantian and proto-semiologist Ernst Cassirer. While I find him a valuable bridge across the "continental divide," I'm not sure yet that ...
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Are there any philosophers after Kant but before Peirce that developed the Kantian concept of schema further?
I was reading Peirce's writings on schemata and I was wondering if there was any other known philosopher before him who tried to use or extend schemata in his work.
Are there any philosophers after ...
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How Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative interacts with consent
Kant's second formulation (or the "ends in themselves" formulation) says:
use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as ...
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According to Kant - how is transcendental deduction of the forms of sensibility and categories of understanding possible?
It has been a long time since I've read the Critique of Pure Reason. My question is, how is the mind able to perform the transcendental deduction, according to Kant.
What I'm getting at is... the way ...
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Can Kant's antinomies be translated into formal logic?
Kant proves the limits of human reason by providing 4 antinomies, pairs of rational but contradictory statements, which he claims pure reason can never help us decide which one of the pair is correct. ...
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Thorough analysis of Kant's "conditions of possibility"
Is anyone aware of a thorough (mathematical) treatment/analysis of the concept of Kant's "Bedingungen der Möglichkeit" of something (conditions of possibility)?
I thought about it in the following ...
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How does sensation contribute to empirical intuition and empirical concept?
I have been reading about Kant's theory of cognition in this article https://www.iep.utm.edu/kantmind/#SH2d. This is an extract that I have been trying to understand :
"The genus is representation ...
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If Kant doesn't have the empirical world as a determinate whole, does this rule out a possible-worlds semantics for his modal logic?
For example, take actualist representationism: Kant's "whole world" doesn't seem to be a finished totality, so referring to "a maximal set of consistent propositions" seems amiss, ...
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Kant and ontological character of the mind
I have a basic understanding of Kant's philosophy which revolves mostly around how human mind synthesizes valid knowledge, that is, the forms of understanding unifying perceptions, and forms of ...
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Kant's remarks about the concept of time and the principle of noncontradiction
In the Transcendental Aesthetic he notes:
... I shall add that the conception of change, and with it the conception of motion, as change of place, is possible only through and in the representation ...
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Kant and "the causes of living"
Once upon a time, I was thinking about the argument for the justification of mass civilian killing that is read off a sense of collective responsibility in "evil nations," and wondered:
If ...
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Is Kant speaking "in his own voice" or more "synoptically" in the casuistical sections of the Doctrine of Virtue?
Sometimes Kant is said to have held antiquated or at least weird views (and worse, to be honest) about various subjects, including things like certain sexual activities or perhaps more bizarre ...
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Are categorical imperatives employed in non-Kantian ethical theories?
Are categorical imperatives employed in non-Kantian ethical theories?
For example, consider utilitarianism's principle "act so that the overall happiness is maximised". Is this not a ...
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Why is the argument from synthetic a priori cognition to the subjectivity of what is cognized independent of the "appearance" premise?
In Paul Guyer's Kant, section "A Life in Work", the author claims this:
this argument from synthetic a priori cognition to the subjectivity of what is cognized is independent of the general ...
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What is the philosophical position that a metaphysical debate is caused by different mental models?
I'm looking for authors, papers, and hopefully, the name of the philosophical position that I describe here. I've seen a couple of papers so I know that they exist, but I can't recall the authors or ...
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Understanding some aspects of schematism in Kant's philosophy
I'm struggling to understand Kant's schematism. Kant says that imagination produces the synthesis of schemata and that schemata are how we can relate intuitions to concepts. He goes on to give the ...
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Animal commodification
Is it morally or ethically justified to commodify animals (i.e., such as the tiger temple when it was a thing)? Should humans treat animals' ends (telos) with as much respect as we do ourselves? ...
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Questioning Kant's resolution to induction
From what I haved gathered from the first sections of the Critique, Kant wants to resolve the problem of induction by adding the a priori concept of (the necessity between) cause and effect to our ...
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Kant, suicide, and the unalienable right to life
Recently, after taking an introductory course in Kantian ethics — I am now familiar with the concepts of free will, duty-conception, the categorical imperative —, I was writing an essay on his ...
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How would Kant/Mill justify causing somebody discomfort when doing the righteous thing?
I was wondering how Kant, or even Mill might respond to the issue that when doing the righteous thing, say standing up for yourself against a bully, or somebody who wants to impede on your rights, you ...
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Is "thoughts exist" a synthetic a priori statement?
I'm working off of Kant's conception of analytic/synthetic and a prior/a posteriori judgements.
The definition of "thoughts" does not subsume their existence. That is, it is logically ...
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Why are concepts without intuitions blind?
I think at this point I understand all the transcendental arguments of CPR except this one - and probably this could considerably change my understanding of Kant as a whole.
Here is my confusion.
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Can the analytic/synthetic distinction be accounted for as an erotetic difference?
Although Kant was the first to refer to the distinction as such, his belief that there is a form of truth based on predicates-contained-in-subjects actually goes back at least to one definition from ...
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Are ideas in the prolegomena meant to be the failure of understanding?
In the third section of the Prolegomena, Kant explains in section 40 (at least how I understand it) that ideas are merely the analogues categories of those concepts that cannot be experienced. As I ...
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The synthetic apriority of the categorical imperative
Weirdness I noticed about Kant's theory of the categorical imperative: he says that the CI is "synthetic," in the second Critique using the very imposing phrase "sic volo, sic jubeo" to characterize ...
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The double interpretation of 'a priori' in Kant's metaphysics
I'm sorry if this question has been asked before.
My question regards the apparent double nature of the term 'a priori' in Kant's Critique of pure reason. Namely, as a presupposition for experience ...
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For Kant, why is the Cogito an analytical proposition?
Could someone please explain to me why is that Kant thinks of the Cogito as an analytical proposition? Is it only because the predicate of the Cogito is already presumed in the concept of an thinking ...
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Is it the case that Kant was indirectly 'describing' the noumenon by defining phenomenon?
In all commentaries on Kant's philosophy and his Critique of Pure Reason, it is stated that noumenon is completely unknowable. For example in the entry of 'Appearance' in Encyclopaedia Britannica we ...
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Superiority of the concept as opposed to synthetic apperception
In The Foundations of Arithmetic (§ 48, p. 61), after maintaining that statements of numbers are indeed statements of fact, Frege asserts that:
The concept has a power of collecting together far ...
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Schopenauer's critique of Kant: the distinction between knowledge of perception from abstract knowledge
I am reading "The World as Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer (Norman, J., Welchman, A., & Janaway, C. (Eds.). (2010). Schopenhauer: 'The World as Will and Representation'). In the ...
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Would the opacity of everyday motivations seriously undermine Kantian CI?
Would the opacity of everyday motivations seriously undermine Kantian categorical imperative (CI)?
I tend not to use the CI when deciding what is moral, and partly because I'm not sure I know what my ...
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How can Kantianism prove the existence of perfect duties?
I heard about Kant's reasoning that lying that you return money or about the leads to contradiction in conception.
But how could he even prove that lying under any circumstances leads to ...
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Kant's argument for experience of outer things
Have I got this right?
I have empirical consciousness of my existence
a determination such as this presupposes ‘something permanent in perception’
All that I inwardly intuit is my series of ...
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Have anyone found a good solution to Kant's dualistic approach to consciousness?
Kant, in his studies of transcendental idealism, made the "illogical gap" between theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, at the end of theoretical study, by requiring the contemplation of ...
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Does the idea of psychological egoism about only dignity make sense?
I understand that psychological egoism is the idea that everyone will always act in their own interest.
I gather that human dignity is the cornerstone of Kantian ethics.
I am kinda seriously leaning ...
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Unity of Apperception vs. Self Consciousness in Critique of Pure Reason
What is the difference between Unity of Apperception and Self- consciousness?
From what I gather so far, Unity of Apperception is a particular part of Self-Consciousness in that UoA brings to ...
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Is there a loophole in Kitcher's argument for the inadequacy of the law of association?
In Kant's Transcendental Psychology (hereafter, KTP), Patricia Kitcher gives an insightful argument for the inadequacy of the law of association, which she asserts was Hume's primary explanation for ...
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Why should we consider Wittgenstein a Schopenhauerian idealist?
About the Tractatus, while explaining the similarities and differences between Wittgenstein and Kant with regard to the metaphysics, on the one hand (both track limits, according to which we cannot ...
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What's the relationship between good will and duty?
I'm writing an essay about the relationship between good will and duty, using an excerpt from Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". I find the subject very interesting, but I'm ...
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How to harmonise Empedocles theory of perception
In White Mythologies, in part a disquisition on poetics, Derrida quotes Du Marsais on metaphor:
When we speak of the light of the mind, the word light is to be taken metaphorically; for just as light ...
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How does post-humanism deal with Kants Copernican turn?
Presumably as a term it decentres the human subject as inherited from Renaissance humanism; this continuing the Copernican revolution of decentring the human habitus. This suggests it bypasses Kants ...
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What are Kant's critiques of Hume's and Descartes's conceptions of the self?
What are Kant's critiques of Descartes's conception of the self contained in the Metaphysical Meditations and of Hume's conception of the self expressed in the Essay concerning human understanding? ...
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