Kant's Conception Research Articles

Some Remarks on Kant's Concept of an a priori History

Despite the a priori character of philosophical history, in several passages of his main juridical and political writings, Kant identifies certain historical events as signs of progress. Moreover, he provides no criterion in order to justify the consideration of certain facts as relevant, while neglecting others as providing no supporting evidence against the progress of the human race. In this paper I analyze these difficulties in order to show that they can be solved, to some extent, if one considers the features Kant assigns to philosophical history, and more specifically, if one takes into account its a priori and normative character.

Human Dignity: the Foundation of Human Rights and Religious Freedom

The concept of human dignity lies at the heart of many national and international conventions of human rights. This idea, based on man's rationality, can be found already in Greco-Roman Antiquity, was fully developed in Christianity, in its synthesis with the Biblical conception of man as image of God. With the secularization of the European mind from the 18th century onwards, the justification of human dignity becomes problematic. This most influential attempt to justify it by secular rationality came from Kant, who saw man’s dignity as deriving from his capacity for moral reasoning and from it came the notions of autonomy and equality. However, during the last two centuries, secularized cultures produced skeptical attitudes toward both the Judeo-Christian and Kantian concepts of the intrinsic dignity of man, which eventually paved the way for twentieth-century totalitarian-isms. After the horrors of Nazism, concerns about putting human rights in the centre of culture, politics and law compelled a search ―largely impossible― for a common idea of human dignity, shared by different philosophical traditions, both religious and secular. During the years after World War II, especially after the Second Vatican Council, there was a renewed discovery of human rights as based on human dignity by Catholicism, which, in view of the different reduc-tionist or destructive tendencies found in the secularized culture, perhaps is the most satisfactory approach. Finally, the problem of religious freedom is examined as a case study for further reflections on human dignity.

Fichte, Kant, the Cognitive Subject, and Epistemic Constructivism

This paper will consider the nature and explanatory limits of the Fichtean view of subjectivity in the epistemic context of German idealism. I will argue that Fichte’s revision of the Kantian conception of the subject is both a basic contribution to the cognitive problem as well as fatally flawed, hence not a viable solution to the cognitive problem. Fichte’s distinctive revision of the Kantian subject goes too far in making the objective overly, even wholly dependent on the subjective dimension. After Kant and after Fichte we still lack an effective solution for the problem of cognition.

Theorising from the Global Standpoint: Kant and Grotius on Original Common Possession of the Earth

The paper contrasts Kant's conception of original common possession of the earth with Hugo Grotius's superficially similar notion. The aim is not only to elucidate how much Kant departs from his natural law predecessors—given that Grotius's needs-based framework very much lines in with contemporary theorists’ tendency to reduce issues of global concern to questions of how to divide the world up, it also seeks to advocate Kant's global thinking as an alternative for current debates. Crucially, it is Kant's radical shift in perspective—from an Archimedean ’view from nowhere‘, to a first-personal standpoint through which agents reflexively recognise their systematic interdependence in a world of limited space—that provides him with the more thorough and ultimately convincing global standpoint. This standpoint does not come with ready-made solutions to shared global problems, but provides a promising perspective from which to theorise them.

Kant, Neo‐Kantians, and Transcendental Subjectivity

AbstractThis article discusses an interpretation of Kant's conception of transcendental subjectivity, which manages to avoid many of the concerns that have been raised by analytic interpreters over this doctrine. It is an interpretation put forward by selected C19 and early C20 neo‐Kantian writers. The article starts out by offering a neo‐Kantian interpretation of the object as something that is constituted by the categories and that serves as a standard of truth within a theory of judgment (I). The second part explicates transcendental subjectivity as the system of categories, which is self‐referential and constitutes objects (II), in order to then evaluate this conception by means of a comparison with Hegel's absolute subject (III). Rather than delineating the differences between neo‐Kantian writers, the article systematically expounds a shared project, which consists in providing the ultimate foundation for judgments by means of an anti‐psychologist and non‐metaphysical interpretation of transcendental subjectivity.

Respect for personhood in medical and psychiatric ethics

Summary This paper considers a number of questions concerning a central principle of modern liberal medical ethics – that of respect for patient autonomy. This principle is generally interpreted as a consequence of the more fundamental ethical requirement of respect for personhood, defined in terms of the ‘autonomy’ of a rational being. In the context of medical ethics, this is taken to imply that patients, as persons, have the right to make decisions about their own medical treatment or non-treatment. This, it is argued, involves a misuse of the essentially Kantian concept of ‘autonomy’. For Kant, to be autonomous is to be capable of making universal moral judgements, based on impersonal reason alone. In liberal medical ethics, however, autonomy means the capacity to make decisions about non-moral matters such as one's own interests, on the basis of values which one has arrived at by free and independent thought. These are clearly different conceptions, so that a definition of personhood in terms of autonomy in the Kantian sense will be different from one in terms of liberal autonomy. This casts doubt on whether respect for patient autonomy in the liberal sense is an implication of respect for personhood. It is not clear why a patient's decisions about treatment ought to be respected simply because they are based on the patient's own (non-moral) values. There is a further difficulty. ‘Autonomy’, in the liberal conception, seems to be equivalent to ‘decision-making competence’. The elements of this are said to be: 1. The capacity to understand; 2. The capacity to reason; and 3. Possession of one's own developed structure of values. Decision-making competence in this sense is not found in all human beings, or in any human being all the time. For example, small children, adults with learning difficulties, and people with brain damage seem to lack all three elements, or to have them only to a limited extent. People with a serious illness may lack all three temporarily. And people with certain kinds of mental disorder may, just because of their disorder, deviate from their own normal structure of values. It seems to follow that not all human beings are fully persons worthy of respect in the liberal sense of personhood. This has morally undesirable implications, which suggests problems in the liberal conceptions both of personhood and of respect. It is argued that a satisfactory conception of personhood can be arrived at only by considering the use of terms such as ‘person’ in everyday, non-technical, contexts. It is argued that ‘person’, in such contexts, is almost synonymous with ‘human being’, though with particular reference to the non-biological characteristics of human beings – those in virtue of which we recognize each other as fellow-humans (as ‘one of us’). A human being does not necessarily possess decision-making competence as defined above: so respect for persons cannot depend on such competence, or require us always to accept a person's own presently expressed decisions about what is best for themselves. It does, however, require us to recognize others as separate selves, with interests of their own, which may differ from ours. A doctor is therefore morally required to give the patient's interests priority over his or her own, or those of the health care system. If doctors consider the patient's expressed decision about treatment to be not in the patient's own interests, they are morally required to engage in dialogue with the patient, in an effort to arrive at a decision which will be acceptable both to the doctor and to the patient. If the patient is unable to engage in such dialogue, because of impaired decision-making competence, then other methods of establishing the patient's interests must be tried: examples would be proxy decision-making, by someone who is close enough to the patient to be aware of, and concerned for, the patient's interests; or appeal to the patient's own advance directives, where available. The most difficult case is that of patients with certain kinds of mental disorder, where the patient's own sense of his or her interests has become distorted by the very disorder which needs treatment. Only by following an appropriate course of treatment, which the patient may currently reject, is it possible to restore the patient to a condition in which he or she can genuinely engage in dialogue. This, it is argued, makes it morally justifiable in such cases simply to override the patient's expressed wishes.

Identitätsphilosophie and the Sensibility that Understands

ABSTRACTMany contemporary scholars argue that Schelling’s version of intellectual intuition retains certain central features of the Kantian and Fichtean conceptions. One of the common claims is that, as with Kant and Fichte, Schelling’s intellectual intuition is the power of the subject’s productive understanding. However, we show that for the Schelling of the Identitätsphilosophie period, intellectual intuition is the power not of an understanding that intuits, or a productive intellect, but of a receptive and penetrating sensibility that understands.

Ethics Teaching in Higher Education for Principled Reasoning: A Gateway for Reconciling Scientific Practice with Ethical Deliberation.

This paper proposes laying the groundwork for principled moral reasoning as a seminal goal of ethics interventions in higher education, and on this basis, makes a case for educating future specialists and professionals with a foundation in philosophical ethics. Identification of such a seminal goal is warranted by (1) the progressive dissociation of scientific practice and ethical deliberation since the onset of a problematic relationship between science and ethics around the mid-19th century, and (2) the extensive mistrust of integrating ethics in science and engineering curricula beyond its "applied," "practical," or "professional" implications. Although calls by international scientific and educational bodies to strengthen ethics teaching in scientific education over the past quarter century have brought about a notion of combining competence in a certain field with competence in ethics, this is neither entrenched in the academic community, nor fleshed out as regards its core or instruments to realize it. The legitimate goals of ethics teaching in higher education, almost settled since the 1980s, can be subsumed under the proposed seminal goal, and the latter also would safeguard content and methods of ethics interventions against the intrusion of indoctrinative approaches. In this paper, derivation of the proposed seminal goal rests on an interpretation of the Kohlbergian cognitive-developmental conception of moral adulthood consisting in autonomous principled moral reasoning. This interpretation involves, based on Kant's conception of the virtuous person, integrating questions about the "good life" into the domain of principled reasoning.

Kant's Third Critique: The Project of Unification

AbstractThis paper offers a synoptic view of Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgement and its reception by the German Idealists. I begin by sketching Kant's conception of how its several parts fit together, and emphasize the way in which the specifically moral motivation of Kant's project of unification of Freedom and Nature distances it from our contemporary philosophical concerns. For the German Idealists, by contrast, the CPJ's conception of the opposition of Freedom and Nature as defining the overarching task of philosophy provides a warrant and basis for bold speculative programmes. The German Idealist development therefore presupposes Kant's failure in the CPJ to resolve the problem of the relation of Freedom and Nature. What is fundamentally at issue in the argument between Kant and his successors is the question of the correct conception of philosophical systematicity and in this context I reconstruct Kant's defence of his claim to philosophical finality.

The Intimacy of Thought: Philosophy as the Labor of Friendship

ABSTRACT This article considers Kant's polemic against Plato, the letter writer, in order to investigate the role of letters in the production of philosophy. It begins with a close reading of Kant's essay against Johann George Schlosser, then takes up Derrida's engagement with Kant's concept of the tone of philosophy, and then turns to a discussion of three female philosophers who used the letter, whether real or fictitious, to engage in the production of philosophy. Something even stronger is argued, namely, that in the genre of the philosophical letter there is something sui generis that renders it, as a locus of the material production of philosophy, vitally humanizing, individualizing, and generously inviting. Many who were traditionally excluded from the calling of philosophy, because of their gender, found in the genre of the letter a way both to discover their philosophical voice and to share in the joy of thinking with another.

The Antinomy of Practical Reason as absurdum practicum

The antinomies of pure reason play a significant role in Kant’s critical system. The conflict of reason with itself woke Kant up from his dogmatic slumber and led him to the construction of his transcendental idealism. However, the antinomies of practical reason have not occupied the same place as those of reason in its speculative use. Actually, many commentators of Kant’s critical philosophy consider that there is no antinomy of practical reason at all. The aim of this article is to show that there is an antinomy of practical reason. Particularly, we will show why the antinomy of practical reason should be understood under the light of the Kantian concept of absurdum practicum . Keywords: Kant, practical antinomy, absurdum practicum.

Principles, Virtues, or Detachment? Some Appreciative Reflections on Karen Stohr’s On Manners

Karen Stohr’s book On Manners argues persuasively that rules of etiquette, though conventional, play an essential moral role, because they “serve as vehicles through which we express important moral values like respect and consideration for the needs, ideas, and opinions of others” (Stohr 2012: 3–4). Stohr frequently invokes Kantian concepts and principles in order to make her point. In Part 2 of this essay, I shall argue that the significance of etiquette is better understood using a virtue ethics framework, like that of Confucianism, rather than the language of Kantianism. Within the Chinese tradition, Daoists have frequently been critics of Confucian ritualism. Consequently, in Part 3, I shall consider some possible Daoist critiques of Stohr’s work.

Dependence and a Kantian conception of dignity as a value.

Kantian moral concepts concerning respect for human dignity have played a central role in articulating ethical guidelines for medical practice and research, and for articulating some central positions within bioethical debates more generally. The most common of these Kantian moral concepts is the obligation to respect the dignity of patients and of human research subjects as autonomous, self-determining individuals. This article describes Kant's conceptual distinction between dignity and autonomy as values, and draws on the work of several contemporary Kantian philosophers who employ the distinction to make sense of some common moral intuitions, feelings, and norms. Drawing on this work, the article argues that the conceptual distinction between dignity and autonomy as values is indispensable in the context of considering our obligations to those who are dependent and vulnerable.

Political and religious aspects of community according to Kant

Based on the concept of community, Kant's conception of religion may be connected, on my view, to the question of which mental attitude is suitable for the collective life of human society. It is possible to imagine a successful community, even if such a community does not exist in the empirical world, and to be oriented toward this ideal without ever being able to realize it. According to Kant, human moral self-understanding is developed by human reason, and this explains the structural similarity between the secular republic and the Kingdom of God under the specific conditions of the enlightened consciousness of a person who thinks for herself. Thus the anthropological "fact": the self-understanding of the human being characterised by his faculty of reason.

La influencia de Salomon Maimon en el pensamiento de Gilles Deleuze

In the present article we will try to provide a reading of Salomon Maimon’s work, with the aim of shedding light on some of the central issues the Deleuzian thought envisaged in the period of philosophical production that is accomplished with the publication of Difference and Repetition. To do this we will, at first, give an overview of the Maimonian thought, drawing the necessary comparisons with the Kantian concepts and trying to account both for their points of contact and their possible divergences. In a second stage we will make a double movement: on the one hand we will try to problematize some of Maimon’s concepts, while on the other hand we will seek to show in what sense these tensions may open to specifically Deleuzian questions. Finally, we will exhibit some characters of the Deleuzian Idea and other concepts related to it, highlighting the constraints of which they part and the novel solutions they provide.

Власність як проекція свободи та основа права в ученні Канта

The article is focused on Kant’s theory of law. Kant strives to deduce it from the concept of freedom, but the material basis of law is property. Law and property appear as projections of freedom. The author substantiates the idea that the theory of law on this base became possible thanks to Kant's special concept of freedom: the subject's freedom as the law of reason is directed at the external world and requires its realization — first of all, in a plot of land. These special concepts of freedom and property cause the characteristic features of Kant's theory of law which has evoked a lot of controversies.

Agency and attitude

Critics charge that Kantian conceptions of human dignity and normative agency, which some suggest underwrite the modern doctrine of human rights, are parochial, unable to account for the dynamism and context-dependence of human rights, aloof from human rights practice, and incapable of distinguishing human rights from the vast array of other political rights constitutional democracies generally recognize as demands of justice. I argue here that whatever force these charges might have against human rights theories inspired by Kant’s work, they do not impugn Kant’s own conception of human rights. By tying human rights to official attitudes toward justice rather than, as familiar approaches do, to concrete conformity with ‘minimum prerequisites’ of justice, Kant’s approach fits core features of human rights practice while providing a dynamic, context-sensitive guideline for auditing the conduct of states and public officials. Just as Kant’s critical writings argue that agents must be able to assume that the natural world of efficient causes is purposive for morality’s ultimate ends, we can profitably understand Kant’s political philosophy as claiming, analogously, that agents must also be able to assume that the juridical world of state action is purposive for justice. Kant’s conception of human rights, I suggest, identifies the conditions under which that assumption is warranted.

Helmholtz's Kant revisited (Once more). The all-pervasive nature of Helmholtz's struggle with Kant's Anschauung

In this analysis, the classical problem of Hermann von Helmholtz's (1821–1894) Kantianism is explored from a particular vantage point, that to my knowledge, has not received the attention it deserves notwithstanding its possible key role in disentangling Helmholtz's relation to Kant's critical project. More particularly, we will focus on Helmholtz's critical engagement with Kant's concept of intuition [Anschauung] and (the related issue of) his dissatisfaction with Kant's doctrinal dualism. In doing so, it soon becomes clear that both (i) crucially mediated Helmholtz's idiosyncratic appropriation and criticism of (certain aspects of) Kant's critical project, and (ii) can be considered as a common denominator in a variety of issues that are usually addressed separately under the general header of (the problem of) Helmholtz's Kantianism. The perspective offered in this analysis can not only shed interesting new light on some interpretive issues that have become commonplace in discussions on Helmholtz's Kantianism, but also offers a particular way of connecting seemingly unrelated dimensions of Helmholtz's engagement with Kant's critical project (e.g. Helmholtz's views on causality and space). Furthermore, it amounts to the rather surprising conclusion that Helmholtz's most drastic revision of Kant's project pertains to his assumption of free will as a formal condition of experience and knowledge.

Dignity at the limit: Jean-Luc Nancy on the possibility of incommensurable worth

Dignity, according to some recent arguments, is a useless concept, giving vague expression to moral intuitions that are better captured by other, better defined concepts. In this paper, I defend the concept of dignity against such skeptical arguments. I begin with a description of the defining features of the Kantian conception of dignity. I then examine one of the strongest arguments against that conception, advanced by Arthur Schopenhauer in On the Basis of Morality. After considering some standard accounts of dignity, showing how they fail adequately to address Schopenhauer’s concern, I propose and defend a new account of dignity, drawing on the ontology of Jean-Luc Nancy.

Hospitality in and beyond Religions and Politics

This paper examines Derrida's treatment of the quasi-transcendental structure of hospitality, particularly as it pertains to religious traditions, conceptions of human rights, and modern secularism. It begins by looking to the account Derrida presents in ‘Hostipitality’, focusing especially on his treatment of the work of Louis Massignon. It then proceeds to an exploration of Kant's concept of cosmopolitanism and some of its contemporary descendants before returning to Derrida's treatment of hospitality by way of his critique of this Kantian heritage. The paper argues both that religious traditions exhibit (though, perhaps, often not explicitly) the kind of structures of openness to difference to which Derrida's notion of hospitality refers, and that modern Western conceptions of secularism too easily preclude understanding and fostering those aspects of religious traditions which can contribute to more peaceful coexistence in pluralistic environments.