Kant's Theory of Knowledge and Hegel's Criticism
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Augustine on Knowledge
Augustine on Knowledge Divine Illumination as an Argument Against Scepticism ANITA VAN DER BOS RMA: RELIGION & CULTURE Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Research Master Thesis s2217473, April 2017 FIRST SUPERVISOR: dr. M. Van Dijk SECOND SUPERVISOR: dr. dr. F.L. Roig Lanzillotta 1 2 Content Augustine on Knowledge ........................................................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 4 Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 7 The life of Saint Augustine ................................................................................................................... 9 The influence of the Contra Academicos .......................................................................................... 13 Note on the quotations ........................................................................................................................ 14 1. Scepticism ........................................................................................................................................ -
Kant's Critique of Judgment and the Scientific Investigation of Matter
Kant’s Critique of Judgment and the Scientific Investigation of Matter Daniel Rothbart, Irmgard Scherer Abstract: Kant’s theory of judgment establishes the conceptual framework for understanding the subtle relationships between the experimental scientist, the modern instrument, and nature’s atomic particles. The principle of purposive- ness which governs judgment has also a role in implicitly guiding modern experimental science. In Part 1 we explore Kant’s philosophy of science as he shows how knowledge of material nature and unobservable entities is possible. In Part 2 we examine the way in which Kant’s treatment of judgment, with its operating principle of purposiveness, enters into his critical project and under- lies the possibility of rational science. In Part 3 we show that the centrality given to judgment in Kant’s conception of science provides philosophical in- sight into the investigation of atomic substances in modern chemistry. Keywords : Kant , judgment , purposiveness , experimentation , investigation of matter . Introduction Kant’s philosophy of science centers on the problem of how it is possible to acquire genuine knowledge of unobservable entities, such as atoms and molecules. “What and how much can the understanding and reason know apart from all experience?” ( CPuR , Axvii). This raises the question of the role of experiments in the knowability ( Erkennbarkeit ) and the experientiality (Erfahrbarkeit ) of nature. Kant’s insights into the character of scientific experimentation are not given the hearing they deserve. We argue that Kant’s theory of judgment establishes the conceptual framework for understanding the subtle inter- actions between the experimental chemist, the modern chemical instrument, and molecular substance. -
Introduction: Towards a Reconsideration of Neo-Kantianism Nicolas De Warren and Andrea Staiti
Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03257-6 - New Approaches to Neo-Kantianism Edited by Nicolas De Warren and Andrea Staiti Excerpt More information Introduction: towards a reconsideration of Neo-Kantianism Nicolas de Warren and Andrea Staiti In the summer of 1914, T. S. Eliot arrived in Marburg from Harvard University to attend a summer course in philosophy before taking up residency at Merton College, Oxford, for a year of study with Harold Joachim, F. H. Bradley’s successor. At the University of Marburg, Eliot met Paul Natorp, who assisted him in finding affordable accommodation and lectured in his course on philosophy. The outbreak of the First World War would cut short Eliot’s stay in Marburg, but not before he had the chance to sketch a portrait of the venerable Neo-Kantian Professor. Natorp strikes a professorial pose, one arm tucked behind his back, the other slung across his waist. With elven ears and bald cranium, the philosopher appears endearing in his otherworldliness. Natorp’s face is hidden behind oval glasses, so large that they seem to constitute a hindrance rather than an aid to seeing reality. Eliot’s sketch can be seen as a visual epitome for how Neo-Kantianism appeared to a younger generation of intellectuals and philosophers who would come of age in the aftermath of a Europe laid waste through the cataclysm of the Great War. Eliot’s amusing sketch is an apt illustration for what Hans-Georg Gadamer, who wrote his PhD dissertation on Plato under Natorp in 1922, characterized as the Neo-Kantian “calm and 1 confident aloofness” engrossed in “complacent system-building.” With slightly more bite, Hannah Arendt charged Neo-Kantianism with drown- ing philosophy “in a sea of boredom,” thereby offering a softer version of the same hostility that spirited Martin Heidegger’s confrontation with 2 Ernst Cassirer at Davos in 1929. -
Skill in Epistemology I: Skill and Knowledge
Skill in Epistemology I: Skill and Knowledge Carlotta Pavese Abstract Knowledge and skill are intimately connected. In this essay, I discuss the question of their relationship and of which (if any) is prior to which in the order of explanation. I review some of the answers that have been given thus far in the literature, with a particular focus on the many foundational issues in epistemology that intersect with the philosophy of skill. 1 Introduction Knowledge and skill are intimately connected. Scientists cannot get new knowledge without developing their skills for devising experiments. And skilled artists, scientists, and mathematicians must know a lot about their area of expertise in order to perform skillfully and routinely manifest that knowledge through their skillful performances. Despite this obvious interrelationship, knowledge and skill have received different treatment in analytic epistemology. While philosophers in this tradition have long been in the business of understanding and defining knowledge, the topic of skill has been marginalized. It is only quite recently that skills have made a powerful entrance in two epistemological debates: the debate on virtue epistemology and the debate on the nature of know how. In this essay, I discuss the question of the relationship between skill and knowledge (Section §2) and of which (if any) is prior to which in the order of explanation (Section §3), with an eye to highlighting the many foundational issues in epistemology that intersect with the philosophy of skill. In section §3, I will start discussing the relationship between skill and know how, which will be the main topic of the sequel to this essay. -
Epistemology and Philosophy of Science
OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRSTPROOFS, Wed Apr 06 2016, NEWGEN Chapter 11 Epistemology and Philosophy of Science Otávio Bueno 1 Introduction It is a sad fact of contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science that there is very little substantial interaction between the two fields. Most epistemological theo- ries are developed largely independently of any significant reflection about science, and several philosophical interpretations of science are articulated largely independently of work done in epistemology. There are occasional exceptions, of course. But the general point stands. This is a missed opportunity. Closer interactions between the two fields would be ben- eficial to both. Epistemology would gain from a closer contact with the variety of mech- anisms of knowledge generation that are produced in scientific research, with attention to sources of bias, the challenges associated with securing truly representative samples, and elaborate collective mechanisms to secure the objectivity of scientific knowledge. It would also benefit from close consideration of the variety of methods, procedures, and devices of knowledge acquisition that shape scientific research. Epistemological theories are less idealized and more sensitive to the pluralism and complexities involved in securing knowledge of various features of the world. Thus, philosophy of science would benefit, in turn, from a closer interaction with epistemology, given sophisticated conceptual frameworks elaborated to refine and characterize our understanding of knowledge, -
Theory of Knowledge in Britain from 1860 to 1950
Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication Volume 4 200 YEARS OF ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY Article 5 2008 Theory Of Knowledge In Britain From 1860 To 1950 Mathieu Marion Université du Quéebec à Montréal, CA Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/biyclc This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Marion, Mathieu (2008) "Theory Of Knowledge In Britain From 1860 To 1950," Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication: Vol. 4. https://doi.org/10.4148/biyclc.v4i0.129 This Proceeding of the Symposium for Cognition, Logic and Communication is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Theory of Knowledge in Britain from 1860 to 1950 2 The Baltic International Yearbook of better understood as an attempt at foisting on it readers a particular Cognition, Logic and Communication set of misconceptions. To see this, one needs only to consider the title, which is plainly misleading. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as one August 2009 Volume 4: 200 Years of Analytical Philosophy of the possible meanings of the word ‘revolution’: pages 1-34 DOI: 10.4148/biyclc.v4i0.129 The complete overthrow of an established government or social order by those previously subject to it; an instance of MATHIEU MARION this; a forcible substitution of a new form of government. -
5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Robert L
Contemporary Civilization (Ideas and Institutions Section XII: The osP t-Enlightenment Period of Western Man) 1958 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Robert L. Bloom Gettysburg College Basil L. Crapster Gettysburg College Harold A. Dunkelberger Gettysburg College See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/contemporary_sec12 Part of the European Languages and Societies Commons, History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Bloom, Robert L. et al. "5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism. Pt XII: The osP t-Enlightenment Period." Ideas and Institutions of Western Man (Gettysburg College, 1958), 53-69. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec12/5 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Abstract The ideas of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) are significant enough to be compared to a watershed in Western thought. In his mind were gathered up the major interests of the Enlightenment: science, epistemology, and ethics; and all of these were given a new direction which he himself described as another Copernican revolution. As Copernicus had shown that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the sun around the earth, so Kant showed that the knowing subject played an active and creative role in the production of his world picture, rather than the static and passive role which the early Enlightenment had assigned him. -
Marburg Neo-Kantianism As Philosophy of Culture
SamanthaMatherne (Santa Cruz) Marburg Neo-Kantianism as Philosophy of Culture 1Introduction Although Ernst Cassirer is correctlyregarded as one of the foremost figures in the Neo-Kantian movement thatdominated Germanyfrom 1870 – 1920,specifying ex- actlywhat his Neo-Kantianism amountstocan be achallenge. Not onlymustwe clarify what his commitments are as amember of the so-called MarburgSchool of Neo-Kantianism, but also giventhe shift between his earlyphilosophyof mathematics and naturalscience to his later philosophyofculture, we must con- sider to what extent he remained aMarburgNeo-Kantian throughout his career. With regard to the first task, it is typical to approach the MarburgSchool, which was foundedbyHermann Cohen and Paul Natorp, by wayofacontrast with the otherdominant school of Neo-Kantianism, the Southwest or Baden School, founded by Wilhelm Windelband and carried forward by Heinrich Rick- ert and Emil Lask. The going assumption is that these two schools were ‘rivals’ in the sense that the MarburgSchool focused exclusively on developing aKantian approach to mathematical natural sciences(Naturwissenschaften), while the Southwest School privileged issues relatingtonormativity and value, hence their primary focus on the humanities (Geisteswissenschaften). If one accepts this ‘scientist’ interpretation of the MarburgSchool, one is tempted to read Cas- sirer’searlywork on mathematicsand natural science as orthodoxMarburgNeo- Kantianism and to then regardhis laterwork on the philosophyofculture as a break from his predecessors, veeringcloser -
Pragmatism, Phenomenalism, and Truth Talk ROBERT BRANDOM
MIDWEST STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY, XI1 Pragmatism, Phenomenalism, and Truth Talk ROBERT BRANDOM his essay offers a rational reconstruction of the career of a certain heroic ap- Tproach to truth-the approach whose leading idea is that the special linguistic roles of truth ascriptions are to be explained in terms of features of the ascribinns of truth, rather than of what is ascrided. The explanatory emphasis placed on the act of calling something true, as opposed to its descriptive content, qualifies theories displaying this sort of strategic commitment as ‘pragmatic’theories of truth, by con- trast to ‘semantic’ ones. The starting point is an articulation of a central insight of the classical pragmatist theories of truth espoused in different versions by James and Dewey. Developing this insight in response to various objections yields a sequence of positions ending in contemporary anaphoric semantics: prosentential theories of ‘true’ and pronominal theories of ‘refers’. These theories articulate an antirealist posi- tion about truth and reference, of the sort here called ‘phenomenalist’.Insofar as the- ories of this sort offer adequate accounts of the phenomena they address, they assert relatively narrow and clearly defined limits to the explanatory ambitions of theories couched in traditional semantic vocabularies. I The popular conception of the theory of truth of classical pragmatism is summed up in the slogan ‘The truth is what works.’ According to this view, the pragmatists were trying to give a theory of truth in the sense of offering necessary and sufficient condi- tions for possession of that property. Their innovation is then seen to consist in tak- ing the possession of this property by a belief to consist in a relation not simply to what is believed, but also to what is desired. -
Phenomenology: a Philosophy and Method of Inquiry
Journal of Education and Educational Developement Discussion Phenomenology: A Philosophy and Method of Inquiry Sadruddin Bahadur Qutoshi Karakorum International University, Pakistan [email protected] Abstract Phenomenology as a philosophy and a method of inquiry is not limited to an approach to knowing, it is rather an intellectual engagement in interpretations and meaning making that is used to understand the lived world of human beings at a conscious level. Historically, Husserl’ (1913/1962) perspective of phenomenology is a science of understanding human beings at a deeper level by gazing at the phenomenon. However, Heideggerian view of interpretive-hermeneutic phenomenology gives wider meaning to the lived experiences under study. Using this approach, a researcher uses bracketing as a taken for granted assumption in describing the natural way of appearance of phenomena to gain insights into lived experiences and interpret for meaning making. The data collection and analysis takes place side by side to illumine the specific experience to identify the phenomena that is perceived by the actors in a particular situation. The outcomes of a phenomenological study broadens the mind, improves the ways of thinking to see a phenomenon, and it enables to see ahead and define researchers’ posture through intentional study of lived experiences. However, the subjectivity and personal knowledge in perceiving and interpreting it from the research participant’s point of view has been central in phenomenological studies. To achieve such an objective, phenomenology could be used extensively in social sciences. Keywords: descriptive nature, interpretative nature, method of inquiry, phenomenology, philosophy Introduction Phenomenology as a philosophy provides a theoretical guideline to researchers to understand phenomena at the level of subjective reality. -
Humanity As an Ideal and an End in Itself
1 Humanity as an Idea, as an Ideal, and as an End in Itself Introduction Kant’s emphatic division of moral philosophy into a purely rational ‘metaphysics of morals’ and a more empirically influenced ‘practical anthropology’ or ‘moral anthropology’ poses significant interpretive challenges.1 One problematic area is the role that humanity can play in a rationally derived metaphysics of morals, since human beings are not purely rational and their characteristics seem to be known partly through empirical observation. Difficult questions arise even at the level of basic moral principles, since Kant says that the Categorical Imperative is meant to be a supreme principle of morality that is ‘grounded on pure reason alone, independently of all experience’ (Kant 2002: 210; G 4.409), and yet gives humanity a central role in one version of the Categorical Imperative, saying that humanity (die Menschheit) in oneself and others must be treated as an end in itself (Kant 2002: 230; G 4.429). The concept of ‘humanity’ in this ‘humanity formulation’ of the Categorical Imperative presumably must be accessible through reason alone, if Kant is to maintain a partition between purely rational morality and empirical ‘moral anthropology’. Furthermore, even when Kant turns to the application of basic, purely rational, moral principles to human beings, he at least sometimes maintains that this resulting ‘metaphysics of morals’ must be ‘scrupulously cleansed of everything empirical’ (Kant 2002: 190; G 388). How humanity can be the central object of concern in a rational, a priori moral principle, or in a system of moral duties that applies such principles to humans through reason alone, without taking their empirically known features into account, is not obvious. -
Critique of Judgment PHI 502: Spring 2017
Critique of Judgment PHI 502: Spring 2017 Instructor Information: Course information: Instructor: Des Hogan Seminar time and location: Office: 206 Marx Hall Friday 10-12:50, Marx 201 Phone: 258-4295 Email: [email protected] Description: A study of Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790). Our topics will include Kant’s motivations for a critique of judgment; principles of ‘reflective’ and ‘determining’ judgment; theory of aesthetic judgment, including epistemology and metaphysics of the beautiful and sublime; theory of genius; teleology in the critical philosophy—including harmony of the cognitive faculties, organisms, scope and limits of mechanical explanation, physico- and ethico-theology; the relation of ethics, aesthetics and teleology. A basic familiarity with Kant’s theoretical philosophy is presupposed. Required text: Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment (Cited as KU by Akademie pagination, volume and page number, e.g. KU Ak. 5:200) I recommend the translation by Guyer and Matthews in the Cambridge University Press edition of Kant’s works (New York: CUP 2000. Paperback ISBN 0-521-34892-7) Other primary texts: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason Kant, Critique of Practical Reason Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime Kant, On the Use of Teleological Principles in Philosophy Reading Schedule: Below I append a suggested reading schedule for working through the main text. (The bracketed pagination refers to the Guyer/Matthews translation.) Additional primary and secondary readings will be made available on Blackboard as we proceed. We will be joined later in the semester by Professor Thomas Teufel (Baruch College/CUNY Graduate Center), who will lead a session on Kant and teleology.