German Idealism by Espen Hammer
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Analytic Philosophy and the Fall and Rise of the Kant–Hegel Tradition
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87272-0 - Analytic Philosophy and the Return of Hegelian Thought Paul Redding Excerpt More information INTRODUCTION: ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE FALL AND RISE OF THE KANT–HEGEL TRADITION Should it come as a surprise when a technical work in the philosophy of language by a prominent analytic philosopher is described as ‘an attempt to usher analytic philosophy from its Kantian to its Hegelian stage’, as has 1 Robert Brandom’s Making It Explicit? It can if one has in mind a certain picture of the relation of analytic philosophy to ‘German idealism’. This particular picture has been called analytic philosophy’s ‘creation myth’, and it was effectively established by Bertrand Russell in his various accounts of 2 the birth of the ‘new philosophy’ around the turn of the twentieth century. It was towards the end of 1898 that Moore and I rebelled against both Kant and Hegel. Moore led the way, but I followed closely in his foot- steps. I think that the first published account of the new philosophy was 1 As does Richard Rorty in his ‘Introduction’ to Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, with introduction by Richard Rorty and study guide by Robert Brandom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 8–9. 2 The phrase is from Steve Gerrard, ‘Desire and Desirability: Bradley, Russell, and Moore Versus Mill’ in W. W. Tait (ed.), Early Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein (Chicago: Open Court, 1997): ‘The core of the myth (which has its origins in Russell’s memories) is that with philosophical argument aided by the new logic, Russell and Moore slew the dragon of British Idealism ...An additional aspect is that the war was mainly fought over two related doctrines of British Idealism ...The first doctrine is an extreme form of holism: abstraction is always falsification. -
Mentalism Versus Behaviourism in Economics: a Philosophy-Of-Science
Mentalism versus behaviourism in economics: aphilosophy-of-scienceperspective⇤ Franz Dietrich Christian List CNRS & University of East Anglia London School of Economics 18 November 2012 Abstract Behaviourism is the view that preferences, beliefs, and other mental states in social- scientific theories are nothing but constructs re-describing people’s behavioural dis- positions. Mentalism is the view that they capture real phenomena, no less existent than the unobservable entities and properties in the natural sciences, such as elec- trons and electromagnetic fields. While behaviourism has long gone out of fashion in psychology and linguistics, it remains influential in economics, especially in ‘re- vealed preference’ theory. We aim to (i) clear up some common confusions about the two views, (ii) situate the debate in a historical context, and (iii) defend a men- talist approach to economics. Setting aside normative concerns about behaviourism, we show that mentalism is in line with best scientific practice even if economics is treated as a purely positive science of economic behaviour. We distinguish men- talism from, and reject, the radical neuroeconomic view that behaviour should be explained in terms of people’s brain processes, as distinct from their mental states. 1 Introduction Economic theory seeks to explain the social and economic behaviour of human (and sometimes other) agents.1 It usually does so by (i) ascribing, at least in an ‘as if’ mode, ⇤This paper was presented at the LSE Choice Group workshop on ‘Rationalizability and Choice’, July 2011, the D-TEA workshop, Paris, July 2012, and the EIPE seminar, Rotterdam, September 2012. We are grateful to the participants and especially Nick Baigent, Walter Bossert, Richard Bradley, Mika¨el Cozic, Eddie Dekel, Ido Erev, Itzhak Gilboa, Conrad Heilmann, Johannes Himmelreich, Marco Mariotti, Friederike Mengel, Clemens Puppe, Larry Samuelson, David Schmeidler, Asli Selim, Daniel Stoljar, Kotaro Suzumura, and Peter Wakker for comments and discussion. -
Kant, Lonergan, and Fichte on the Critique of Immediacy and the Epistemology of Constraint in Human Knowing
Fordham University Kant, Lonergan, and Fichte on the Critique of Immediacy and the Epistemology of Constraint in Human Knowing Michael Baur ABSTRACT: One of the defining characteristics of Kant’s “critical philosophy” is what has been called the “critique of immediacy” or the rejection of the “myth of the given.” According to the Kantian position, no object can count as an object for a human knower apart from the knower’s own activity or spontaneity. That is, no object can count as an object for a human knower on the basis of the object’s givenness alone. But this gives rise to a problem: how is it possible to accept the Kantian critique of immediacy while also giving an epistemologically adequate account of the constrained or finite character of human knowing (i.e., an account that does not rely on some appeal to what is simply “given”)? This paper examines how this crucial question is addressed (with more or less success) in the “critical philosophies” of Kant, Lonergan, and Fichte. INTRODUCTION CCORDING TO KANT’S “critique of immediacy,” an object cannot count as Aan object for a human knower, apart from the knower’s own spontaneous, intelligent activity in questioning, understanding, interpreting, and judging. In the wake of Kant’s critique, many philosophers have sought to address epistemologi- cal issues in terms of the “constraint” that must be understood as rendering such activity limited and finite.1 A crucial question thus becomes: how is it possible to accept the Kantian critique of immediacy and its corresponding emphasis on activ- ity, while also giving an adequate account of the constrained or finite character of human knowing? 1Thus Johann Gottlieb Fichte held that one of the primary tasks of philosophy was to give an account of the feeling of constraint or necessity that accompanies some of our representations, but not others. -
Notes on Peirce's Semiotics and Epistemology
DIAGRAMMATIC THINKING: NOTES ON PEIRCE’S SEMIOTICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY Luis Radford In this paper, I discuss the role of diagrammatic thinking within the larger context of cognitive activity as framed by Peirce’s semiotic theory of and its underpinning realistic ontology. After a short overview of Kant’s scepticism in its historical context, I examine Peirce’s attempt to rescue perception as a way to reconceptualize the Kantian “manifold of senses”. I argue that Peirce’s redemption of perception led him to a se- ries of problems that are as fundamental as those that Kant encountered. I contend that the understanding of the difficulties of Peirce’s epistemol- ogy allows us to better grasp the limits and possibilities of diagrammatic thinking. Keywords: Culture; Diagrammatic thinking; Kant; Peirce; Perception; Semiotics Pensamiento Diagramático: Notas sobre la Semiótica y la Epistemología de Peirce En este artículo se discute el papel que desempeña el concepto de pen- samiento diagramático en el contexto de la actividad cognitiva, tal y como es concebida dentro del marco de la teoría semiótica de Peirce y su subyacente ontología realista. Luego de presentar una visión general del escepticismo kantiano en su contexto histórico, se examina el esfuer- zo de Peirce por rescatar la percepción, esfuerzo que lo lleva a indagar de manera innovadora el “multiespacio de los sentidos” del que habla- ba Kant. Se mantiene que este esfuerzo lleva a Peirce a una serie de problemas que son tan fundamentales como los que Kant encontró en su propio itinerario epistemológico. Se sostiene que la comprensión de las dificultades intrínsecas a la epistemología de Peirce nos permite cernir mejor los límites y posibilidades de su pensamiento diagramático. -
Introduction 1 What Motivated Hegel's Philosophical Project?
Notes Introduction 1 . PH 472. 1 What Motivated Hegel’s Philosophical Project? 1 . In recent decades, several important attempts have been made to fill this lacuna – the absence of a post-Kantian schema – the most salient of which has been that of Henrich (1982, 1991, 2003), who revisits the story of the genesis of German Idealism. See too Horstmann (1991). 2 . The English-speaking world has of late experienced a resurgence of interest in German Idealism, especially Hegel, attested to by the numerous books and articles on the subject published over the past decade. Although these studies are far from monolithic, we can safely say, without fear of over-simplification, that the interpretations offered tend to see Hegel’s philosophy as the culmi- nation of Kant’s epistemological project. See Pippin (1997, 6); Pinkard (1994, 230). 3 . Let me pre-empt a possible misunderstanding. The rupture thesis does not, of course, seek to claim that German Idealism is altogether free of Kantian influ- ence, which would be absurd. The rupture thesis can also be formulated as follows: Kant is the source of the problem of Kantian dualism, and its solution requires total rejection of his philosophy, which must be supplanted by a new philosophical program. 4 . For a thorough defense of the philosophical importance of this question, see Düsing (1983); Pippin (1989); Henrich (1991); Horstmann (1991). 5 . This route is also chosen both by those who seek to show that German Idealism provides insight only into highly speculative epistemological or ontological questions, a claim that is patently indefensible, and by those who seek to show how Idealism sheds profound light on the flaws of the philosophy of subjectivity, and on how accepting the suggested remedy will render the theo- retical position espoused by German Idealism less vulnerable to critique. -
Hegel and the Metaphysical Frontiers of Political Theory
Copyrighted material - provided by Taylor & Francis Eric Goodfield. American University Beirut. 23/09/2014 Hegel and the Metaphysical Frontiers of Political Theory For over 150 years G.W.F. Hegel’s ghost has haunted theoretical understanding and practice. His opponents first, and later his defenders, have equally defined their programs against and with his. In this way Hegel’s political thought has both situated and displaced modern political theorizing. This book takes the reception of Hegel’s political thought as a lens through which contemporary methodological and ideological prerogatives are exposed. It traces the nineteenth- century origins of the positivist revolt against Hegel’s legacy forward to political science’s turn away from philosophical tradition in the twentieth century. The book critically reviews the subsequent revisionist trend that has eliminated his metaphysics from contemporary considerations of his political thought. It then moves to re- evaluate their relation and defend their inseparability in his major work on politics: the Philosophy of Right. Against this background, the book concludes with an argument for the inherent meta- physical dimension of political theorizing itself. Goodfield takes Hegel’s recep- tion, representation, as well as rejection in Anglo-American scholarship as a mirror in which its metaphysical presuppositions of the political are exception- ally well reflected. It is through such reflection, he argues, that we may begin to come to terms with them. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and readers of polit- ical theory and philosophy, Hegel, metaphysics and the philosophy of the social sciences. Eric Lee Goodfield is Visiting Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. -
Peirce's Theory of Communication and Its Contemporary Relevance
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen Peirce’s Theory of Communication and Its Contemporary Relevance Introduction The mobile era of electronic communication has created a huge semi- otic system, constructed out of triadic components envisaged by the American scientist and philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914), such as icons, indices and symbols, and signs, objects and interpretants. Iconic signs bear a physical resemblance to what they represent. Indices point at something and say “there!”, and symbols signify objects by conven- tions of a community.1 All signs give rise to interpretants in the minds of the interpreters. It is nonetheless regrettable that the somewhat simplistic triadic ex- posé of Peirce’s theory of signs has persisted in semiotics as the some- how exhaustive and final description of what Peirce intended. The more fascinating and richer structure of signs emerging from their intimate relation to intercommunication and interaction (Peirce’s terms) has been noted much less frequently. Despite this shortcoming, the full Peircean road to inquiry – per- formed by the dynamic community of learning inquirers, or the com- 1 In fact, according to Peirce (2.278 [1895]): “The only way of directly communi- cating an idea is by means of an icon; and every indirect method of communicating an idea must depend for its establishment upon the use of an icon.” Peirce’s chef d’œuvre came shortly after these remarks into being as his diagrammatic system of existential graphs, a thoroughly iconic representation of and a way of reasoning about “moving pictures of thought”, which encompassed not only propositional and predicate logic, but also modalities, higher-order notions, abstraction and category-theoretic notions. -
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. -
Post-Continental Philosophy: Its Definition, Contours, and Fundamental Sources
Post-continental Philosophy: Its Definition, Contours, and Fundamental Sources NELSON MALDONADO-TORRES It is no accident that the global geographical framework in use today is essentially a cartographic celebration of European power. After centuries of imperialism, the presumptions of a worldview of a once-dominant metropole has become part of the intellectual furniture of the world…. Metageography matters, and the attempt to engage it critically has only begun. Martin W. Lewis and Kären W. Wigen, The Myth of Continents.1 or several decades now the contours of legitimate philosophy have been drawn by advocates of F so-called analytic and continental philosophies. Analytic philosophy is often referred to as a style of thinking centered on the question of whether something is true, rather than, as continental philosophy, on the multiple factors that constitute meaning.2 Analytic philosophy is also said to be closer to the sciences, while continental philosophy has more affinity with the humanities.3 One of the reasons for this lies in that while analytic philosophy tends to dismiss history from its reflections, continental philosophy typically emphasizes the relevance of time, tradition, lived experience, and/or social context. Fortunately, this situation is slowly but gradually changing today. A variety of intellectuals are defying the rigid boundaries of these fields. Some of the most notable are Afro- American, Afro-Caribbean, and Latina/o scholars using the arsenal of these bodies of thought to analyze and interpret problems related to colonialism, racism, and sexism in the contemporary world.4 These challenges demand a critical analysis of the possibilities and limits of change within the main coordinates of these different styles or forms of philosophizing. -
Schelling: Understanding German Idealism
SCHELLING Understanding German Idealism ◊ by Michael Tsarion Copyright ©2016 Unslaved Media. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the publisher's permission. First Kindle Edition, July 2016 DEDICATIONS This book is dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Eduard von Hartmann, Jacob Bohme, Meister Eckhart, Nicholas Cusanus, George Berkeley, William Blake, Rudolf Steiner, Wilhelm Reich, Gustave Le Bon, Ayn Rand, Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Otto Rank. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Chris for technical support. To Bryan Magee. To Alan for being a good teacher way back then. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. The Problem of Idealism 2. Back to the Mirror 3. The Freedom of Man 4. The Existential Trinity 5. The Fall of Albion 6. Nothing Higher Than Beauty 7. The Absolute Idealism of Hegel About Author INTRODUCTION Great things are done when men and mountains meet – William Blake I first began studying academic philosophy at a community college in Belfast in 1987. Although I did not take the classes to matriculate, my interest in Western philosophy, which had always been sincere, was enhanced considerably. We were fortunate to have a captivating tutor, a very rare thing in Northern Ireland in those days. Unlike ordinary school we were permitted to wear our own clothes rather than uniforms and even allowed to go about the college smoking. It was a barely bearable experience, but mission accomplished I activated my little grey cells and learned many interesting things. -
APA NEWSLETTER on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies
NEWSLETTER | The American Philosophical Association Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies SPRING 2020 VOLUME 19 | NUMBER 2 FROM THE GUEST EDITOR Ben Hammer The Timeliness of Translating Chinese Philosophy: An Introduction to the APA Newsletter Special Issue on Translating Chinese Philosophy ARTICLES Roger T. Ames Preparing a New Sourcebook in Classical Confucian Philosophy Tian Chenshan The Impossibility of Literal Translation of Chinese Philosophical Texts into English Dimitra Amarantidou, Daniel Sarafinas, and Paul J. D’Ambrosio Translating Today’s Chinese Masters Edward L. Shaughnessy Three Thoughts on Translating Classical Chinese Philosophical Texts Carl Gene Fordham Introducing Premodern Text Translation: A New Field at the Crossroads of Sinology and Translation Studies SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND INFORMATION VOLUME 19 | NUMBER 2 SPRING 2020 © 2020 BY THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION ISSN 2155-9708 APA NEWSLETTER ON Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies BEN HAMMER, GUEST EDITOR VOLUME 19 | NUMBER 2 | SPRING 2020 Since most of us reading this newsletter have at least a FROM THE GUEST EDITOR vague idea of what Western philosophy is, we must understand that to then learn Chinese philosophy is truly The Timeliness of Translating Chinese to reinvent the wheel. It is necessary to start from the most basic notions of what philosophy is to be able to understand Philosophy: An Introduction to the APA what Chinese philosophy is. Newsletter Special Issue on Translating In the West, religion is religion and philosophy is Chinese Philosophy philosophy. In China, this line does not exist. For China and its close East Asian neighbors, Confucianism has guided Ben Hammer the social and spiritual lives of people for thousands of EDITOR, JOURNAL OF CHINESE HUMANITIES years in the same way the Judeo-Christian tradition has [email protected] guided people in the West. -
Publications for Paul Redding 2020 2019 2017 2016 2015
Publications for Paul Redding 2020 href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2019.1611079">[Mor Redding, P. (2020). Being the rope in a tug of war: M�rkus e Information]</a> and Rorty as readers of Hegel in the �70s, �80s and Redding, P. (2019). The Role of Philosophy in "Post-Truth" �90s. Thesis Eleven, 160(1), 22-33. <a Times. In Paolo Diego Bubbio, Jeff Malpas (Eds.), Why href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0725513620960008">[More Philosophy?, (pp. 81-101). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. Information]</a> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110650990- Redding, P. (2020). Hegel and Recent Analytic Metaphysics. 009">[More Information]</a> In Marina F. Bykova, Kenneth R. Westphal (Eds.), The Redding, P. (2019). Time and Modality in Hegel's Account of Palgrave Hegel Handbook, (pp. 521-539). Cham: Palgrave Judgement. In Brian Ball and Christoph Schuringa (Eds.), The Macmillan. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030- Act and Object of Judgment: Historical and Philosophical 26597-7_26">[More Information]</a> Perspectives, (pp. 91-109). New York: Routledge. <a Redding, P. (2020). The "Pittsburgh" Neo-Hegelianism of href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429435317-5">[More Robert Brandom and John McDowell. In Marina F. Bykova, Information]</a> Kenneth R. Westphal (Eds.), The Palgrave Hegel Handbook, (pp. 559-571). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. <a 2017 href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26597-7_28">[More Redding, P. (2017). Aristotelian Master and Stoic Slave: From Information]</a> Epistemic Assimilation to Cognitive Transformation. In Rachel 2019 Zuckert, James Kreines (Eds.), Hegel on Philosophy in History, (pp.