DOCSLIB.ORG

Christian Wolff's Prolegomena to Empirical and Rational Psychology: Translation and Commentary*

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Christian Wolff's Prolegomena to Empirical and Rational Psychology: Translation and Commentary* CHRISTIAN WOLFF'S PROLEGOMENA TO EMPIRICAL AND RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY* ROBERT J. RICHARDS Assistant Professorin the History of Science and Biopsychology, University of Chicago INTRODUCTION Wolff (1679-1754), who became a leading figure Though not the first to use the term "psychology" in the German Enlightenment and a foil to Kant's 1 (psychologia), Christian Wolff did give it currency development of critical philosophy, was born in in the mid-eighteenth century. He was the first to Breslau. There he attended the Gymnasium of Mary mark off the discipline of empirical psychology and to Magdalen, where his studies focused on Scholastic distinguish it from rational, or theoretical, psychology. philosophy, natural science, and mathematics. He This distinction and his conception of the two cor- continued his education at the universities in Jena responding methods of conducting psychological in- and Leipzig, concentrating especially on mathematics, quiry, especially his emphasis on the use of introspec- philosophy, and theology. 8 In 1704 he began a cor- tion, profoundly influenced the course of psychological respondence with Leibniz on scientific issues, which 4 science during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. continued till the latter's death in 1716. Leibniz's These historical circumstances supply sufficient rea- influence brought Wolff a professorship in mathe- son for translating the two brief tracts which epito- matics and science at Halle in 1707 and membership mize Wolff's psychology, the prolegomena to his in the Berlin Academy in 1711. At Halle he lectured Psychologia empirica and Psychologia rationalis.2 on mathematics and expounded a philosophical system -an integration of Leibnizian rationalism, late * I am grateful to Richard Blackwell, Daniel Garber, and Scholasticism, and refined scientific empiricism- August Imholtz for their valuable suggestions for improv- ing the translation, and to David Leary and William Wood- ment to section 34 of his Psychologia rationalis. In the trans- ward for their advice on matters of eighteenth- and nineteenth- lations, Wolff's own explanatory notes are preceded by an century psychology. asterisk. The following abbreviationswill also be employed: 1 Rudolf Goclenius, a scholastic composer of philosophical Log: Philosophia rationalis sive Logica, methodo scientifica lexicons, seems to have been the first to have used the term pertracta et ad usum scientiarum atque vitae aptata. "psychology" (in Greek letters) ; it appeared as part of the Praeimititur Discursus praeliminaris de philosophia in title of a collection of tracts, which he edited in 1590, on genere, Francofurti et Lipsiae: 1728, 1732, 1740. the nature and origin of the human soul. Several other au- Disc. praelim.: Discursus praeliminaris de philosophia in thors prior to Wolff, including Leibniz, also used the term to genere (this part of Wolff's Log. has been translated by refer to a distinct discipline. The discipline itself, of course, Richard Blackwell: Christian Wolff, Preliminary Dis- may be traced back to Aristotle's Peri psyche and a multitude course on Philosophy in General [Indianapolis: Bobbs- of Scholastic treatises, usually carrying the title De anima. Merrill, 1963]); Jean Acole, in his introduction to the photo-reproductionof Ontol.: Philosophia prima, sive Ontologia, methodo scien- Wolff's Psychologia empirica (see next note for bibliographic tifica pertractata,qua omnis cognitionis humanaeprincipia details), lists several of the works in which the term "psy- continentur, Francofurti et Lipsiae, 1730, 1736; chologia" appeared before Wolff. Cosmol.: Cosmologia generalis, methodo scientifica per- 2 The texts used in the translation of Wolff's two prolego- tractata, qua ad solidam, inprimis Dei atque naturae, mena are: Psychologia empirica, methodo scientifica per- cognitionem via sternitur, Francofurti et Lipsiae, 1731, tractata, qua ea, quae de anima humana indubia experientiae 1737; fide constant, continentur (2nd ed.; Francofurti & Lipsiae: Vernunft. Gedank.: Vernunftige Gedankenvon den Kriaften officina libraria Rengeriana, 1738; 1st ed., 1732); and Psy- des menschlichen Verstandes und ihrem richtigen Ge- chologia rationalis, methodo scientifica pertractata, qua ea, brauche in Erkenntnis der Wahrheit, Halle, 1713. quae de anima humana indubia experientiae fide innotescunt, All of the above, except the Log., have appeared in Christian per essentiam et naturam animae explicantur (2nd ed.; Wolff, Gesammelte Werke, ed. H. Arndt and J. tcole Francofurti & Lipsiae: officina libraria Rengeriana, 1740; (Hildesheim: Olms, 1962-). The Latin volumes of the 1st ed., 1734). The second edition of these works does not Gesammelte Werke are photocopies of the final Frankfurt differ essentially from the first. The Psychologia empirica editions. was paraphrasedand abridged by an anonymous French ad- 3 Details of Wolff's early studies and career are given in mirer (A. T.) ; it appeared as Psychologie ou Traite sur the extensive compendiumof his contemporarydisciple Carl lame, par M. Wolf (Amsterdam: Schreuder& Mortier, 1756). GuintherLudovici, Ausfiihrlicher Entwurf einer vollstdndigen In the footnote commentary, I have followed Wolff's con- Historie der Wolffschen Philosophie (3 vols.; Liepzig: vention of referring to passages by the use of section num- Lowe, 1735-1738). bers: thus the citation "Psychol. empir. #142" is to the 4 C. Gerhardt has edited and published the correspondence section of his Psychologia empirica so numbered; "Psychol. in Briefwechsel zwischen Liebniz und Christian Wolff (Hilde- rat. #34 not." indicates Wolff's note of explanation and com- sheim: Olms, 1963). PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 124, NO. 3, JUNE, 1980 227 228 ROBERT J. RICHARDS [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. which finally so antagonized his Pietistic colleagues For Wolff, the essence of scientific understanding is that it secured his exile in 1723. Under ban of the ability to demonstrate propositions-that is, log- Frederick I, Wolff was given forty-eight hours to ically to derive them from definitions, axiomatic leave the country. By this time, however, his several truths, propositions already demonstrated, or pro- German works in philosophy and his tracts in mathe- positions expressing indubitable experience. In regard matics had won him considerable attention, even out- to mental science, empirical psychology is charged side his native land. To reach that wider audience, with two basic functions: to produce indefeasibly he began elaborating his complete system of philo- certain experience, on the basis of which propositions sophic science in a series of Latin volumes done concerning the nature of mind can be demonstrated; largely in the Scholastic style, starting with Philo- and by the same means, to furnish experiential cor- sophia rationalis sive Logica in 1728 and continuing roboration for deductive conclusions. That empirical with works in cosmology, psychology, natural theol- psychology can yield such experience in the perform- ogy, ethics, mathematics, mechanics, optics, astron- ance of these functions is insured by Wolff's assump- omy, and other sciences. His Psychologia empirica tion that apperception is involved in every cognition of appeared in 1732 and in a revised edition in 1738; his objects and events. 9 He is thus confident that through Psychologia rationalis also went through two editions, careful attention to our perceptions, we can have in 1734 and 1740. In 1740 Frederick II recalled veridical experience of the mind's activity. 10 Wolff from Marburg, where he taught during his In complementary fashion, rational psychology pro- exile, and appointed him professor of law at Halle. ceeds a priori and deductively to demonstrate truths In 1743 Wolff became rector of the University and about the mind. The concepts and propositions in 1745 a baron of the Holy Roman Empire. He which it uses are derived from more fundamental dis- remained at Halle until his death at age seventy-five. ciplines-physics, metaphysics, and empirical psychol- The principal subject of Wolff's empirical psychol- ogy. Because of its a priori and deductive character, ogy, as well as his rational psychology, is mind (or rational psychology for Wolff comes closer than soul) and its activities. The two disciplines of psy- empirical psychology to realizing the ideal of science chology, in his construction, are distinguished chiefly as a set of ordered propositions, of which the ante- by their methods. Empirical psychology, while not cedent provide sufficient reasons for the consequent. neglecting observations of external behavior, has as Moreover, in his view, rational psychology is able to its primary method the mind's direct introspection penetrate further than empirical psychology, because of its own activities, either by catching on the wing not all features of mind are immediately accessible its normal operations or by contriving experiments in through direct introspection. There is, however, a order to elicit particular acts. Wolff details two sets price to be paid for speculative extension-rational of assumptions, one regarding the structure of per- psychology is less certain. Long chains of reasoning ceptual experience and the other its certitude, that invite mistakes. Here empirical psychology has the make the introspective method of empirical psychol- advantage, for it keeps the mind in contact with the ogy possible. immediate data of mental facts. According to Wolff, perception is an act of the In
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Agnosticism: Kant W
    Liberty University DigitalCommons@Liberty University Faculty Publications and Presentations School of Religion 1981 Agnosticism: Kant W. David Beck Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Epistemology Commons, Esthetics Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Beck, W. David, "Agnosticism: Kant" (1981). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 160. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/160 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Religion at DigitalCommons@Liberty University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Liberty University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AGNOSTICISM: KANT W. David Beck W. Davzd Beck is Associate Professor of Phzlosophy and Chatrman of the Philosophy Department, Liberty Baptist College, Lynchburg, Vzrgznia. A graduate of Houghton College (B.S.), Trzmty Evangelical Divimty School (M.A.), and Boston University (Ph.D.), he also did graduate work at the Unwersity of Rhode Island. Beszdes a review article, "Is God Lost?" zn Christianity Today, he has written a chapter, "A Letter of Bugenhagen to Luther," zn Principalities and Powers, edzted by}. W. Montgomery. Dr. Beck is a member of the American Philosophical AssociatIOn and the Evangelical Philosophical Soczety. L 3 W. David Beck AGNOSTICISM: KANT CHAPTER SUMMARY This chapter identifies the results of Kant's philosophical system on the THERE IS FAIR agreement among historians of thought contemporary discussion concerning an inerrant revelation.
    [Show full text]
  • Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics CAMBRIDGE TEXTS in the HISTORY of PHILOSOPHY
    CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY IMMANUEL KANT Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Series editors KARL AMERIKS Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame DESMOND M. CLARKE Professor of Philosophy at University College Cork The main objective of Cambridge Textsin the History of Philosophy is to expand the range, variety and quality of texts in the history of philosophy which are available in English. The series includes texts by familiar names (such as Descartes and Kant) and also by less well-known authors. Wherever possible, texts are published in complete and unabridged form, and translations are specially commissioned for the series. Each volume contains a critical introduction together with a guide to further reading and any necessary glossaries and textual apparatus. The volumes are designed for student use at undergraduate and postgraduate level and will be of interest not only to students of philosophy, but also to a wider audience of readers in the history of science, the history of theology and the history of ideas. For a list of titles published in the series, please see end of book. IMMANUEL KANT Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science with Selections from the Critique of Pure Reason TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY GARY HATFIELD University of Pennsylvania Revised Edition cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521828246 © Cambridge University Press 1997, 2004 This publication is in copyright.
    [Show full text]
  • Metaphysics in Königsberg Prior to Kant (1703-1770)
    METAPHYSICS IN KÖNIGSBERG PRIOR TO KANT (1703-1770) Marco SGARBI* ABSTRACT: The present contribute aims to reconstruct, using the methodology of intellectual history, the broad spectrum of metaphysical doctrines that Kant could know during the years of the formation of his philosophy. The first part deals with the teaching of metaphysics in Königsberg from 1703 to 1770. The second part examines the main characteristics of the metaphysics in the various handbooks, which were taught at the Albertina, in order to have an exhaustive overview of all metaphysical positions. KEYWORDS: Metaphysics. Eclecticism. Wolffianism. Aristotelianism. Kant. Königsberg. Quellengeschichte. 1 Introduction The Kant-Forschung has never paid a lot of attention to the reconstruction of the Kantian philosophy beginning from the cultural background of Königsberg’s university. Working on Königsberg’s framework * Marco Sgarbi studies Kantian philosophy, German Enlightenment, and the history of Aristotelian tradition. He has published the following books: La Kritik der reinen Vernunft nel contesto della tradizione logica aristotelica (Olms, 2010) Logica e metafisica nel Kant precritico. L’ambiente intellettuale di Königsberg e la formazione della filosofia kantiana (Peter Lang, 2010); La logica dell’irrazionale. Studio sul significato e sui problemi della Kritik der Urteilskraft (Mimesis, 2010). He has published more than ten volumes and he has published in «Rivista di Storia della Filosofia», «Rivista di Filosofia Neo-scolastica», «Medioevo», «Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte», and «Fenomenologia e Società». Trans/Form/Ação, Marília, v.33, n.1, p.31-64, 2010 31 does not mean to deal with Kant’s biography, but to understand if and how the cultural context, in which he grew up, had influenced his philosophical perspectives particularly in the metaphysical field.
    [Show full text]
  • Logical Normativity and Rational Agency—Reassessing Locke's
    Proof. See JHP published version for reference. Logical Normativity and Rational Agency—Reassessing Locke’s Relation to Logic HUAPING LU-ADLER* abstract A substantive body of literature has been dedicated to explaining Locke’s crucial role in the development of a new logic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, commonly referred to as the “logic of ideas” or “facultative logic.” I examine Locke’s relation to logic from a different angle. I focus on two philosophical issues that permeate his remarks about logic in various texts. One is about what grounds the alleged authority of putative logical rules. The other concerns the relation between logic and the psychology of reasoning. These issues are not only historically signifi- cant but also continuous with an ongoing modern discourse in philosophy of logic. key words agency, Locke, logic, normativity, syllogism 1 . introduction There is an exegetical quandary when it comes to interpreting Locke’s relation to logic. On the one hand, over the last few decades a substantive amount of literature has been dedicated to explaining Locke’s crucial role in the development of a new logic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. John Yolton names this new logic the “logic of ideas,” while James Buickerood calls it “facultative logic.”1 Either way, Locke’s Essay is supposedly its “most outspoken specimen” or “culmination.”2 Call this reading the ‘New Logic interpretation.’ On the other hand, from the typical standpoint of a philosopher accustomed to the modern (Boolean-Fregean) conception of logic, whatever Locke—indeed, whatever most of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophers—had to 1Yolton, “Logic of Ideas”; Buickerood, “Facultative Logic.” Also: Stephen Gaukroger, Cartesian Logic; Peter Schouls, Reasoned Freedom, 22–25; Frederick Michael, “Epistemology”; Paul Schuurman, Ideas; and Hannah Dawson, Locke, 21–22.
    [Show full text]
  • Goodbye, Kant!
    1 Kant’s revolution1 Why start a revolution When he died at the age of eighty on the February 12, 1804, Kant was as forgetful as Ronald Reagan was at the end of his life.2 To overcome this, he wrote everything down on a large sheet of paper, on which metaphysical reflections are mixed in with laundry bills. He was the melancholy parody of what Kant regarded as the highest principle of his own philosophy, namely that an “I think” must accompany every representation or that there is a single world for the self that perceives it, that takes account of it, that remembers it, and that determines it through the categories. This is an idea that had done the rounds under various guises in philosophy before Kant, but he crucially transformed it. The reference to subjectivity did not conflict with objectivity, but rather made it possible inasmuch as the self is not just a disorderly bundle of sensations but a principle of order endowed with two pure forms of intuition—those of space and time—and with twelve categories—among which “substance” and “cause”—that constitute the real sources of what we call “objectivity.” The Copernican revolution to which Kant nailed his philosophical colors thus runs as follows: “Instead of asking what things are like in themselves, we should ask how they must be if they are to be known by us.”3 It is still worth asking why Kant should have undertaken so heroic and dangerous a task and why he, a docile subject of the enlightened despot the King of Prussia, to whom he had once even dedicated a poem,4 should have had to start a revolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology David E
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Psychology Faculty Publications Psychology 1982 Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology David E. Leary University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/psychology-faculty- publications Part of the Theory and Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Leary, David E. "Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology." In The Problematic Science: Psychology in Nineteenth- Century Thought, edited by William Ray Woodward and Mitchell G. Ash, 17-42. New York, NY: Praeger, 1982. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology David E. Leary Few thinkers in the history of Western civilization have had as broad and lasting an impact as Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). This "Sage of Konigsberg" spent his entire life within the confines of East Prussia, but his thoughts traveled freely across Europe and, in time, to America, where their effects are still apparent. An untold number of analyses and commentaries have established Kant as a preeminent epistemologist, philosopher of science, moral philosopher, aestheti­ cian, and metaphysician. He is even recognized as a natural historian and cosmologist: the author of the so-called Kant-Laplace hypothesis regarding the origin of the universe. He is less often credited as a "psychologist," "anthropologist," or "philosopher of mind," to Work on this essay was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No.
    [Show full text]
  • Agnosticism: Kant
    Scholars Crossing SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations 1981 Agnosticism: Kant W. David Beck Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Epistemology Commons, Esthetics Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Beck, W. David, "Agnosticism: Kant" (1981). SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations. 160. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/160 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AGNOSTICISM: KANT W. David Beck W. Davzd Beck is Associate Professor of Phzlosophy and Chatrman of the Philosophy Department, Liberty Baptist College, Lynchburg, Vzrgznia. A graduate of Houghton College (B.S.), Trzmty Evangelical Divimty School (M.A.), and Boston University (Ph.D.), he also did graduate work at the Unwersity of Rhode Island. Beszdes a review article, "Is God Lost?" zn Christianity Today, he has written a chapter, "A Letter of Bugenhagen to Luther," zn Principalities and Powers, edzted by}. W. Montgomery. Dr. Beck is a member of the American Philosophical AssociatIOn and the Evangelical Philosophical Soczety. L 3 W. David Beck AGNOSTICISM: KANT CHAPTER SUMMARY This chapter identifies the results of Kant's philosophical system on the THERE IS FAIR agreement among historians of thought contemporary discussion concerning an inerrant revelation.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Sally Sedgwick Excerpt More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-60416-1 - Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: An Introduction Sally Sedgwick Excerpt More information CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1. KANT’s LIFE: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), a major trading port on the Baltic Sea in what was then East Prussia. He was the fourth of nine children of a master 1 harness-maker. His parents were devout observers of the Protestant 2 sect known as Pietism. Although his mother died when he was only thirteen, she had a profound impact on his life. She recognized his special gifts early on and encouraged their development. As Kant wrote in a letter, she “awakened and broadened” his ideas, and 3 “implanted and nurtured” in him the “first seed of the good.” From the age of eight to sixteen years Kant attended the Collegium Fridericianum, a Pietist school dedicated to the instruction of mathe- matics, history, geometry, and, above all, Latin. Although he enjoyed studying Latin as well as Greek at the Collegium, he described his 1 Manfred Kuehn. Kant: A Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 28. Uwe Schultz claims that Kant was the fourth of eleven children, in Immanuel Kant (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 2003), p. 7. 2 Pietism was a Protestant movement founded in the mid-seventeenth century to protest the highly scholastic and creed-bound form of Lutheranism at that time in Germany. Pietists emphasized good works over worldly success, and the importance of one’s personal devotional life over public displays of faith.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 This Is the Penultimate Version of the Essay. for the Final Version, Please See Brandon Look (Ed.), the Continuum Companion To
    This is the penultimate version of the essay. For the final version, please see Brandon Look (ed.), The Continuum Companion to Leibniz, London/New York: Thoemmes Continuum Press (2011), 289–309. KANT, THE LEIBNIZIANS, AND LEIBNIZ Anja Jauernig, University of Pittsburgh 1. Introduction It is clear that Leibniz’s philosophy was very important for Kant. This importance is reflected, for example, in the number of Kant’s explicit references to Leibniz. He is the most mentioned philosopher in Kant’s corpus overall.1 What is much less clear is in what ways Leibniz was important for Kant, and how exactly the relation between Leibniz’s and Kant’s philosophy should be understood. The historian of philosophy who is trying to clarify this relation is faced with various kinds of difficulties. To begin with, it is not easy to determine which of Leibniz’s own writings Kant had access to, and even less easy to say which of them he actually read. More generally, in Kant’s treatment of broadly speaking Leibnizian themes his sources and targets are often unclear. Is his discussion aimed at Leibniz himself, or at later Leibnizians (broadly conceived)? If we hope to understand Kant’s relation to Leibniz, we have no choice but also to investigate Kant’s relation to these later Leibnizians, and their relations to Leibniz. This reveals yet another difficulty. Which later Leibnizians are we to examine in this context? Some obvious candidates directly come to mind: Christian Wolff (1679–1754), the most well-known philosopher in early eighteenth-century Germany; Conrad Gottlieb Marquardt (1694–1749) and Martin Knutzen (1713–1751), Kant’s teachers in Königsberg; and Friedrich Christian Baumeister (1709–1785), Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762), Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777), and Johann 1 More precisely, a computer count returns 495 hits for Leibniz in all of Kant’s writings (excluding the lecture notes).
    [Show full text]
  • Eric Watkins, Ed. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source
    Philosophy in Review XXXI (2011), no. 2 Eric Watkins, ed. Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials. Trans. by Eric Watkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2009. 410 pages US$92.00 (cloth ISBN 978-0-521-78162-6); US$28.99 (paper ISBN 978-0-521-78701-7) Eric Watkins’ Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials fills a gaping hole in the English resources previously available to Kant scholars. This volume contains English translations from the original German, French, and Latin texts of influential eighteenth-century thinkers who impacted the development of Kant’s thought— especially as it progressed toward the production of the Critique of Pure Reason. This work complements Brigitte Sassen’s collection of translated works, Kant’s Early Critics: The Empiricist Critique of the Theoretical Philosophy (2000). In contrast to Sassen, Watkins acquaints us with the philosophical sources that inspired Kant himself. Familiarity with the issues and arguments in the actual texts of the philosophers of Kant’s time deepens our appreciation of what is distinctive about his own arguments (2). Watkins’ ample editorial notes cite relevant sections of Kant’s first Critique and pre- Critical writings. A useful concordance of these references is also provided. Each of the nine chapters includes translations of selections from one or more primary texts, in lucid English style, and concise but substantive introductions to the authors’ lives and works. The selections from Christian Wolff, Martin Knutzen and Alexander Baumgarten, representative of the period from 1720 to 1740, exemplify various forms of the Leibnizian rationalist metaphysical system that Kant targets in the first Critique.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant on History 1St Edition Pdf Free Download
    KANT ON HISTORY 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Immanuel Kant | 9780023078606 | | | | | Kant On History 1st edition PDF Book Main article: Political philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Article Contents. Since things in themselves are unknowable, I can never look to them to get evidence that I possess transcendental freedom. Finally, in the second half of Critique of the Power of Judgment , Kant discusses the philosophical foundations of biology by way of an analysis of teleological judgments. The peculiar thing about these ideas of reason is that reason is led by its very structure to posit objects corresponding to these ideas. In other words, we filter what we see and hear. Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Vol. According to Kant, the ultimate aim of a rational moral agent should be to become perfectly moral. Kant's Aesthetic. Positions Aesthetics Formalism Institutionalism Aesthetic response. The mark of immorality, then, is that one makes an exception for oneself. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim , p. Kant argued that the rational order of the world as known by science was not just the accidental accumulation of sense perceptions. Kant is best known for his work in the philosophy of ethics and metaphysics, [24] but he made significant contributions to other disciplines. From the early s onward, Kant was regarded by the coming generation of philosophers as having overthrown all previous systems and as having opened up a whole new philosophical vista. Sammlung einiger bisher unbekannt gebliebener kleiner Schriften. And according to the Third Analogy which presupposes the first two , all substances stand in relations of reciprocal interaction with each other. If they were, how come no one discovered this exact moral law before when Kant wrote the Groundwork? JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant and the Enlightenment
    Kant and The Enlightenment Antonio Pele Assistant Professor in Legal Philosophy Universidad Carlos III de Madrid [email protected] Published in: Philosophical and humanistic postmodern views : international scientific conference : Iasi,̧ 21st of May – 3rd of June 2012 / coord.: Ana Caras, Elena Unguru. - Iasi̧ : Lumen, 2012 ISBN 978-973-166-336-4, pp. 493-506 Abstract This paper aims to understand Kant’s conception of Enlightenment and, in particular the idea of “Sapere Aude” (dare to think for yourself), described in his article published in 1784 An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment ? where he defines pre-enlightened people as living in a self-imposed “minority”. In the first part of the article, I will develop this notion, along with a process of domestication of human beings. In the second part, I will examine the solutions proposed to overcome this situation, with particular emphasis on the development by the State, of the so-called “public use of reason”. Key-words Kant, Enlightenment, Sapere Aude, Reason, Philosophy 1 Introduction Kant’s ideas on the Enlightenment are especially prevalent in his well-known article “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” published in the Berlinishe Monatsschrift (a monthly journal published in Berlin) in December of 1784. As its title indicates, it is an answer to a question that the reverend Zöllner posed one year earlier in the same journal. For Foucault, Kant’s article will have important consequences in relation to modern philosophy, not only for its attempt to define the Enlightenment, but most importantly for connecting philosophy to its present and for being “at the crossroads of critical reflection and reflection on history.
    [Show full text]