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KANT’S THEORETICAL CONCEPTION OF GOD Yaron Noam Hoffer Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, September 2017 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _________________________________________ Allen W. Wood, Ph.D. (Chair) _________________________________________ Sandra L. Shapshay, Ph.D. _________________________________________ Timothy O'Connor, Ph.D. _________________________________________ Michel Chaouli, Ph.D 15 September, 2017 ii Copyright © 2017 Yaron Noam Hoffer iii To Mor, who let me make her ends mine and made my ends hers iv Acknowledgments God has never been an important part of my life, growing up in a secular environment. Ironically, only through Kant, the ‘all-destroyer’ of rational theology and champion of enlightenment, I developed an interest in God. I was drawn to Kant’s philosophy since the beginning of my undergraduate studies, thinking that he got something right in many topics, or at least introduced fruitful ways of dealing with them. Early in my Graduate studies I was struck by Kant’s moral argument justifying belief in God’s existence. While I can’t say I was convinced, it somehow resonated with my cautious but inextricable optimism. My appreciation for this argument led me to have a closer look at Kant’s discussion of rational theology and especially his pre-critical writings. From there it was a short step to rediscover early modern metaphysics in general and embark upon the current project. This journey could not have been completed without the intellectual, emotional, and material support I was very fortunate to receive from my teachers, colleagues, friends, and family. Long before I imagined Allen Wood would be my advisor, I was fascinated by his books ‘Kant’s Moral Religion’ and ‘Kant’s Rational Theology’, which provided the spark for this project. As an advisor Allen exceeded my already high expectations. In addition to his generosity in sharing his vast knowledge in the history of philosophy, his constant availability to discuss all aspects of my work and his prompt and insightful comments, Allen has the special talent of managing dissertation projects towards completion: knowing when to push and when to allow freedom, what to cut and what to expand. For this and more I will always be grateful. I would like to thank the dissertation committee: Sandra Shapshay, Timothy O’Connor and Michel Chaouli. Sandra was tremendously helpful throughout the process. I am grateful for her v courses on Kant’s aesthetics, her thorough feedback on the various papers on which the dissertation is based, and the general encouraging advice about academic life. My first class at IU was Tim’s seminar which interrupted my linguistic slumber and introduced me to the wonders of metaphysics. Our following conversations enriched in many ways my approach to early modern metaphysics and contributed significantly to this project. With Michel I took an individual readings course devoted to the Critique of the Power of Judgment in which we explored the fascinating broader implications of this work. I also thank him for welcoming me into the department of Germanic Studies and The Center for Theoretical Inquiry in the Humanities which were a second home for me at IU. I owe much also to other members of the IU Philosophy Department. I thank Gary Ebbs and Kirk Ludwig for their rigorous and demanding classes and for their support as chair and DGS. I thank Fred Schmitt and Marcia Baron for the valuable feedback on how to present my project and for their encouragement as placement directors. This research would also not have been possible without institutional and financial support. I have been fortunate to receive two years of fellowship at Indiana University: a College of Arts and Sciences first year departmental fellowship and the Philosophy Department’s James B. Nelson Dissertation Fellowship. Likewise, both my research and fluency in German were substantially aided by an exchange grant at the Free University of Berlin (made possible by the IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs). My former teachers at Tel Aviv University provided ongoing support and inspiration during my years in the US. First and foremost, I am grateful for my former advisor, Eli Friedlander, who exemplifies the virtue of true philosophical sensitivity. I am fated to see traces of his engagement with the quest for meaningfulness in all my philosophical interests. Yaron vi Senderowicz and Gideon Freudenthal first introduced me to the fascinating world of Kant and early modern scholarship. I thank also other philosophers I was in contact with over the years. Ido Geiger was extremely supportive throughout my studies and the various reading groups he organized were very beneficial. Jim Conant’s counsel was crucial in my decision to apply to graduate school in the US, and I cherish the conversations we had during my visit in Chicago. Tobias Rosefeldt and Johannes Haag welcomed me to their colloquia meetings during my stay in Berlin and provided very helpful feedback. Nick Stang’s Kantkurs in Berlin was highly influential on my work and I am indebted for his support since then. I thank Daniel Smyth and Uygar Abaci for their penetrating conference commentary on the paper related to chapter 6. My colleagues and Friends at IU and Tel-Aviv provided a great intellectual and amicable environment. I thank Zoe Gutzeit, Assaf Weksler, Ram Tobolski, Tal Correm, Nir Friedman, Sarah Adams, Zac Ferrel, Dylan Black, Kevin Mills, Nick Montgomery, Tufan Kiymaz, Hao Hong, Emmalon Davis, Wade Munroe, Daniel Linsenbardt, Dave Fisher, Levi Tenen, Andrew Smith, Ivan Verano, Sean Murphy, and Uri Eran. I thank my fellow Kantian Moran Godess-Riccitelli for her longtime friendship and support. I owe special thanks to my true philosopher friend Nadav Arviv whose support and advice was tremendously significant for the last 15 years. Without his encouragement I probably wouldn’t have tried to become an academic. I thank my old friends Dror Sherman and Yoav Bar-Anan for offering constant intellectual stimulation and emotional support despite the geographical distance during my long stay in the US. I could not have pursued this journey without the love and support of my family. I will always be grateful to my late father Michel who is my ideal of serious unpretentious intellectual curiosity combined with equal respect for all human beings. My mother exemplifies for me the judgment and persistence of a scientist and always encouraged me throughout my prolonged vii studies. My brother Eitan was my first philosophical interlocutor, and I might not have developed an interest in philosophy had I not discovered as a teenager Descartes’ ‘Meditations’ and Yuval Steinitz’s ‘Invitation to Philosophy’ on his bookshelf. I thank Aviva and Dani Haimovitz for their cheerful spirit, extreme generosity and for raising their daughter, the love of my life, Mor. I met Mor just before I moved to the US and since then she has accompanied me all over the world and enriched my life in countless ways. She is the one person from which I seek advice about everything, professional and personal. Without her love and encouragement through good and rough times I couldn’t have completed this project. Lastly, I thank our daughter Michaela. Her long naps in the stroller along the Mediterranean seashore gave me some valuable time to work on chapters 3 and 4. While she came along too late to contribute to the content of the dissertation, her birth put the significance of this whole endeavor into the right perspective. viii Yaron Noam Hoffer KANT’S THEORETICAL CONCEPTION OF GOD My dissertation argues for the conceptual unity and historical continuity of Kant’s theoretical conception of God. It shows both the importance of the conception of God for understanding the development of Kant’s thought from the pre-critical onto the critical philosophy, and its significant role in the Kantian account of theoretical rationality. I maintain that there is a single idea that guided Kant in construing the metaphysical conception of God traceable early on from the pre- critical philosophy, that of grounding the unity and necessity of the laws of nature. I examine how Kant’s critical adaptation of this prevalent early modern rationalistic position enables him to transform the conception of God from an object of metaphysical inquiry into a regulative idea of reason. My interpretation thus explains the connection, mostly ignored in the literature, between the rationalist metaphysical conception of God and the regulative role it affords in the critical system. _________________________________________ Allen W. Wood, Ph.D. (Chair) _________________________________________ Sandra L. Shapshay, Ph.D. _________________________________________ Timothy O'Connor, Ph.D. _________________________________________ Michel Chaouli, Ph.D ix Table of Contents Dedication ……………….. .............................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Abstract ……………….. .................................................................................................. ix Table of Contents ...............................................................................................................
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