DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction to the Simplicity Argument and Its Relation to Previous Studies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction to the Simplicity Argument and Its Relation to Previous Studies Chapter 1 Introduction to the Simplicity Argument and its Relation to Previous Studies The safest characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. alfred north whitehead ∵ The following treatise concerns a special theory of consciousness and its application to human loneliness. In terms of a methodology, it follows along the lines of the History of Ideas discipline, which was originally instituted in the early part of the twentieth century under the aegis of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity by A.O. Lovejoy and George Boas. In the ensuing years, it was emulated by other institutions of higher learning, including the Ideas and Methods and the Committee on Social Thought programs at the University of Chicago, the History of Ideas at Brandeis University, and the History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz as well as various other universi- ties all implementing different combinations, concentrations, and approaches between the disciplines. It consists in an attempt to implement an interdisciplinary perspective by emphasizing certain strains of metaphysical dualism and subjective idealism and then applying these tenets to a substantive theory of the self and the in- nate quality of human loneliness. It concentrates on a historically important paradigm of the mind, grounded in a premise asserting that consciousness is both immaterial and active and more specifically that it exhibits a reflexive form of self-consciousness as well as the transcendent features of a purposive intentionality. It is a sequel to four previous efforts by the author, The Achilles of Rationalist Arguments: The Simplicity, Unity, and Identity of Thought and Soul from the Cambridge Platonists to Kant; Loneliness in Philosophy, Psychology, and Literature; Contingent Immaterialism: Meaning, Freedom, Time, and Mind; and Feeling Lonesome: The Philosophy and Psychology of Loneliness, with all four studies designed to coalesce in supporting a theory of consciousness in rela- tion to human loneliness. By their very nature interdisciplinary studies assume that there are certain principles and paradigms that are so central in Western thought that their © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���9 | doi:�0.��63/9789004385979_00� <UN> 4 Chapter 1 themes are best explored in unison with other related disciplines thereby enhancing the possibility of comprehensive insights within the participating inter-related fields. Against the combination of reductive materialism and naïve empiricism, the present study contends that these dual perspectives are unable to account adequately for the activity of human consciousness, the reality of the self, and its inescapable sense of an enclosed subjective isolation. It further seeks to coherently integrate the various intertwined filaments of dualism, rational- ism, and idealism, which are threaded throughout the many historical concep- tions of the self found in the Greek psyche, the Christian soul, the Cartesian cogito, the Leibnizian monad, German idealism, Husserlian phenomenology, and Sartrean existentialism, which mutually conclude in portraying human consciousness as inevitably lonely. The work defends a substantive concept of the self, while offering a theory of cognitive consciousness coupled with a psychology of motivational drives animated by the fear of loneliness and the consequent desire for shared intimacy. While defending this view, it criticizes and rejects the underlying assumptions in regard to the alternate model of the “self” presented in the related movements of materialism, mechanism, deter- minism, empiricism, phenomenalism, behaviorism, and the current vogue of reductivism and ethical relativism so evident in the neurosciences. But first let me begin by addressing a distinction suggested by Kant between the Critique of Pure Reason employing the synthetic or progressive method of proof, as opposed to the Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, which rather summons the analytic or regressive approach (Sections 263–64, 274–75, 278–79, 283–284) by recruiting his distinction for my own purposes. The difference is highlighted by a passage in Kemp Smith. The synthetic method would start from given, ordinary experience (in its simplest form, as consciousness of time), to discover its conditions, and from them to prove the validity of knowledge that is a priori. The analytic method would start “from the sought as if it were given,” that is, from the existence of a priori synthetic judgments, and, assuming them as valid, would determine the conditions under which alone such validity can be possible.1 Thus there are two ways to address the problem of cognition. We can simply start with human consciousness—“in its simplest form, as consciousness of 1 Norman Kemp Smith, A Commentary to Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ (New York: Humani- ties Press, 1962), 43 ff.; hereafter cited as Kemp Smith, Commentary. <UN>.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Kant's Theoretical Conception Of
    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.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
    Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason Philosophy 270 Prof. B. Look I. Some Background Look at Prolegomena: David Hume awoke Kant from his “dogmatic slumber.” Kant tried to see if he could put Hume’s problem in a general form. (p. 581b) What is the general form? In a letter in 1772 Kant raises two questions: (1) How can we be justified in applying a priori categories to appearances in advance of experience, as we must if we are to do science? (2) Can there be any justification at all for applying a priori categories to reality? The Critique is going to answer these questions Critique has two aims: (1) In the Aesthetic and the Analytic to provide a philosophical basis for physical science. Think of the notions of cause, interaction, etc. – these are necessary for science but can’t be justified empirically (2) In the Dialectic “to deny knowledge to make room for faith” (Bxxx) What is at issue? God, freedom, immortality Kant claims that his philosophy is akin to the Copernican Revolution Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects (transcendental realism), but this leads to problems concerning the possibilities of knowledge; let us assume that objects conform to our cognition (transcendental idealism) We could say that there are two competing models of knowledge: a theocentric model of knowledge and an anthropocentric model theocentric model: the standard of knowledge is a God’s-eye perspective on the way the world is; the point is to have the mind conform to the objects Æ transcendental realism anthropocentric model: the mind is to determine the way we are to conceive of objects Æ transcendental idealism II.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Nature in the Light of Immanuel Kant's „Critique of Pure
    BTU Chair of General Ecology Concept of Nature in the „Critique of Pure Reason” 1 THE CONCEPT OF NATURE IN THE LIGHT OF IMMANUEL KANT’S „CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON” Scriptum Udo Bröring BTU, Chair General Ecology Table of Contents Summary Introductory Remarks Prerequisites: Various Philosophers and General Approaches Different Attitudes Towards Nature and the Concept of Causality The „Critique of Pure Reason” - Contents and Reception - Transcendental Aesthetics and Analytics - Transcendental Apperception and the Four Tables of Understanding, Concept of Nature Within the Transcendental Idealism Outlook: The Kantian “Critical Business” References and Further Readings Summary It is reason which prescribes its laws to the sensible universe; it is reason which makes the cosmos. (I. Kant, Prolegom. 85) The „Critique of Pure Reason” (CPR) by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, is one of the most important philosophical publications, and the „Copernican Revolution in Philoso- phy” was the result. Various fields of philosophical discussion are affected. I start to give a brief overview on different concepts of science (empirism, rationalism) and different attitudes towards nature before 1781. After some terminological clarifications (transcendental, analytic and synthetic a priori truths, intuition, recognition, reason, and apperception), an overview of the general contents and architecture of CPR and a brief summary of the different parts is given. Special emphasis is laid on the transcendental aesthetic and the transcendental analytic within the first part of CPR („transcendental doctrine of elements”) in order to analyze the concept of nature in the light of the CPR. Discussion within the transcendental aesthetic reveals ideality of space and time, that means that space and time are just modes of our perception („conditions of faculty of experience”) and are not within nature itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Argument's for God's Existence Kant's Criticisms O
    Kant’s Arguments for God’s Existence Introduction Background: Three Argument’s for God’s Existence Kant’s criticisms of these three arguments Ground vs. Cause: Kant’s reason for rejecting constructive proofs of God’s existence Kant’s first argument for God’s existence: God’s existence as the foundation of causal explanation Kant’s second argument for God’s existence: Natural orderliness as being grounded in the coherence of God’s mind Kant’s third argument for God’s existence: morality as grounded in the coherence of God’s mind Kant’s arguments for God as transcendental arguments Introduction Kant puts forth three arguments for God’s existence---or, what might be more accurate, three very different versions of a single such argument. Each is original and none has any obvious flaws. This is not to say that they prove what they are meant to prove, only that, if they fail to do so, it is not immediately clear why. Background: Three Argument’s for God’s Existence When philosophers try to prove God’s existence, it is almost always by way of one of the following three arguments: the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, and the teleological argument. Kant rejects each of these arguments, and his own arguments are to be understood in terms of this fact. Right now, I will state and evaluate these arguments, and then I will state and evaluate Kant’s arguments. The ontological argument: God is by definition perfect; failure to exist is an imperfection; therefore, God must exist. Analysis: This argument is a total failure, since all it shows is the truism is that if God existed, then, having as he would every conceivable perfection, he would exist— since, in other words, all it shows is that if God existed, then God would exist.
    [Show full text]
  • Spinoza's Ethics Beth Lord
    EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL GUIDES Spinoza's Ethics Beth Lord Spinoza’s Ethics Edinburgh Philosophical Guides Series Titles in the series include: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason Douglas Burnham with Harvey Young Derrida’s Of Grammatology Arthur Bradley Heidegger’s Being and Time William Large Plato’s Republic D. J. Sheppard Spinoza’s Ethics Beth Lord Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy Kurt Brandhorst Husserl’s The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Katrin Joost Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra Martin Jesinghausen and Douglas Burnham Spinoza’s Ethics An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide Beth Lord Edinburgh University Press © Beth Lord, 2010 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh www.euppublishing.com Typeset in 11/13pt Monotype Baskerville by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 3449 1 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 3450 7 (paperback) The right of Beth Lord to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents Series Editor’s Preface vi Acknowledgements vii List of Figures viii Introduction 1 1. A Guide to the Text 15 Part I: Being, Substance, God, Nature 15 Part II: Minds, Bodies, Experience and Knowledge 49 Part III: The Affects 83 Part IV: Virtue, Ethics and Politics 103 Part V: Freedom and Eternity 136 2. Study Aids 159 Glossary 159 Further Reading 167 Types of Question you will Encounter 168 Tips for Writing about Spinoza 169 Bibliography 173 Index 179 Series Editor’s Preface To us, the principle of this series of books is clear and simple: what readers new to philosophical classics need fi rst and foremost is help with reading these key texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Herr Kant, Der Alleszermalmer-Kant the "All-Crushing" Destroyer of Metaphysics: Metaphilosophy of the Critique of Pure Reason
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Philosophy Honors Theses Department of Philosophy Spring 5-18-2015 Herr Kant, der Alleszermalmer-Kant the "All-Crushing" Destroyer of Metaphysics: Metaphilosophy of the Critique of Pure Reason Jake De Backer Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/philosophy_hontheses Recommended Citation De Backer, Jake, "Herr Kant, der Alleszermalmer-Kant the "All-Crushing" Destroyer of Metaphysics: Metaphilosophy of the Critique of Pure Reason." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2015. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/philosophy_hontheses/12 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Philosophy at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HERR KANT, DER ALLESZERMALMER: THE “ALL-CRUSHING” DESTROYER OF METAPHYSICS KANT’S METAPHILOSOPHY IN THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON An Honors Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation with Undergraduate Research Honors Georgia State University 2015 by Jake Christopher de Backer Committee: Dr. Eric E. Wilson, Honors Thesis Director Dr. Sarah Cook, Honors College Associate Dean 27 April 2015 HERR KANT, DER ALLESZERMALMER: THE “ALL-CRUSHING” DESTROYER OF METAPHYSICS KANT’S METAPHILOSOPHY IN THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON by JAKE CHRISTOPHER DE BACKER Under the Direction of Dr. Eric E. Wilson ABSTRACT The Critique of Pure Reason inaugurated Kant’s Critical Philosophy. Commentators commonly distinguish between Kant’s Positive Project (PP), that is, his epistemology as laid out in the Transcendental Aesthetic and Transcendental Analytic, from his Negative Project (NP), expressed in terms of the destructive implications his epistemology has on speculative metaphysics and rational theology.
    [Show full text]
  • Reviewing Kant's View of God's Existence and Status in Religion Revista Publicando, 5 No 15
    Reviewing Kant's View of God's Existence and Status in Religion Revista Publicando, 5 No 15. (1). 2018, 199-215. ISSN 1390-9304 Reviewing Kant's View of God's Existence and Status in Religion Babak Shamshiri1, Mohammad Hasan Karimi2, Shahrzad Shahsani3, Shima Naghibi4 1 Shiraz University, [email protected] 2 Shiraz University, [email protected] 3 Shiraz University, [email protected] 4 Shiraz University, [email protected] ABSTRACT Throughout history, the main and most important subject of metaphysics, namely, God and, consequently, religion, has been at the focus of attention of philosophers and thinkers. In the philosophy of Greece and the Middle Ages, philosophical thinking began from God and led to a discussion of nature and man. But this changed in the Enlightenment era, especially in Kant's philosophy. The distinction between Kant's thinking was that he began from mankind and then began to think of God as one of the concepts of human intellect. Indeed, from the eighteenth century onwards, with the critique of pure reason and practical reason in Kant's philosophy, the concept of God, and consequently religion and religiosity, became subject to fundamental change, and this fashioned the modern approach to the concept of God and its functions. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of God and its place in religion based on Kant's reading. Because in the thought of Kant, the origin of the concept of God is not reason (pure reason) and nor is verifiable by pure reason; therefore, in the critique of practical reason, he proposes and proves the concept of God as the guarantor of ethics, and therefore the above-mentioned concepts In Kant's philosophy differ fundamentally from the conventional point of views.
    [Show full text]
  • Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed*
    What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed* KENNETH L. PEARCE Trinity College Dublin ABSTRACT: According to Kant, there is some doctrine, which he sometimes calls ‘empirical realism,’ such that it was doubted by Descartes, denied by Berkeley, and endorsed by Kant himself. The primary aim of this paper will be to reconstruct Kant’s own narrative of the historical relationship between Descartes, Berkeley, and himself, in order to identify the doctrine Kant calls ‘empirical realism.’ I argue that the empirical realism that Descartes doubted, Berkeley denied, and Kant endorsed is the doctrine that the concept of extended substance has legitimate application. RÉSUMÉ : Selon Kant, il existe une doctrine, qu’il appelle quelquefois le «réalisme empirique», à propos de laquelle Descartes aurait exprimé des doutes, qui aurait été niée par Berkeley, et que Kant lui-même aurait approuvée. L’objectif principal de cet article sera reconstituer le récit fait par Kant de la relation entre Descartes, Berkeley et lui-même, et ce, afin d’identifier la doctrine qualifiée par Kant de «réalisme empirique». Je soutiens que le réalisme empirique en question est la doctrine selon laquelle le concept de substance étendue a une application légitime. Keywords: Immanuel Kant, George Berkeley, René Descartes, empirical realism, iDealism, substance Idealism (I mean material iDealism) is the theory that Declares the existence of objects in space outsiDe us to be either merely Doubtful anD indemonstrable, or else false anD impossible; the former is the problematic iDealism of Descartes, wHo Declares only one empirical assertion (assertio), namely I am, to be inDubitable; the latter is the dogmatic iDealism of Berkeley, wHo Declares space, together with all the things to wHicH it is attacHeD as an inseparable conDition, to be something that is impossible in itself, anD wHo therefore also Declares things in space to be merely imaginary.
    [Show full text]
  • Transcendental Apperception in the Critique of Pure Reason: Influence of Previous Philosophical Writings and Their Inherited Reapplication
    TRANSCENDENTAL APPERCEPTION IN THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON: INFLUENCE OF PREVIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS AND THEIR INHERITED REAPPLICATION APERCEPÇÃO TRANSCENDENTAL NA CRÍTICA DA RAZÃO PURA: INFLUÊNCIA DOS ESCRITOS FILOSÓFICOS ANTERIORES E A REAPLICAÇÃO DE SUA HERENÇA Thomas Matiolli Machado* Recebido: 06/2016 Aprovado: 10/2016 Abstract: In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant developed new perspectives on apperception never before contemplated in the history of philosophy. However, not everything that the author of the first Critique wrote was entirely original. Indeed, Kant reapplied much that he had learned from historical philosophy, by which he was deeply influenced, creating innovative new approaches to apperception. This article aims to explain how Kant learned from the philosophers of the past in order to develop the concept of transcendental apperception in the Critique of Pure Reason. Keywords: Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental apperception, Abidance, Spontaneity. Resumo: Na Crítica da razão pura, Kant desenvolveu novas perspectivas sobre a apercepção nunca contempladas antes na história da filosofia. Mas, nem tudo o que o autor da primeira Crítica escreveu possui raízes originais. Kant reaplicou muito do que aprendeu com o passado histórico-filosófico, pelo qual foi profundamente influenciado, de um modo inovador criando novas abordagens sobre a apercepção. Este artigo tem por objetivo esclarecer como Kant aprendeu com os filósofos do passado para desenvolver o conceito de apercepção transcendental na Crítica da razão pura. Palavras-chave: Crítica da razão pura, Apercepção transcendental, Permanência, Espontaneidade. INTRODUCTION The Critique of Pure Reason1 is considered one of the most important and difficult works of western philosophical literature. Although Kant’s writing style might be laborious, it is usually accepted that the concepts and ideas behind his words are very clear.
    [Show full text]
  • Study Guide for Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Preface
    Study Guide for Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Preface and Introduction [2nd Edition] How does human cognition begin, according to Kant? What is the distinction between starting “with experience” and starting “from experience” (44)? What besides experience is present in our cognition (43–451)? What does Kant mean by “a priori cognitions” and “empirical cognitions”? How do these relate to experience, in terms of priority and posteriority? What is distinct about “pure” a priori cognitions (45)? What two characteristics does Kant find “by which we can safely distinguish a pure cognition from empirical ones” (46)? Explain how he argues that each is such a characteristic. What is empirical universality, and why is it not sufficient? How do the two characteristics stand in relation to one another (46)? Kant claims that “it is easy to show that in human cognition there actually are . pure a priori judgments” (46). Consider how he shows this: • What is taken as given in the first way, by examples “from the sciences” (46) and “from the most ordinary use of understanding” (47)? • Explain how he establishes “a priori” (47) the existence of these judgments. Is he assuming that our experience is certain? If so, why is he making such an assumption? • What is shown in the fact that certain cognitions “even leave the realm of all possible experiences” (48)? Does Kant’s demonstration assume that this kind of speculation is possible, or merely take as rhetorical evidence the fact that some have tried such speculation? • Are these sufficient proofs? What objections might one make against either of these two arguments? 1 Immanuel Kant.
    [Show full text]
  • The Critiques of Pure & Practical Reason
    1 The Critiques of Pure & Practical Reason Immanuel Kant 1844 Squashed version edited by Glyn Hughes © 2011 THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON I - KNOWLEDGE TRANSCENDENTAL: AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE is something of which we are conscious. It is the first result of our comprehension, but it is not the limit of our understanding, since it stimulates our faculty of reason, but does not satisfy its desire for knowledge. While all our knowledge may begin with sensible impressions or experience there is an element in it which does not rise from this source, but transcends it. That knowledge is transcendental which is occupied not so much with mere outward objects as with our manner of knowing those objects, that is to say, with a priori concepts of them. All our knowledge is either a priori or a posteriori. That is a posteriori knowledge which is derived from sensible experience as including sensible impressions or states; while a priori knowledge is that which is not thus gained, but consists of whatever is universal or necessary. A complete Transcendental Philosophy would be a systematic exposition of all that is a priori in human knowledge, or of 'all the principles of pure reason.' But a Critique of Pure Reason cannot include all this. It can do little more than deal with the synthetic element or quality in a priori knowledge, as distinguished from the analytic elements. We perceive objects through our sensibility which furnishes us, as our faculty of receptivity, with those intuitions that become translated into thought by means of the understanding. This is the origin of our conceptions, or ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • Pulses of Emotion: Whitehead's 'Critique of Pure Feeling'
    Pulses of Emotion: Whitehead’s “Critique of Pure Feeling” Steven Shaviro [email protected] According to Alfred North Whitehead, “the basis of experience is emotional” (1933/1967, 176). Whitehead writes that his philosophy “aspires to construct a critique of pure feeling, in the philosophical position in which Kant put his Cri- tique of Pure Reason. This should also supercede the remaining Critiques required in the Kantian philosophy” (1929/1978, 113). In what follows, I would like to work through this “critique of pure feeling,” and show how Whitehead opens the way to an affect-based account of human (and not just human) experience. For Whitehead, the questions of how we feel, and what we feel, are more fundamental than the epistemological and hermeneutical questions that are the focus of most philosophy and criticism (including Kant’s Critiques). This emphasis upon feel- ing leads, in turn, to a new account of affect-laden subjectivity. Most broadly, Whitehead’s affect theory places aesthetics – rather than ontology (Heidegger) or ethics (Levinas) – at the center of philosophical inquiry. Aesthetics is the mark of what Whitehead calls our concern for the world, and for entities in the world (1933/1967, 176).1 1In what follows, I will use the terms “feeling”, “emotion”, and “affect” pretty much inter- changeably. This is in accordance with Whitehead’s own usage. Nonetheless, I remain mindful of Brian Massumi’s (2002) crucial distinction between affect and emotion (27-28 and passim). For Massumi, affect is primary, non-conscious, asubjective or presubjective, asignifying, unquali- fied, and intensive; while emotion is derivative, conscious, qualified, and meaningful, a “content” that can be attributed to an already-constituted subject.
    [Show full text]