Kant's Use of Transcendental Arguments
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Analytic Transcendental Arguments
Analytic Transcendental Arguments Jonathan Bennett From: P. Bieri et al. (eds), Transcendental Arguments and Science (Reidel: Dordrecht, 1979), pp. 45–64. 1. Locke on the objective world nothing could follow about what exists other than myself. Can we strengthen the conclusion by strengthening the Someone who thinks that his own inner states are the basis premises? Could a more contentful belief about an outer for all his other knowledge and beliefs may wonder how world be defended as explaining certain further facts about anything can be securely built on this foundation. He need my inner states, e.g. about the order or regularity which not actually doubt that his own edifice is securely founded, they exhibit? Locke does argue like that, but unfortunately though he may pretend to have doubts about this in order he pollutes all his premises—which should be purely about to consider how they could be resolved if they did occur. inner states—with an admixture of statements about the This person is a ‘Cartesian sceptic’. which implies that he outer world; for instance, he uses the premise that men is not sceptical at all. He is untouched by such crude English with no eyes have no visual states. But that seems to be moves as Locke’s protest that ‘nobody can in earnest be so an accidental defect in Locke’s treatment. He could have sceptical’, or Moore’s holding up his hand as proof that there cleansed his premises, as Hume nearly did, so that they is a physical object. Such intellectual bullying is irrelevant spoke only of the order, coherence etc. -
1 the Disjunctive Conception of Experience As Material for A
The disjunctive conception of experience as material for a transcendental argument John McDowell University of Pittsburgh 1. In Individuals1 and The Bounds of Sense,2 P. F. Strawson envisaged transcendental arguments as responses to certain sorts of scepticism. An argument of the sort Strawson proposed was to establish a general claim about the world, a claim supposedly brought into doubt by sceptical reflections. Such an argument was to work by showing that unless things were as they were said to be in the claim that the argument purported to establish, it would not be possible for our thought or experience to have certain characteristics, not regarded as questionable even by someone who urges sceptical doubts. So the argument’s conclusion was to be displayed as the answer to a “How possible?” question. That has a Kantian ring, and the feature of such arguments that the formulation fits is the warrant for calling them “transcendental”. Barry Stroud responded to Strawson on the following lines.3 Perhaps we can see our way to supposing that if our thought or experience is to have certain characteristics it does have (for instance that experience purports to be of a world of objects independent of us), we must conceive the world in certain ways (for instance as containing objects that continue to exist even while we are not perceiving them). But it is quite another matter to suggest that by reflecting about how it is possible that our thought and experience are as they are, we could establish conclusions not just about how we must conceive the world but about how the world must be. -
New Directions for Transcendental Claims. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 93 (2)
Giladi, Paul (2016) New Directions for Transcendental Claims. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 93 (2). pp. 212-231. ISSN 0165-9227 Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/621126/ Version: Accepted Version Publisher: Brill DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-09302006 Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk 1 New Directions for Transcendental Claims Keywords: transcendental claims; transcendental arguments; epistemology; post-Kantian philosophy This paper aims to provide an account of the relationship between transcendental claims and the project of using transcendental argumentation that differs from the mainstream literature.1 By a ‘transcendental claim’, I mean a proposition which states that y is a necessary condition for the possibility of x.2 In much of the literature, such claims are said to have as their primary value the overcoming of various sceptical positions. I argue that whilst transcendental arguments may be narrowly characterised as anti-sceptical, transcendental claims do not have to be used in only this way, and in fact can be useful in several areas of philosophy outside the issue of scepticism, and so can be used by transcendental arguments more broadly conceived. I offer four examples of transcendental claims that are not used in narrow, anti-sceptical transcendental arguments. I argue that these broader arguments use transcendental claims but not in an anti-sceptical way. From this, I conclude that one can separate the project of making transcendental claims and the project of using transcendental arguments to defeat scepticism. Given the well-known difficulties transcendental arguments in this narrow sense seem to have had in defeating scepticism,3 distinguishing narrow transcendental arguments clearly from transcendental claims as such in this manner can provide a way for the latter to still serve an important role in philosophy, by showing how such claims can be used more broadly, regardless of any doubts one may have about the anti- sceptical value of such claims. -
A Weakly Pragmatic Defense of Authoritatively Normative Reasons
NIHILISM AND ARGUMENTATION: A WEAKLY PRAGMATIC DEFENSE OF AUTHORITATIVELY NORMATIVE REASONS Scott Simmons A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2020 Committee: Michael Weber, Advisor Verner Bingman Graduate Faculty Representative Christian Coons Molly Gardner Sara Worley ii ABSTRACT Michael Weber, Advisor Global normative error theorists argue that there are no authoritative normative reasons of any kind. Thus, according to the error theory, the normative demands of law, prudence, morality, etc. are of no greater normative significance than the most absurd standards we can conceive of. Because the error theory is a radically revisionary view, theorists who accept it only do so because they maintain the view is supported by the best available arguments. In this dissertation, I argue that error theory entails that it is impossible that there are successful arguments for anything, thus defenses of error theory are in tension with the view, itself. My argument begins with the observation that it is natural to think a successful argument is one that gives us an authoritative normative reason to believe its conclusion. Error theory entails that there are no authoritative reasons to believe anything. What are arguments for error theory even supposed to accomplish? Error theorists may respond that their arguments are solely intended to get at the truth. I argue that this reply fails. One problem is that it cannot make sense of why in practice even error theorists still want evidence for the premises of sound arguments. Error theorists may try to capture the importance of evidence by appeal to our social norms or goals. -
Perception and Reflection
PERCEPTION AND REFLECTION Anil Gomes Trinity College, University of Oxford Forthcoming, Philosophical Perspectives [accepted 2017] What method should we use to determine the nature of perceptual experience? My focus here is the Kantian thought that transcendental arguments can be used to determine the nature of perceptual experience. I set out a dilemma for the use of transcendental arguments in the philosophy of perception, one which turns on a comparison of the transcendental method with the first-personal method of early analytic philosophy, and with the empirical methods of much contemporary philosophy of mind. The transcendental method can avoid this dilemma only if it commits to our possessing a capacity for imaginative reflection, one which is capable of identifying certain formal properties of experience. This result indicates some of the commitments which must be made if transcendental arguments are to be used in the philosophy of perception, and it has implications for those views that take the philosophy of perception to be autonomous of the empirical science of perception. 1. Introduction Questions about perception arise across the academy: philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and others are interested in the nature of perceptual experience and its role in our cognitive life. And it is a salient fact to anyone who is interested in these questions that there is disagreement both across and within these disciplines as to the nature of perceptual experience. In some cases, this is the kind of disagreement which one would expect in any healthy body of research. But in some cases it seems to betray a deeper disagreement about the methods appropriate for studying the nature of perceptual experience. -
Dieter Henrich's Turn
The Problem of Subjectivity: Dieter Henrich’s Turn 189 The Problem of Subjectivity: Dieter Henrich’s Turn Gerhard Preyer The German philosopher Dieter Henrich has worked on the problem of subjectivity since the 1950s.1 In his lecture at the “Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche der Stiftung Weimarer Klassik” (2003) he has reformulated the problem of subjectivity in the context of a revisionary approach. This is worth emphasiz- ing, since Henrich’s analysis is focused on the limits of the position of subjec- tivity in the world. He calls his turn a revisionary metaphysics because he sees subjectivity not as self-grounded but as part of an All-Einheit (all-unity), thus evoking a motive of Plato’s philosophy.2 In the present article, I will first deal with Henrich’s turn to the question of subjectivity. Secondly, I re-interpret his analysis of conscious self-reference (subjectivity) which starts from the condition of primary self-consciousness as immediate consciousness. Henrich also claims to give an answer to the mind-body problem in the context of the much changed questions of philosophy of mind since the 1950s. Thirdly, I consider Henrich’s view of the body (Leib) as a position in the world which goes along with subjectivity. Fourthly, this leads me to his discussion of the principle of consequence and of free choice as well as to the interplay between subjectiv- ity and practical self-reference considered as self-determination (Selbstbestim- mung) and self-relationship (Selbstverhältnisse).3 Studying the philosophical work of Henrich again I read it, in the current philosophical context, as a contribution to an existenzial phenomenology, given from the subject’s point of view. -
PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS Metaphysics And
Hartford Seminary 77 Sherman Street, Hartford, CT 06105-2260 PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS Metaphysics and the Quest(ion) of God After Kant (TH-626 – Fall Semester 2016) Instructor: Prof. Dr. Fábio Henrique de Abreu Visiting Professor of Philosophical Theology and Philosophy of Religion Email: [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION The starting point for modern philosophy in general and the philosophy of religion in particular belongs to Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). It is well recognized in the secondary literature that Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” has placed traditional (pre-critical) metaphysics and, by extension, the philosophical problem of religion – including his critique of the metaphysical doctrine of God – under such pervasive criticism that religion is now threatened up to the point of becoming nothing more than an illusion. The best example of the powerful and influent character of the Kantian criticism of religion is, perhaps, Ludwig A. Feuerbach’s (1804-1872) understanding of religion as a human projection. One is no longer able to speak of God by means either of the authority of the Scriptures or through an appeal to any kind of supernatural source. The reality of God, as such, is now at stake. This course aims firstly at investigating, historically, the fundamental nature of Kant’s criticism both of religion and of the idea of God. Secondly, it will investigate some selected writings by the young Georg W. F. Hegel (1770-1831) and Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher (1768-1834) as critical responses to Kant’s transcendental philosophical standpoint that have led to a consequent repositioning of the Kantian problematic on religion and the idea of God. -
Fichte's Position
Fichte’s Position: Self-Awareness and the Space of Reasons Paul Franks I: Introduction Of all the famous figures in the history of philosophy, Johann Gottlieb Fichte may perhaps have the worst reputation. Others have been accused of equivocations, inconsistencies, non sequiturs and other blunders. But Fichte’s view has the distinction that it has regularly been described as verging upon insanity, sometimes even as attaining it. Here, for example, is Bertrand Russell: “Kant’s immediate successor, Fichte, abandoned ‘things in themselves’ and carried subjectivism to a point which seems almost to involve a kind of insanity. He holds that the Ego is the only ultimate reality, and that it exists because it posits itself; the non-Ego, which has a subordinate reality, also exists only because the Ego posits it. The Ego as a metaphysical concept easily became confused with the empirical Fichte . .”i Later, I will cite Jean Paul, a contemporary of Fichte’s, who also associates Fichteanism with a literally crazy subjectivism. Now I want to note that a view of Fichte surprisingly like Russell’s -- and indeed a view of the development of modern philosophy somewhat similar to Russell’s -- can also be found on what we Englishmen quaintly call the continent. Thus Heidegger, like Russell, sees the development of philosophy since Descartes as the ascent of subjectivism, and, again like Russell, Heidegger regards Fichte’s philosophy as a high-point of a regrettable journey.ii For all their differences, both Anglo-American and continental traditions of twentieth century philosophy have shared a common enemy: subjectivism.iii By subjectivism, I think it is fair to say, both traditions have meant the extension of the Cartesian view of the mind to the whole of reality. -
After Kant, Sellars, and Meillassoux: Back to Empirical Realism?’ (2018)
‘After Kant, Sellars, and Meillassoux: Back to Empirical Realism?’ (2018) James R. O’Shea, University College Dublin (This is the author’s post-peer reviewed version accepted for publication. For citations, please refer to the published version in: The Legacy of Kant in Sellars and Meillassoux: Analytic and Continental Kantianism, edited by Fabio Gironi, Routledge, pp. 21–40. ISBN-13: 978-1315203041. DOI: 10.4324/9781315203041) ABSTRACT: I examine how Meillassoux’s conception of correlationism in After Finitude, as I understand it, relates firstly to Kant’s transcendental idealist philosophy, and secondly to the analytic Kantianism of Wilfrid Sellars. I argue that central to the views of both Kant and Sellars is what might be called, with an ambivalent nod to Meillassoux, an objective correlationism. What emerges in the end as the recommended upshot of these analyses is a naturalistic Kantianism that takes the form of an empirical realism in roughly Kant’s sense, but one that is happily wed with Sellars’ scientific realism, once the latter is disentangled from two implausible commitments that made such a reconciliation seem impossible to Sellars himself. * * * 1. At the outset of his 2008 talk on “Time Without Becoming,” Quentin Meillassoux describes his key concept of correlationism, a concept which he had expounded in his influential 2006 book, Après la finitude, published in English in 2008 as After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency, in the following way. “I call ‘correlationism’ the contemporary opponent of any realism,” and he indicates that he particularly has in mind certain views shared by “transcendental philosophy, the varieties of phenomenology, and post-modernism”: namely, as he puts it, the idea “that there are no objects, no events, no laws, no beings which are not always already correlated with a point of view, with a subjective access” (Meillassoux 2014: 9). -
FU/BEST Program
FU/BEST Program Name: Dr. Detlef von Daniels Email address: [email protected] Course title: The Promise of German Philosophy: Between Kant and Hegel Course number: FU-BEST 9a Language of instruction: English Contact hours: 45 ECTS-Credits: 6 U.S. semester credits: 3 Course description Philosophy has constituted a central element in the development of modern German culture. In the late eighteenth century, German philosophy participated in the broader European Enlightenment culture, which has in turn been connected to the development of modern empirical science. Under the impression of the historical changes brought about by the French Revolution and by the ‘Industrial Revolution’ in Great Britain, a special constellation of German philosophy emerged at the end of the eighteenth century, which has deeply left its mark on subsequent philosophical thinking far beyond Germany. In the course, we follow the emergence and full deployment of German philosophy from its beginnings in Kant’s theoretical and moral philosophy to Hegel’s grand but fragile synthesis. We will also discuss the critique by the Young Hegelians as well as by the late Schelling, trying to understand the richness as well as the limitations of this tradition of German philosophy. The course is based upon contemporary attempts at rethinking a global philosophical perspective. Therefore, the contextual reading of key texts is related to contemporary feminist and postcolonial discussions. Course work/expectations Midterm exam: 20% Term-Paper: 25% Final Exam: 20% Attendance and participation: 25% (including weekly reading responses) Independent Project: 10% Student profile Second-semester sophomore or above Prerequisites Prior knowledge of philosophy is not required, however, an eagerness to engage with densely written texts is indispensable. -
Transcendental Arguments, Conceivability, and Global Vs
Transcendental Arguments, Conceivability, and Global vs. Local Skepticism Moti Mizrahi Florida Institute of Technology Abstract: In this paper, I argue that, if transcendental arguments are to proceed from premises that are acceptable to the skeptic, the Transcendental Premise, according to which “X is a metaphysically necessary condition for the possibility of Y,” must be grounded in considerations of conceivability and possibility. More explicitly, the Transcendental Premise is based on what Szabó Gendler and Hawthorne (2002, p. 2) call the “conceivability-possibility (or inconceivability-impossibility) move.” This “inconceivability-impossibility” move, however, is a problematic argumentative move when advancing transcendental arguments for the following reasons. First, from “S cannot conceive of P” it doesn’t necessarily follow that P is inconceivable. Second, from “P is inconceivable” it doesn’t necessarily follow that P is metaphysically impossible. Third, rather than block skeptical doubts, the conceivability- possibility (or inconceivability-impossibility) move introduces skeptical doubts. For these reasons, transcendental arguments fail to deliver on their promise to overcome skeptical doubts. Keywords: conceivability; inconceivability; metaphysical necessity; metaphysical possibility; skepticism; transcendental argument 1. Introduction Stern (2013) identifies the following key features of transcendental arguments: (A) Transcendental arguments are anti-skeptical, which is why they must begin from a starting point that the skeptic can be expected to accept. In other words, “the point of transcendental arguments in general is an anti-skeptical point” (Strawson 2008, p. 8).1 (B) Transcendental arguments involve a transcendental claim, i.e., that X is a necessary condition for the possibility of Y, where the necessity and possibility in question are taken to be metaphysical, not logical or nomological. -
Kant's Transcendental Deduction
Kant’s Transcendental Deduction Professors James Conant & Robert Pippin Spring 2010 *** Syllabus *** Description of the Seminar This seminar will be devoted to a close reading and discussion of Kant’s First Critique, focusing on the Transcendental Deduction of the Pure Concepts of the Understanding. We will also explore carefully explore a handful of proposals for how to interpret the First Critique and especially the Transcendental Deduction, including especially those put forward by Allison, Strawson, and Strawson. We will end the course with a close look at Wilfrid Sellars’s and John McDowell’s respective interpretations of Kant, with special attention to how each of their own philosophies of perception inherit, modify, and explore Kant’s criticisms of traditional empiricism, and how each of them it rework a number of Kantian themes – most notably Kant’s conception of intuition and his account of the relation between intuitions and concepts. The aim of the course is both to use certain central texts of recent Kant commentary and contemporary analytic Kantian philosophy to illuminate some the central aspirations of Kant’s theoretical philosophy and to use certain central Kantian texts in which those aspirations were first pursued to illuminate some recent developments in epistemology and the philosophy of mind. Instructors James Conant Robert Pippin Office: Stuart 208 Office: Foster 307 Office Phone: 773 702 6146 Office Phone: 773 702 5453 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] 1 Texts All of the following textbooks have been ordered through the Seminary Co-op and are all required texts for the course: 1.