The aim of this paper is to explore Kant s notion of death with special attention paid to
|
|
- Geraldine Hodge
- 6 years ago
- Views:
Transcription
1 1 Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore Kant s notion of death with special attention paid to the relation between rational and aesthetic ideas in Kant s Third Critique and the discussion of death in Kant s Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. It will be argued explicitly how it is that Kant can claim death to be a rational idea by arguing that death exhibits an epistemic limitation characteristic of the relation Kant describes between aesthetic and rational ideas. Ultimately, death, for Kant, will be shown to be a product of the productive/poetical faculty of the imagination. On Kant s Notion of Death: From Anthropology to Aesthetics The aim of this paper is to explore Immanuel Kant s notion of death with special attention paid to the relation between rational and aesthetic ideas in the Third Critique and the discussion of death in the Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. It will be argued explicitly how it is that Kant can claim death to be a rational idea by arguing that death exhibits an epistemic limitation characteristic of the relation between aesthetic and rational ideas in the Third Critique. Ultimately, the notion of death will be shown to be a product of the productive/poetical faculty of the imagination described in the Anthropology. In 49 of the Critique of Judgment, Kant offers various examples of representations that may be termed ideas. 1 The mention of death, however, stands out amongst the other examples given. He writes: The poet essays the task of giving sensible form to the rational ideas of invisible beings, the kingdom of the blessed, hell, eternity, creation, and so 1 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. James Creed Meredith, ed. Nicholas Walker (New York: Oxford UP., 2007), 143/314.
2 2 forth. Or, again, as to things of which examples occur in experience, e.g. death, envy, and all vices, as also love, fame, and all the like, transgressing the limits of experience he attempts with the aid of an imagination, which in reaching for a maximum emulates the precedent of reason, to present them for the senses with a completeness of which nature affords no parallel. 2 Here, Kant addresses death as a rational idea which is given sensible form by the poet. Yet, all humans must die and most, if not all, have experienced death at some point in their lives. One would perhaps want to claim that there is a significant empirical difference between our experience of, say, envy and our experience of death. For example, we may be mistaken when we judge a person to be acting enviously; perhaps we missed some vital information or just did not know the person enough. However, a corpse is a corpse. But why is it that death, among the other perhaps more suitable examples, lends itself to be presented by the poet? What is it about Kant s notion of death that requires the imagination in order to give a full presentation to the senses? 3 The intention of this paper is, first and foremost, to examine Kant s notion of death and to argue that death indeed requires the imagination in order to have a full presentation. Hopefully, this can also aid substantially in understanding the relation between Kant s aesthetic and rational ideas. The mention of death comes amidst the discussion, in the Critique of Judgment, of ideas and of the, widely disputed, relation between rational and aesthetic ideas. The first step, then, is to explain these ideas as they are presented in the Third Critique. A rational idea, according to Kant, is a concept, to which no intuition (representation of the imagination) can be adequate. 4 The counterpart (pendant) to the rational idea would be the aesthetic idea. Kant describes this 2 Kant, Critique of Judgment, 143/ To my knowledge, an argument for or against death being an idea in Kant s thought has not been given. However, Henry Allison has made explicit that it is questionable, although he too falls short of actually providing some argument for this. He writes in a footnote, it is questionable whether some of these, e.g., death, really count as ideas in the Kantian sense, that is, involve the thought of a totality or completeness that can never be found in experience. Kant s Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001), 386. Footnote Kant, Critique of Judgment, 143/314. Italics added.
3 3 as: the representation of the imagination which evokes much thought yet without the possibility of any definitive thought whatever, i.e. concept, being adequate to it, and which language, consequently, can never quite fully capture or render completely intelligible. 5 In other words, if death is a rational idea, then we can assume here that Kant is also saying that there must be some such thing as an aesthetic idea of death. But perhaps more importantly, in labeling death a rational idea, Kant also reveals that what is of concern is our imagining about death. Kant writes that the imagination (as a productive faculty of cognition) is a powerful agent for creating, as it were, a second nature out of the material supplied to it by actual nature, and that these: representations of the imagination may be termed ideas. This is because they at least strain after something lying out beyond the confines of experience, and so seek to approximate to a presentation of rational concepts (i.e. intellectual ideas), thus giving to these concepts the semblance of an objective reality. But, on the other hand, there is this most important reason, that no concept can be wholly adequate to them as internal intuitions. 6 This is to say that no representation of the imagination, or aesthetic idea of death, can adequately depict the rational idea of death, probably because death as an aesthetic idea evokes much thought without a concept of death being adequate to it. 7 Nevertheless, an aesthetic idea, serves the above rational idea as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper task, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken. 8 In other words, Kant is clearly indicating a relation between these ideas, but, I would like to point out, there is also a large gap between them. By a gap, what is meant is that it seems as though the aesthetic idea (of death) strives to present the rational idea (of death). Yet, there is a disconnect. An aesthetic idea can be said to 5 Kant, Critique of Judgment, 142/314. Italics added. 6 Ibid., 143/ Ibid., 142/ Ibid., 144/315.
4 4 attempt to present a rational idea, yet, if we pay close attention to how Kant defines rational idea, we see that no intuition (representation of the imagination) can be adequate to the rational idea. 9 I will designate this gap as the epistemic gap, where, in essence, the claim is that there is no empirically certain way to determine whether the aesthetic idea actually does represent the rational idea adequately. The aim here is not to pose the epistemic gap as a problem, and much less to attempt to solve it. 10 Rather, the aim is to point this gap out as a particular characteristic that must be sought in the experience of death, as Kant understands it, in order to properly argue that death can be considered an idea. In order to carry this out, we will turn to the Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View to analyze the notion of death which Kant described there. In 27 of the Anthropology, Kant writes: [t]he complete suspension of sensation is called asphyxia, or apparent death, which as far as we can judge externally, may be distinguished from actual death (as in persons drowned, hanged, or suffocated) by its potential return to life. 11 In other words, a real death can be taken as the complete suspension of sensation when there is no potential for return to life. However, Kant adds: [n]obody can experience his own death (since it requires life in order to experience); he can only observe it in others.the natural fear of death is therefore not a fear of dying, but rather, as Montaigne rightly puts it, a fear of having died (that is of being dead). 12 So, according to Kant, one can experience death as the 9 Kant, Critique of Judgment, 143/ What I call here the epistemic gap has been widely discussed in the literature when dealing with symbolic hypotyposis. For example, Allison writes: But rather than concluding from this [the gap] that ideas cannot be exhibited in any sense, Kant now suggests that they can be indirectly exhibited by means of symbols, with the latter functionally defined as intuitions that exhibit a conceptual content in an indirect fashion by means of an analogy. Kant s Theory of Taste, 255. The work mostly centers on understanding how rational ideas can be indirectly represented according to Kant. See also: Rudolf A. Makkreel, Imagination and Interpretation: Kant, The Hermeneutical Import of the Critique of Judgment, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). Chapter 6 is of particular interest for this issue. 11 Immanuel Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, trans. Victor Lyle Dowdell, ed. Hans H. Rudnick (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1978), Ibid., 56.
5 5 apparent cessation of sensation in others, yet, one cannot experience the suspension of one s own sensation. First, it is important to note the extent of the concern Kant shows for biological death: even if there is cellular death in a person lying before me, this fact can give me no certainty with regards to the person s loss of sensation. In other words, at some point I must assume that sensation has ceased in the other in order to claim that that person is dead. The fact seems to be, for Kant, that there can be no certain knowledge of death. All that can be said with certainty about it is that one can judge another to be dead when one can safely assume that the body will show no more signs of being capable of sensation. This means, then, that life, or showing signs of life, would be determined through the capacity for sensation and the expressing of this capacity for sensation. This is as close as Kant gets to defining the experience of death, which interestingly does not include the experience of one s own death. However, even though Kant clearly states that, [n]obody can experience his own death, he does acknowledge the possibility the imagining being dead. This thought of being dead, Kant writes: is a thought the victim of death expects to entertain after dying, because he thinks of his corpse as himself, though it no longer is. This Kant calls a deception which cannot be removed because it is inherent in the nature of thinking as a way of speaking to oneself and of oneself. The thought, I am not, cannot exist at all; because if I am not, then it cannot occur to me that I am not. [T]o negate the subject itself when speaking in the first person (thereby destroying itself) is a contradiction. 13 There is something peculiar about this claim that imagining one s self as being dead is an unavoidable deception. This claim seems in need of some explaining. In order to do so, some backtracking is required to 24 of the Anthropology. In this section Kant is in the middle of a 13 Kant, Anthropology, 56.
6 6 classification of the five senses into external and inner senses (taste and smell belonging to the former; touch, hearing and sight to the latter). 14 He writes: The inner sense is not pure apperception, a consciousness of what man does, since that belongs to the faculty of thinking. The inner sense is rather a consciousness of what man experiences, as far as he is affected by his own play of thought. It is subject to inner perception and consequently based on the relation between ideas within time (whether they are simultaneous or successive).the perceptions of the inner sense and the inner experience (veridical or apparent) resulting from the combination of the perceptions cannot be considered as merely anthropological. Rather, the perceptions of the inner sense are psychological, whereby we believe that we perceive such a sense within ourselves. The mind, which is represented as a mere faculty of feeling and thinking, is regarded as a substance especially resident in man. There is but one inner sense then, because we do not have various organs of inner sensation, and because we might say that the soul is the organ of the inner sense of which it is said that it is subject to delusions which consist in one s taking internal phenomena either for external phenomena, that is, taking imagination for sensation, or even for inspiration prompted by another Being, which is not an object of external sense. 15 Kant is drawing an important distinction between being affected by physical things or by the mind. 16 The death of another can perhaps be considered an external phenomenon, but it would be a deception to take one s own death, i.e. one s being dead, as an experience in the same sense as the death of another, i.e. as an external phenomena. Rather, I will suggest, that one s own death should be considered an inner perception or internal phenomenon, which Kant, interestingly, equates to imagination. Kant describes the functioning of the imagination in 27 of the Anthropology as: a faculty of perception without the presence of the object, [imagination] is either productive, that is, a faculty of the original representation of the object (exhibitio originaria), which consequently precedes experience, or it is reproductive, that is, a faculty of derived representation (exhibitio 14 Kant, Anthropology, 54. The explanation of death is included in the section discussing the loss of the faculty of the senses. 15 Ibid., 49. Italics added. He continues: Illusion is then fanaticism or visionariness, and both are deceptions of the inner sense. In both instances there is mental illness, which lies in the inclination to accept the play of ideas of the inner sense as empirical knowledge, although it is only fiction, or to deceive ourselves by intuitions which are formed in accordance with such fictions (day dreaming). 16 Ibid., 40.
7 7 derivitiva), which recalls to mind a previous empirical perception. Imagination is, in other words, either poetical (productive), or merely recollective (reproductive). The productive faculty, however, is nevertheless not creative, because it does not have the power to produce a sense impression which has never before occurred to our senses. One can always identify the material which gave rise to that impression. 17 Our imaginings about death, then, could potentially be of two types: productive or derived. While there is the experience of the death of others, which can perhaps be argued to bring about derived imaginations, this experience is not the same as the experience of the death of one s self. Much less is it the same as experiencing the end of the inner sense, so that imagining one s own death cannot be a recollection. 18 It is being argued here, in other words, that one s own death is precisely a productive/poetical representation of the imagination, which is given rise through the experience of the death of the other. Even though there is no direct experience of one s own death, the imagination can represent one s own death because it can produce the sensation from experience of the cessation of sensation in others. To recap, according to Kant, as a human being one can experience the bodily death of another and death in another is confirmed by postulating that that body will not be capable of sensing any longer. From the Anthropology, it was seen that Kant distinguishes between inner perceptions, or internal phenomena, and external phenomena. Finally, it was seen that the idea of one s own death is dependent on the imagination (as a productive/poetical faculty), i.e., the idea of one s own death is an internal phenomenon. However, there is a problem here: Kant admits that one cannot imagine one s own demise, while at the same time holding that humans are doomed to imagine being dead! To make sense of this, it is useful to refer back to what was quoted above, namely, that the inner sense can imagine being. What it cannot do is imagine not being. So that the experience of another s bodily 17 Kant, Anthropology, I will return to this point further below.
8 8 death can lead to imagining one s own bodily death, but this internal phenomena, according to Kant, would be of being beyond bodily being. Yet, one would be deceived if one were to posit what one imagines as what actually occurs externally. That is to say, it would be a mistake to take as an empirical fact whatever one s imagination may conjure with regards to death. There is no sensation of a suspension of sensation, and thus there are no empirical grounds from which to claim any knowledge about the potential end of the soul, or of inner perception. 19 Nevertheless, while one cannot experience this cessation, or end, of the self, yet one can attempt to imagine it. But from what has been claimed about the imagination as the productive/poetical faculty, these imaginings, as far as one can know, give no certainty about one s own death because they are based on an entirely different experience, i.e. the death of another. In other words, what is being described here is precisely the epistemic gap that was described above regarding aesthetic and rational ideas. It has been argued here that death, as Kant understands it, must be considered a rational idea. From what has been described, death can 19 In one of the remarks in the Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, Kant writes: One reason why the representations of death do not have the effect that they could is that, as industrious beings, by nature we should not think about it at all. Immanuel Kant, Remarks in the Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, in Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and Other Writings, ed. Patrick Frierson and Paul Guyer (New York: Cambridge UP, 2011), 69. This remark is found on the title page of Kant s Observations. What I wish to extract from it is Kant s idea that thinking of death could have some effect upon us, despite the natural inclination to not think about death at all. A later remark is perhaps a little more telling: [t]hat the anticipation of death is not natural is to be seen from the fact that the consideration of death accomplishes nothing at all against the inclination to make preparations as if one were to live long, and the human being makes arrangements at the end of his life as seriously as if he would not [die] at all. From this, vanity and the thirst for glory after death may originate because the natural human being flees shame and knows nothing of death. Hence, the natural drive extends beyond death, which surpasses it. Ibid., 148. Despite the human ability to contemplate death, Kant is here complaining about the observation that the contemplation seems to change nothing. The fact that one knows nothing of death apparently lends itself more to searching for glory after death (I assume that here Kant is talking of bodily death). Still it is a bit unclear what Kant s intention is. One last remark may perhaps enlighten: I find this mistake [to be] almost universal: that one does not ponder the shortness of human life enough. It is surely perverse to have it in mind in order to despise human life and in order to look only towards the future one. But [one should have it in mind] so that one may live right at his position and not postpone it [life] too far through a foolish fantasy about the plan of our actions. The consideration of the nearness of death is agreeable in itself and a corrective for bringing human beings towards simplicity and for helping them towards the sensitive peace of the soul, which begins as soon as the blind ardor, with which one previously chased after the imagined objects of one s wishes, ceases. Ibid., 196. In short, the main point of quoting these remarks is to illustrate the importance Kant finds in the contemplation of death, despite epistemic limitations and any propensity to avoid thinking of it.
9 9 be experienced, to some extent, as the death of another. But even this experience is somewhat questionable because one ultimately must assume that the other is no longer capable of sensation. Moreover, the idea of one s own death, in particular, is, for Kant, a representation of the imagination as productive/poetical faculty. In other words, one can never really know that the imaginations conjured regarding death really live up to death as the cessation of sensation, for there is no experience of this phenomenon. So it can be claimed that the representations of death that can be imagined serve the above rational idea [death] as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper task, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken. 20 Thus, there is an epistemic gap between the representations the imagination produces and what the actual cessation of suspension may be. To conclude, the main goal was to argue that Kant was justified in claiming death to be a rational idea in the Critique of Judgment. Kant s understanding of death was shown to fit the description he supplied in the Third Critique of rational and aesthetic ideas. In particular, it was demonstrated that the characteristic epistemic gap of the relation between aesthetic and rational ideas was also present in the relation between the idea of death as the cessation of sensation and the imaginings that can be produced to attempt to depict what this experience may potentially be like. Ultimately, while much can still be said of this relation, the hope is that this paper can aid in opening new discussion about the relation between aesthetic and rational ideas while paying proper attention to the importance of Kant s Anthropology Kant, Critique of Judgment, 144/ A paper that attempts to delineate a the shifts in Kant s anthropology lectures with regard to Kant s evolving thought on aesthetics and teleology is Paul Guyer s Beauty, Freedom, and Morality: Kant s Lectures on Anthropology and the Development of His Aesthetic Theory, in Essays on Kant s Anthropology, ed. Brian Jacobs and Patrick Kain, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003), pp
10 10 Works Cited Allison, Henry. Kant s Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. Cambridge. Cambridge UP Kant, Immanuel. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Translated by Victor Lyle Dowdell. Edited by Hans H. Rudnick. Carbondale. Southern Illinois UP Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Translated by James Creed Meredith. Edited by Nicholas Walker. New York. Oxford UP Kant, Immanuel. Remarks in the Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, in Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and Other Writings. Edited by Patrick Frierson and Paul Guyer. New York. Cambridge UP. 2011,
that would join theoretical philosophy (metaphysics) and practical philosophy (ethics)?
Kant s Critique of Judgment 1 Critique of judgment Kant s Critique of Judgment (1790) generally regarded as foundational treatise in modern philosophical aesthetics no integration of aesthetic theory into
More informationTHESIS MIND AND WORLD IN KANT S THEORY OF SENSATION. Submitted by. Jessica Murski. Department of Philosophy
THESIS MIND AND WORLD IN KANT S THEORY OF SENSATION Submitted by Jessica Murski Department of Philosophy In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University
More information1/8. The Third Paralogism and the Transcendental Unity of Apperception
1/8 The Third Paralogism and the Transcendental Unity of Apperception This week we are focusing only on the 3 rd of Kant s Paralogisms. Despite the fact that this Paralogism is probably the shortest of
More informationConclusion. One way of characterizing the project Kant undertakes in the Critique of Pure Reason is by
Conclusion One way of characterizing the project Kant undertakes in the Critique of Pure Reason is by saying that he seeks to articulate a plausible conception of what it is to be a finite rational subject
More informationRethinking the Aesthetic Experience: Kant s Subjective Universality
Spring Magazine on English Literature, (E-ISSN: 2455-4715), Vol. II, No. 1, 2016. Edited by Dr. KBS Krishna URL of the Issue: www.springmagazine.net/v2n1 URL of the article: http://springmagazine.net/v2/n1/02_kant_subjective_universality.pdf
More informationKant s Critique of Judgment
PHI 600/REL 600: Kant s Critique of Judgment Dr. Ahmed Abdel Meguid Office Hours: Fr: 11:00-1:00 pm 512 Hall of Languagues E-mail: aelsayed@syr.edu Spring 2017 Description: Kant s Critique of Judgment
More informationREVIEW ARTICLE IDEAL EMBODIMENT: KANT S THEORY OF SENSIBILITY
Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 7, no. 2, 2011 REVIEW ARTICLE IDEAL EMBODIMENT: KANT S THEORY OF SENSIBILITY Karin de Boer Angelica Nuzzo, Ideal Embodiment: Kant
More informationKant: Notes on the Critique of Judgment
Kant: Notes on the Critique of Judgment First Moment: The Judgement of Taste is Disinterested. The Aesthetic Aspect Kant begins the first moment 1 of the Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment with the claim that
More informationGlen Carlson Electronic Media Art + Design, University of Denver
Emergent Aesthetics Glen Carlson Electronic Media Art + Design, University of Denver Abstract This paper does not attempt to redefine design or the concept of Aesthetics, nor does it attempt to study or
More informationNecessity in Kant; Subjective and Objective
Necessity in Kant; Subjective and Objective DAVID T. LARSON University of Kansas Kant suggests that his contribution to philosophy is analogous to the contribution of Copernicus to astronomy each involves
More informationJacek Surzyn University of Silesia Kant s Political Philosophy
1 Jacek Surzyn University of Silesia Kant s Political Philosophy Politics is older than philosophy. According to Olof Gigon in Ancient Greece philosophy was born in opposition to the politics (and the
More informationPhilosophy Pathways Issue th December 2016
Epistemological position of G.W.F. Hegel Sujit Debnath In this paper I shall discuss Epistemological position of G.W.F Hegel (1770-1831). In his epistemology Hegel discusses four sources of knowledge.
More informationKANT S TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC
KANT S TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC This part of the book deals with the conditions under which judgments can express truths about objects. Here Kant tries to explain how thought about objects given in space and
More informationKant Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, Preface, excerpts 1 Critique of Pure Reason, excerpts 2 PHIL101 Prof. Oakes updated: 9/19/13 12:13 PM
Kant Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, Preface, excerpts 1 Critique of Pure Reason, excerpts 2 PHIL101 Prof. Oakes updated: 9/19/13 12:13 PM Section II: What is the Self? Reading II.5 Immanuel Kant
More informationWhat do our appreciation of tonal music and tea roses, our acquisition of the concepts
Normativity and Purposiveness What do our appreciation of tonal music and tea roses, our acquisition of the concepts of a triangle and the colour green, and our cognition of birch trees and horseshoe crabs
More informationImmanuel Kant Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant Critique of Pure Reason THE A PRIORI GROUNDS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF EXPERIENCE THAT a concept, although itself neither contained in the concept of possible experience nor consisting of elements
More information1/10. The A-Deduction
1/10 The A-Deduction Kant s transcendental deduction of the pure concepts of understanding exists in two different versions and this week we are going to be looking at the first edition version. After
More informationHumanities 4: Lecture 19. Friedrich Schiller: On the Aesthetic Education of Man
Humanities 4: Lecture 19 Friedrich Schiller: On the Aesthetic Education of Man Biography of Schiller 1759-1805 Studied medicine Author, historian, dramatist, & poet The Robbers (1781) Ode to Joy (1785)
More informationNone DEREE COLLEGE SYLLABUS FOR: PH 4028 KANT AND GERMAN IDEALISM UK LEVEL 6 UK CREDITS: 15 US CREDITS: 3/0/3. (Updated SPRING 2016) PREREQUISITES:
DEREE COLLEGE SYLLABUS FOR: PH 4028 KANT AND GERMAN IDEALISM (Updated SPRING 2016) UK LEVEL 6 UK CREDITS: 15 US CREDITS: 3/0/3 PREREQUISITES: CATALOG DESCRIPTION: RATIONALE: LEARNING OUTCOMES: None The
More informationFrom Individuality to Universality: The Role of Aesthetic Education in Kant
ANTON KABESHKIN From Individuality to Universality: The Role of Aesthetic Education in Kant Immanuel Kant has long been held to be a rigorous moralist who denied the role of feelings in morality. Recent
More informationBiological Purposiveness and Analogical Reflection
1 Biological Purposiveness and Analogical Reflection Angela Breitenbach (forthcoming in: I. Goy and E. Watkins (eds), Kant s Theory of Biology, Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter) 1. Introduction In the
More informationThe Aesthetic Idea and the Unity of Cognitive Faculties in Kant's Aesthetics
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Philosophy Theses Department of Philosophy 7-18-2008 The Aesthetic Idea and the Unity of Cognitive Faculties in Kant's Aesthetics Maria
More informationCategories and Schemata
Res Cogitans Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 10 7-26-2010 Categories and Schemata Anthony Schlimgen Creighton University Follow this and additional works at: http://commons.pacificu.edu/rescogitans Part of the
More informationc. MP claims that this is one s primary knowledge of the world and as it is not conscious as is evident in the case of the phantom limb patient
Dualism 1. Intro 2. The dualism between physiological and psychological a. The physiological explanations of the phantom limb do not work accounts for it as the suppression of the stimuli that should cause
More informationThe Kantian and Hegelian Sublime
43 Yena Lee Yena Lee E tymologically related to the broaching of limits, the sublime constitutes a phenomenon of surpassing grandeur or awe. Kant and Hegel both investigate the sublime as a key element
More information1/9. The B-Deduction
1/9 The B-Deduction The transcendental deduction is one of the sections of the Critique that is considerably altered between the two editions of the work. In a work published between the two editions of
More informationKant IV The Analogies The Schematism updated: 2/2/12. Reading: 78-88, In General
Kant IV The Analogies The Schematism updated: 2/2/12 Reading: 78-88, 100-111 In General The question at this point is this: Do the Categories ( pure, metaphysical concepts) apply to the empirical order?
More information1/8. Axioms of Intuition
1/8 Axioms of Intuition Kant now turns to working out in detail the schematization of the categories, demonstrating how this supplies us with the principles that govern experience. Prior to doing so he
More informationImmanuel Kant, the author of the Copernican revolution in philosophy,
Aporia vol. 21 no. 1 2011 A Semantic Explanation of Harmony in Kant s Aesthetics Shae McPhee Immanuel Kant, the author of the Copernican revolution in philosophy, won renown for being a pioneer in the
More informationThe Teaching Method of Creative Education
Creative Education 2013. Vol.4, No.8A, 25-30 Published Online August 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.48a006 The Teaching Method of Creative Education
More informationA Comprehensive Critical Study of Gadamer s Hermeneutics
REVIEW A Comprehensive Critical Study of Gadamer s Hermeneutics Kristin Gjesdal: Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xvii + 235 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-50964-0
More informationHuman Finitude and the Dialectics of Experience
Human Finitude and the Dialectics of Experience A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for an Honours degree in Philosophy, Murdoch University, 2016. Kyle Gleadell, B.A., Murdoch University
More informationKANT S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
KANT S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE By Dr. Marsigit, M.A. Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Email: marsigitina@yahoo.com, Web: http://powermathematics.blogspot.com HomePhone: 62 274 886 381; MobilePhone:
More informationPhilosophical Background to 19 th Century Modernism
Philosophical Background to 19 th Century Modernism Early Modern Philosophy In the sixteenth century, European artists and philosophers, influenced by the rise of empirical science, faced a formidable
More informationThe Second Copernican Turn of Kant s Philosophy 1
Filozofski vestnik Volume XXXVII Number 2 2016 273 288 Rado Riha* The Second Copernican Turn of Kant s Philosophy 1 What I set out to do in this essay is something modest: to put forth a broader claim
More informationA Study of the Bergsonian Notion of <Sensibility>
A Study of the Bergsonian Notion of Ryu MURAKAMI Although rarely pointed out, Henri Bergson (1859-1941), a French philosopher, in his later years argues on from his particular
More information1/6. The Anticipations of Perception
1/6 The Anticipations of Perception The Anticipations of Perception treats the schematization of the category of quality and is the second of Kant s mathematical principles. As with the Axioms of Intuition,
More informationPierre Hadot on Philosophy as a Way of Life. Pierre Hadot ( ) was a French philosopher and historian of ancient philosophy,
Adam Robbert Philosophical Inquiry as Spiritual Exercise: Ancient and Modern Perspectives California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, CA Thursday, April 19, 2018 Pierre Hadot on Philosophy
More informationReview of Carolyn Korsmeyer, Savoring Disgust: The foul and the fair. in aesthetics (Oxford University Press pp (PBK).
Review of Carolyn Korsmeyer, Savoring Disgust: The foul and the fair in aesthetics (Oxford University Press. 2011. pp. 208. 18.99 (PBK).) Filippo Contesi This is a pre-print. Please refer to the published
More informationMoral Judgment and Emotions
The Journal of Value Inquiry (2004) 38: 375 381 DOI: 10.1007/s10790-005-1636-z C Springer 2005 Moral Judgment and Emotions KYLE SWAN Department of Philosophy, National University of Singapore, 3 Arts Link,
More informationArchitecture as the Psyche of a Culture
Roger Williams University DOCS@RWU School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation 2010 John S. Hendrix Roger Williams
More informationAre There Two Theories of Goodness in the Republic? A Response to Santas. Rachel Singpurwalla
Are There Two Theories of Goodness in the Republic? A Response to Santas Rachel Singpurwalla It is well known that Plato sketches, through his similes of the sun, line and cave, an account of the good
More information4 Unity in Variety: Theoretical, Practical and Aesthetic Reason in Kant
4 Unity in Variety: Theoretical, Practical and Aesthetic Reason in Kant Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the young Friedrich Schlegel wrote: The end of humanity is to achieve harmony in knowing,
More informationThe Pure Concepts of the Understanding and Synthetic A Priori Cognition: the Problem of Metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason and a Solution
The Pure Concepts of the Understanding and Synthetic A Priori Cognition: the Problem of Metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason and a Solution Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Kyushu University, Japan The European
More informationIntelligible Matter in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Lonergan. by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB
Intelligible Matter in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Lonergan by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB In his In librum Boethii de Trinitate, q. 5, a. 3 [see The Division and Methods of the Sciences: Questions V and VI of
More informationA New Look at Kant s Theory of Pleasure 1
RACHEL ZUCKERT A New Look at Kant s Theory of Pleasure 1 In 1787, Kant announced in a now famous letter that he was embarking on a critique of taste, because he had discovered an a priori principle for
More informationBas C. van Fraassen, Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Bas C. van Fraassen, Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective, Oxford University Press, 2008. Reviewed by Christopher Pincock, Purdue University (pincock@purdue.edu) June 11, 2010 2556 words
More informationPeircean concept of sign. How many concepts of normative sign are needed. How to clarify the meaning of the Peircean concept of sign?
How many concepts of normative sign are needed About limits of applying Peircean concept of logical sign University of Tampere Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Philosophy Peircean concept of
More informationChapter 11. Æsthetic Judgements are Necessary by Immanuel Kant
Chapter 11 Æsthetic Judgements are Necessary by Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (detail) Antiquity Project About the author... Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) studied in Königsberg, East Prussia. Before he fully
More informationPhenomenology Glossary
Phenomenology Glossary Phenomenology: Phenomenology is the science of phenomena: of the way things show up, appear, or are given to a subject in their conscious experience. Phenomenology tries to describe
More informationA Confusion of the term Subjectivity in the philosophy of Mind *
A Confusion of the term Subjectivity in the philosophy of Mind * Chienchih Chi ( 冀劍制 ) Assistant professor Department of Philosophy, Huafan University, Taiwan ( 華梵大學 ) cchi@cc.hfu.edu.tw Abstract In this
More informationMaking Modal Distinctions: Kant on the possible, the actual, and the intuitive understanding.
Making Modal Distinctions: Kant on the possible, the actual, and the intuitive understanding. Jessica Leech Abstract One striking contrast that Kant draws between the kind of cognitive capacities that
More informationThe Role of Imagination in Kant's Theory of Reflective Judgment. Johannes Haag
The Role of Imagination in Kant's Theory of Reflective Judgment Johannes Haag University of Potsdam "You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus" Mark Twain The central question
More informationIMPORTANT QUOTATIONS
IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 1) NB: Spontaneity is to natural order as freedom is to the moral order. a) It s hard to overestimate the importance of the concept of freedom is for German Idealism and its abiding
More informationTruth and Method in Unification Thought: A Preparatory Analysis
Truth and Method in Unification Thought: A Preparatory Analysis Keisuke Noda Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy Unification Theological Seminary New York, USA Abstract This essay gives a preparatory
More informationSummary of the Transcendental Ideas
Summary of the Transcendental Ideas I. Rational Physics The General Idea Unity in the synthesis of appearances. Quantity (Axioms of Intuition) Theoretical Standpoint As regards their intuition, all appearances
More informationRousseau on the Nature of Nature and Political Philosophy
Rousseau on the Nature of Nature and Political Philosophy Our theme is the relation between modern reductionist science and political philosophy. The question is whether political philosophy can meet the
More informationPlato s work in the philosophy of mathematics contains a variety of influential claims and arguments.
Philosophy 405: Knowledge, Truth and Mathematics Spring 2014 Hamilton College Russell Marcus Class #3 - Plato s Platonism Sample Introductory Material from Marcus and McEvoy, An Historical Introduction
More informationTERMS & CONCEPTS. The Critical Analytic Vocabulary of the English Language A GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL THINKING
Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. BENJAMIN LEE WHORF, American Linguist A GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL THINKING TERMS & CONCEPTS The Critical Analytic Vocabulary of the
More informationAnthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View Preface 1 All cultural progress, by means of which the human being advances his education, 2 has the goal of applying this acquired knowledge and skill for the
More informationCulture and Art Criticism
Culture and Art Criticism Dr. Wagih Fawzi Youssef May 2013 Abstract This brief essay sheds new light on the practice of art criticism. Commencing by the definition of a work of art as contingent upon intuition,
More informationFelt Evaluations: A Theory of Pleasure and Pain. Bennett Helm (2002) Slides by Jeremiah Tillman
Felt Evaluations: A Theory of Pleasure and Pain Bennett Helm (2002) Slides by Jeremiah Tillman Introduction Helm s big picture: Pleasure and pain aren t isolated phenomenal bodily states, but are conceptually
More informationA new sort of a priori principles Psychological Taxonomies and the Origin of the Third Critique
Date:24/10/17 Time:00:00:19 Page Number: 107 C H A P T E R 6 A new sort of a priori principles Psychological Taxonomies and the Origin of the Third Critique Patrick Frierson In Early German Philosophy,
More informationSchopenhauer's Metaphysics of Music
By Harlow Gale The Wagner Library Edition 1.0 Harlow Gale 2 The Wagner Library Contents About this Title... 4 Schopenhauer's Metaphysics of Music... 5 Notes... 9 Articles related to Richard Wagner 3 Harlow
More informationSyllabus Fall 2017! PHIL721 Advanced Seminar in Philosophy:! Kant s Critique of Judgment!
Syllabus Fall 2017 PHIL721 Advanced Seminar in Philosophy: Kant s Critique of Judgment Tuesday, 4:30pm - 7:10pm Nguyen Engineering Building 1110 Prof. Rachel Jones Office: Robinson B465A e-mail: rjones23@gmu.edu
More informationPhilosophy of History
Philosophy of History Week 3: Hegel Dr Meade McCloughan 1 teleological In history, we must look for a general design [Zweck], the ultimate end [Endzweck] of the world (28) generally, the development of
More informationPractical Action First Critique Foundations *
Practical Action First Critique Foundations * Adrian M. S. Piper Both European and Anglo-American philosophical traditions of Kant scholarship draw a sharp distinction between Kant s theoretical and practical
More informationWhat is the Object of Thinking Differently?
Filozofski vestnik Volume XXXVIII Number 3 2017 91 100 Rado Riha* What is the Object of Thinking Differently? I will begin with two remarks. The first concerns the title of our meeting, Penser autrement
More informationExistential Cause & Individual Experience
Existential Cause & Individual Experience 226 Article Steven E. Kaufman * ABSTRACT The idea that what we experience as physical-material reality is what's actually there is the flat Earth idea of our time.
More informationobservation and conceptual interpretation
1 observation and conceptual interpretation Most people will agree that observation and conceptual interpretation constitute two major ways through which human beings engage the world. Questions about
More informationAesthetics and Cognition in Kant s Critical Philosophy
Aesthetics and Cognition in Kant s Critical Philosophy This volume explores the relationship between Kant s aesthetic theory and his critical epistemology as articulated in the Critique of Pure Reason
More informationF14_A /17/15 concept modeling. +getting creative
F14_A305 1 workshop 1 10/17/15 concept modeling introduction getting lit erate erate +getting creative Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel
More informationCHAPTER 2: KANT S EMPIRICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
CHAPTER 2: KANT S EMPIRICAL ANTHROPOLOGY In the previous chapter, we examined Kant s transcendental anthropology, his examination of the cognitive, volitional, and affective dimensions of the human being
More informationBook Review. John Dewey s Philosophy of Spirit, with the 1897 Lecture on Hegel. Jeff Jackson. 130 Education and Culture 29 (1) (2013):
Book Review John Dewey s Philosophy of Spirit, with the 1897 Lecture on Hegel Jeff Jackson John R. Shook and James A. Good, John Dewey s Philosophy of Spirit, with the 1897 Lecture on Hegel. New York:
More informationPH th Century Philosophy Ryerson University Department of Philosophy Mondays, 3-6pm Fall 2010
PH 8117 19 th Century Philosophy Ryerson University Department of Philosophy Mondays, 3-6pm Fall 2010 Professor: David Ciavatta Office: JOR-420 Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1-3pm Email: david.ciavatta@ryerson.ca
More informationSelf-Consciousness and Knowledge
Self-Consciousness and Knowledge Kant argues that the unity of self-consciousness, that is, the unity in virtue of which representations so unified are mine, is the same as the objective unity of apperception,
More informationCreative Actualization: A Meliorist Theory of Values
Book Review Creative Actualization: A Meliorist Theory of Values Nate Jackson Hugh P. McDonald, Creative Actualization: A Meliorist Theory of Values. New York: Rodopi, 2011. xxvi + 361 pages. ISBN 978-90-420-3253-8.
More informationENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCE: Beyond Aesthetic Subjectivism and Objectivism
THE THINGMOUNT WORKING PAPER SERIES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONSERVATION ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCE: Beyond Aesthetic Subjectivism and Objectivism by Veikko RANTALLA TWP 99-04 ISSN: 1362-7066 (Print) ISSN:
More informationTHE CRITIQUE OF JUDGEMENT PART 1: CRITIQUE OF AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT
THE CRITIQUE OF JUDGEMENT PART 1: CRITIQUE OF AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT BY IMMANUEL KANT TRANSLATED BY JAMES CREED MEREDITH 1790, THIS TRANSLATION 1911 The Critique of Judgement Part 1: Critique of Aesthetic
More informationThe Senses at first let in particular Ideas. (Essay Concerning Human Understanding I.II.15)
Michael Lacewing Kant on conceptual schemes INTRODUCTION Try to imagine what it would be like to have sensory experience but with no ability to think about it. Thinking about sensory experience requires
More informationErgo. Kant On Animal Minds. 1. Introduction. Clark University
Ergo an open access journal of philosophy Kant On Animal Minds Naomi Fisher Clark University Kant s Critical philosophy seems to leave very little room to account for the mental lives of animals, since
More informationKant on Unity in Experience
Kant on Unity in Experience Diana Mertz Hsieh (diana@dianahsieh.com) Kant (Phil 5010, Hanna) 15 November 2004 The Purpose of the Transcendental Deduction In the B Edition of the Transcendental Deduction
More information«Only the revival of Kant's transcendentalism can be an [possible] outlet for contemporary philosophy»
Sergey L. Katrechko (Moscow, Russia, National Research University Higher School of Economics; skatrechko@gmail.com) Transcendentalism as a Special Type of Philosophizing and the Transcendental Paradigm
More informationArticle The Nature of Quantum Reality: What the Phenomena at the Heart of Quantum Theory Reveal About the Nature of Reality (Part III)
January 2014 Volume 5 Issue 1 pp. 65-84 65 Article The Nature of Quantum Reality: What the Phenomena at the Heart of Quantum Theory Reveal About the Nature Steven E. Kaufman * ABSTRACT What quantum theory
More informationRESPONSE AND REJOINDER
RESPONSE AND REJOINDER Imagination and Learning: A Reply to Kieran Egan MAXINE GREENE Teachers College, Columbia University I welcome Professor Egan s drawing attention to the importance of the imagination,
More informationThe Debate on Research in the Arts
Excerpts from The Debate on Research in the Arts 1 The Debate on Research in the Arts HENK BORGDORFF 2007 Research definitions The Research Assessment Exercise and the Arts and Humanities Research Council
More informationNarrating the Self: Parergonality, Closure and. by Holly Franking. hermeneutics focus attention on the transactional aspect of the aesthetic
Narrating the Self: Parergonality, Closure and by Holly Franking Many recent literary theories, such as deconstruction, reader-response, and hermeneutics focus attention on the transactional aspect of
More informationEmbodied music cognition and mediation technology
Embodied music cognition and mediation technology Briefly, what it is all about: Embodied music cognition = Experiencing music in relation to our bodies, specifically in relation to body movements, both
More informationPractical Intuition and Rhetorical Example. Paul Schollmeier
Practical Intuition and Rhetorical Example Paul Schollmeier I Let us assume with the classical philosophers that we have a faculty of theoretical intuition, through which we intuit theoretical principles,
More informationDurham Research Online
Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 15 May 2017 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Not peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Schmidt, Jeremy J. (2014)
More informationChapter 2: The Early Greek Philosophers MULTIPLE CHOICE
Chapter 2: The Early Greek Philosophers MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. Viewing all of nature as though it were alive is called: A. anthropomorphism B. animism C. primitivism D. mysticism ANS: B DIF: factual REF: The
More informationSemiotics of culture. Some general considerations
Semiotics of culture. Some general considerations Peter Stockinger Introduction Studies on cultural forms and practices and in intercultural communication: very fashionable, to-day used in a great diversity
More informationImage and Imagination
* Budapest University of Technology and Economics Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest Abstract. Some argue that photographic and cinematic images are transparent ; we see objects through
More informationCopyright Nikolaos Bogiatzis 1. Athenaeum Fragment 116. Romantic poetry is a progressive, universal poetry. Its aim isn t merely to reunite all the
Copyright Nikolaos Bogiatzis 1 Athenaeum Fragment 116 Romantic poetry is a progressive, universal poetry. Its aim isn t merely to reunite all the separate species of poetry and put poetry in touch with
More informationImpact of the Fundamental Tension between Poetic Craft and the Scientific Principles which Lucretius Introduces in De Rerum Natura
JoHanna Przybylowski 21L.704 Revision of Assignment #1 Impact of the Fundamental Tension between Poetic Craft and the Scientific Principles which Lucretius Introduces in De Rerum Natura In his didactic
More informationThe Problem of Free Harmony in KANT S AESTHETICS
The Problem of Free Harmony in KANT S AESTHETICS The Problem of Free Harmony in KANT S AESTHETICS Kenneth F. Rogerson STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Published by State University of New York Press,
More informationCould Hume Save His Account of Personal Identity? On the Role of Contiguity in the Constitution of Our Idea of Personal Identity 1
Prolegomena 11 (2) 2012: 181 195 Could Hume Save His Account of Personal Identity? On the Role of Contiguity in the Constitution of Our Idea of Personal Identity 1 FAUVE LYBAERT University of Leuven, Institute
More informationAristotle. Aristotle. Aristotle and Plato. Background. Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle and Plato
Aristotle Aristotle Lived 384-323 BC. He was a student of Plato. Was the tutor of Alexander the Great. Founded his own school: The Lyceum. He wrote treatises on physics, cosmology, biology, psychology,
More informationBy Rahel Jaeggi Suhrkamp, 2014, pbk 20, ISBN , 451pp. by Hans Arentshorst
271 Kritik von Lebensformen By Rahel Jaeggi Suhrkamp, 2014, pbk 20, ISBN 9783518295878, 451pp by Hans Arentshorst Does contemporary philosophy need to concern itself with the question of the good life?
More informationThe Confluence of Aesthetics and Hermeneutics in Baumgarten, Meier, and Kant
RUDOLF A. MAKKREEL The Confluence of Aesthetics and Hermeneutics in Baumgarten, Meier, and Kant In the eighteenth century we see the rise of modern aesthetics as a distinct philosophical discipline in
More information