The existence of God: only God could establish the summum bonum
Summum bonum
Summum bonum is a Latin expression meaning "the highest good", which was introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero, to correspond to the Idea of the Good in ancient Greek philosophy. The summum bonum is generally thought of as being an end in itself, and at the same time containing all other goods.
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What is Kant's view of logical reasoning?
In the Introduction to the Transcendental Dialectic, Kant distinguishes “logical” from “real” or “pure” uses of reason. The logical use of reason represents a “subordinate faculty” (A305/B362) of drawing inferences (syllogisms), and Kant says relatively little about it in the Critique. It is the “pure” use, whereby reason “itself contains the origin of certain concepts and principles” (A299/B355), that demands critique: hence, of course, the book’s title. For extended discussion of this distinction, see Patrone 2008: Ch. 3.
What is the name of the essay Kant wrote about the distinctness of the principles of natural theology and morality?
14. Kant was already clear about this in the so-called “Prize essay, ” an “Inquiry concerning the distinctness of the principles of natural theology and morality” (1764). He expands on the point in the first Critique ’s Doctrine of Method, in the section entitled, “The Discipline of Pure Reason”; cf. Bx ff.
What is the study of young children's knowledge of the world by Jean Piaget?
O’Neill 1984, which draws on Jean Piaget’s studies of young children’s knowledge of the world. When asked whether the number of beads will stay the same when they are spread out over a longer distance, for instance, children below a certain age will assume that the number of beads has increased.
What is the maxim of reason that is never passive?
Kant’s words repay close reading: To think for oneself “is the maxim of reason that is never passive. The tendency [to passivity], hence to heteronomy of reason, is called prejudice; and the greatest prejudice of all is representing reason as if it were not subject to the rules of nature, i.e. superstition.
What is Kant's comment in the Prolegomena?
Cf. Kant’s comment in the Prolegomena: “High towers and the metaphysically-great men who resemble them, around both of which there is usually so much wind, are not for me.” (4:373n)
Is O'Neill's work considered Kantian reason?
Remarkably, O’Neill’s work is not considered in the most important study on Kantian reason to appear since this entry was first written. Ferrarin 2015 emphasizes the autonomy and activity of reason, and some of the same metaphors as O’Neill.
Is Kant pessimistic about the results of good action?
Kant is not totally pessimistic about the results of good action —in his Lectures on Ethics , he comments, “if only all men together were unanimously willing to promote their happiness, we might make a paradise of Novaya Zemlya” (Collins, 27:285f).
What does Kant argue about the legitimate domain of reason?
But Kant also argues that the legitimate domain of reason is more extensive and more substantive than previous empiricist critiques had allowed. In this way Kant salvages (or attempts to) much of the prevailing Enlightenment conception of reason as an organ for knowledge of the world.
How does Kant characterize the mind?
Kant characterizes the mind along two fundamental axes – first by the various kinds of powers which it possesses and second by the results of exercising those powers.
What does Kant say about intuition?
Kant contrasts the particularity of intuition with the generality of concepts in the “stepladder” passage. Specifically, Kant says a concept is related to its object via “a mark, which can be common to many things” (A320/B377).
How does Kant distinguish the three mental faculties?
First, he construes sensibility as the specific manner in which human beings, as well as other animals, are receptive. This is in contrast with the faculties of understanding and reason, which are forms of human, or all rational beings, spontaneity. Second, Kant distinguishes the faculties by their output. All of the mental faculties produce representations. We can see these distinctions at work in what is generally called the “stepladder” [ Stufenleiter] passage from the Transcendental Dialectic of Kant’s major work, the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/7). This is one of the few places in the entire Kantian corpus where Kant explicitly discusses the meanings of and relations between his technical terms, and defines and classifies varieties of representation.
What is the difference between inner and outer intuition?
The domain of outer intuition concerns the spatial world of material objects while the domain of inner intuition concerns temporally ordered states of mind.
What does Kant think about the central parts of human knowledge?
But, like Descartes and Leibniz, Kant thinks that central parts of human knowledge nevertheless exhibit characteristics of necessity and universality, and that, contrary to Hume’s skeptical arguments, there is good reason to think so.
Why is Kant conscious?
They are nevertheless, to some degree, conscious, because they allow differential discrimination of elements from the subject’s environment. Kant thinks the process of making a representation clear, or fully conscious, requires a higher-order representation of the relevant representation.
What does Kant say about emotions?
Kant does not have a single genus term for "emotion". Rather, he invokes a dizzying array of terms for mental states that might -- arguably -- be thought of as varieties of "emotion". He speaks of affects ( Affekten) and passions ( Leidenschaften ), inclination ( Neigung) and desire ( Begierde ), feeling ( Gefühl) of various kinds, including several modes of moral feeling; he devoted half of a Critique to the particular ways in which we enjoy beauty and sublimity; he has interesting things to say about epistemic feelings, like admiration or wonderment ( Bewunderung) and astonishment ( Verwunderung) and the pleasures of comprehension; he ponders the disorienting effects of anger, and the soul-sapping forces of hatred and ambition. But do these mental states share something in virtue of which they can all be thought of as modes of human emotion? Surprisingly, Borges does not consider this question, although she acknowledges a few times that Kant does not -- at least not obviously -- have a term for "emotion" at all. (The term Rührung, perhaps most naturally rendered "emotion" in English, is narrowly associated with the feeling for the sublime in Kant's account.)
What is Kant's conception of apperception?
Likewise, the upshot of Kant's conception of apperception, the self-consciousness internal to rational thought as such, for action generally is plausibly that we act on maxims whenever we act intentionally at all, regardless of how thoughtful or reflective we might be (or not) about what those maxims are (see, e.g., Korsgaard, 2009).
Does Borges think Kant has emotion?
Surprisingly, Borges does not consider this question, although she acknowledges a few times that Kant does not -- at least not obviously -- have a term for "emotion" at all. (The term Rührung, perhaps most naturally rendered "emotion" in English, is narrowly associated with the feeling for the sublime in Kant's account.)
Did Kant have a good moral life?
According to a well-worn caricature, Immanuel Kant took the business of morality to be a matter for the pure rational will, and consequently did not accord much room for emotion in a morally good life. The caricature, of course, does not rule out the possibility of a place for emotion in the parts of human life that might be thought to fall outside the immediate scope of morality. Indeed, when we look to Kant's treatment of some of these other dimensions of human life -- such as his view of aesthetic judgment, and his pioneering work in anthropology -- we find he has a considerable amount to say about the wide range of human emotion. Moreover, when we give Kant's later works in moral philosophy their due, we are much less likely to think of Kantian ethics as a cold and bloodless affair. Maria Borges's book belongs to a tradition of Kant scholarship that eschews the well-worn caricature -- aiming to do so by drawing attention to the wide-ranging significance of emotion in Kant's philosophy.
Can we decide whether or not to perform a correct action?
But we cannot decide whether it is appropriate to feel anger in a particular situation. (94)
Who wrote the critique of the power of judgment?
Kant, I. 2000. Critique of the Power of Judgment, ed. Paul Guyer. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Does Kant believe in maxims?
However, it is not obvious that Kant understands acting on maxims in this way. His emphasis on the difficulty of even identifying what our maxims are (see e.g., Religion 6:20) suggests that our actions express commitment to maxims in a manner that may be independent of overt deliberation or "deciding" what to do. Likewise, the upshot of Kant's conception of apperception, the self-consciousness internal to rational thought as such, for action generally is plausibly that we act on maxims whenever we act intentionally at all, regardless of how thoughtful or reflective we might be (or not) about what those maxims are (see, e.g., Korsgaard, 2009). Commitment to maxims is, at least plausibly, the basis of rational agency according to Kant; such commitment is not necessarily (and perhaps not even typically) the result of overt deliberation or deciding what to do. Of course, the Kantian conception of rationality remains open to debate, and this is not to say that Borges ought to have taken this or that position on it. It is to say, however, that her aim to explain "the real importance of emotion for Kant" might have gained a more determinate point of reference if her leading chapter had tackled such systematic questions.
Why did Rene think he must exist?
Rene could not doubt that he was thinking, which led him to the inevitable conclusion that he must actually exist in order to generate thoughts about his own existence as a thinking individual.
What allowed society to have the ability of "Freedom of Speech" and to question ad criticize the social?
Satire allowed society to have the ability of "Freedom of Speech" and to question ad criticize the social norm during that time period.
What was the purpose of the Jesuits?
All agreed that the purpose of religious art was to teach and inspire the faithful, that it should always be intelligible and realistic, and that it should be an emotional stimulus to piety.
Kant’s Theory of Cognition
Consciousness
- The notion of consciousness [Bewußtsein] plays an important role in Kant’s philosophy. There are, however, several different senses of “consciousness” in play in Kant’s work, not all of which line up with contemporary philosophical usage. Below, several of Kant’s most central notions and their differences from and relations to contemporary usage are explained.
Concepts and Perception
- During the discussion of synthesis above, conceptualism was characterized as claiming there is a dependent relation between a subject having conscious sensory experience of an objective world and the repertoire of concepts possessed by the subject and exercised by her faculty of understanding. As a first pass at sharpening this formulation, understand conceptualism as a th…
Rational Psychology and Self-Knowledge
- Kant discusses the nature and limits of our self-knowledge most extensively in the first Critique, in a section of the Transcendental Dialectic called the “Paralogisms of Pure Reason.” Here, Kant is concerned to criticize the claims of what he calls “rational psychology.” Specifically, he is concerned about the claim that we can have substantive, metaphysical knowledge of the nature …
Summary
- Kant’s conception of the mind, his distinction between sensory and intellectual faculties, his functionalism, his conception of mental content, and his work on the nature of the subject/object distinction, were all hugely influential. His work immediately inspired the German Idealist movement. He also became central to emerging ideas concerning the epistemology of science i…
References and Further Reading
- Quotations from Kant’s work are from the German edition of Kant’s works, the Akademie Ausgabe, with the first Critiquecited by the standard A/B edition pagination, and the other works by volume and page. English translations belong to the author of this article article, though he has regularly consulted, and in most cases closely followed, translations from the Cambridge Editions. Specifi…