Difficulty Still Awaits: Kant, Spinoza, and the Threat of Theological Determinism
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Kimberly Brewer
Abstract
In a short and much-neglected passage in the second Critique, Kant discusses the threat posed to human freedom by theological determinism. In this paper we present an interpretation of Kant’s conception of and response to this threat. Regarding his conception, we argue that he addresses two versions of the threat: either God causes appearances (and hence our spatio-temporal actions) directly or he does so indirectly by causing things in themselves which in turn cause appearances. Kant’s response to the first version is that God cannot cause appearances directly because they depend essentially on the passive sensibility of finite beings. Kant’s response to the second version is that human beings are endowed with transcendental freedom, which blocks the causal transitivity that is presupposed by this version. We also contrast his position on this topic with Leibniz’s and Spinoza’s.
© 2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Titelseiten
- The completeness of Kant’s metaphysical exposition of space
- Difficulty Still Awaits: Kant, Spinoza, and the Threat of Theological Determinism
- Logica naturalis, Healthy Understanding and the Reflecting Power of Judgment in Kant’s Philosophy
- Beauty, Disinterested Pleasure, and Universal Communicability: Kant’s Response to Burke
- Remarque philologique sur le terme «Classe» dans le § 11 de la Critique de la raison pure
- Das Manuskript von Kants Brief an Kiesewetter vom 13. Oktober 1797
- „Mein Leben gleicht einem Roman …“: Kants Schüler Friedrich August Hahnrieder und seine Geschichte
- Buchbesprechungen
- Mitgliederversammlung der Kant-Gesellschaft
- Mainzer Kant-Symposium 2012
- 10.1515/kant-2012-0019
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Titelseiten
- The completeness of Kant’s metaphysical exposition of space
- Difficulty Still Awaits: Kant, Spinoza, and the Threat of Theological Determinism
- Logica naturalis, Healthy Understanding and the Reflecting Power of Judgment in Kant’s Philosophy
- Beauty, Disinterested Pleasure, and Universal Communicability: Kant’s Response to Burke
- Remarque philologique sur le terme «Classe» dans le § 11 de la Critique de la raison pure
- Das Manuskript von Kants Brief an Kiesewetter vom 13. Oktober 1797
- „Mein Leben gleicht einem Roman …“: Kants Schüler Friedrich August Hahnrieder und seine Geschichte
- Buchbesprechungen
- Mitgliederversammlung der Kant-Gesellschaft
- Mainzer Kant-Symposium 2012
- 10.1515/kant-2012-0019
