Volume 107, Issue 4

Abstract: I argue that Kant’s commitment to the existence of things in themselves takes the form of a commitment short of knowledge that does not violate the limitations on knowledge which he lays down. I will argue that Kant’s commitment fits his description of what he calls “doctrinal belief”: acceptance of the existence of things in themselves which is subjectively sufficient but not objectively sufficient. I outline two ways in which we accept the existence of things in themselves which are subjectively sufficient. First, we must accept the existence of appearances, which requires us to accept the existence of things in themselves. Second, we must accept the existence of an unconditioned ground of appearances.

Abstract: In his critical works, Kant specifies the concept of “intellectual intuition” in three different ways. First, he identifies intellectual intuition with God’s original intuition. Second, he describes intellectual intuition as non-sensible intuition that can apprehend noumenal objects. And third, he characterizes a kind of non-discursive but intellectual perception as intuitive understanding. The paper points out that this ambiguity is coherent by considering the polemical context in which Kant criticizes rationalistic metaphysics and epistemology, especially the views of Spinoza and Leibniz. In addition, it is shown that “moderate” rationalism in contemporary epistemology ignores Kant’s decisive criticism of the view that non-sensible intuition can justify philosophical knowledge.

Abstract: In ethics, deductivism strives for self-evident premises as a foundation for normative claims, whereas coherentism seeks moral justification in relations between abstract normative claims and moral judgments. While Immanuel Kant is still widely believed to have pursued a deductivist project, the article contends that he endeavored to justify his moral philosophy in general, and the Categorical Imperative in particular, in the coherentist manner that has since been advocated by John Rawls. First, the characteristics of Rawls’s method of reflective equilibrium are summarized and traced within Kant’s writings. The resulting coherentist interpretation is then defended against the opposing view that Kant’s appeal to the ‘fact of reason’ proves his adherence to ethical intuitionism.

Abstract: Kant uses the concept ‘system’ in three ways: It is applied to all natural and cultural combinations of elements, it designates the final structure of his own philosophy, and it is applied to cultural structures with four elements in the pattern 1, 2, 3 / 4. There are many occurrences of this last use in the critical writings that have not been acknowledged until now.

Abstract: Combing the approaches of the deduction of categories and the intuitive understanding, Hegel demonstrates the possibility of human thinking from the perspective of intuitive understanding. According to Hegel, the thinking of the synthetic universal is only partially and inconsequently achieved in the deduction of categories. It is limited to the divine cognition in the Third Critique and lacks explanation as to how it is implemented. Through the logical processing of intuitive understanding, Hegel invents a Notion as a method that accounts for objects that are not given in Kant’s discursive understanding.

Abstract: In his discussion of sympathetic participation in § 34 of the Doctrine of Virtue, Kant twice uses an unusual word that does not reappear anywhere in his writings: Mitleidenschaft. So far, the significance of this has gone unnoticed. But there is a historical source that reveals precisely why he uses this word, which in turn sheds new light on the philosophical substance of Kant’s theory of sympathy.