These essays on Kant's theoretical philosophy, besides deriving inspiration from him, bring insights from contemporary analytical philosophy to bear in interpreting some of his most deep and difficult themes. The topics covered include representation and reality, appearances and things in themselves, the given and synthesis, transcendental idealism, the limits of scientific explanation, knowledge, belief and faith, freedom of judgment, different levels of operation within the mind, and determinism and free will.
Though written separately (and in some cases already published), the essays bear close relations with each other, and these inter-relations have been emphasized and signposted in preparing revised versions for this book.
This collection of essays features a variety of concrete examples (and occasional humor) to illustrate and illuminate the very abstract themes of Kant's philosophy. It is designed to be readable with enjoyment and profit by those who do not count themselves as Kant scholars.
Contents
Preface
1. Objects of Representation: Kant's Copernican Revolution Re-interpreted
2. Synthetic Unities of Experience
3. Three Ways in which Space and Time might be said to be Transcendentally Ideal
4. The Given, the Unconditioned, the Transcendental Object, and the Reality of the Past
5. A Theory of Everything? - Kant speaks to Stephen Hawking
6. Opinion, Belief or Faith, and Knowledge
7. Freedom of Judgment in Descartes, Spinoza, Hume and Kant
8. Six Levels of Mentality
9. A Kantian Defense of Freewill
Notes
Bibliography
an excellent collection of essays in Kantian metaphysics and epistemology --
Notre Dame Philosophical ReviewLeslie Stevensonis Professor of Philosophy, University of St Andrews, Scotland. Author of
Ten Theories of Human Natureand editor of
The Study of Human Nature.