Kant: A Collection of Critical Essays

433 Pages·1967·73.614 MB·English

by  Robert Paul Wolff (eds.)

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MODERN STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY
KANT
A Collection of Critical Essays
Modern Studies in Philosophy is a series of anthologies pre
senting contemporary interpretations and evaluations of the
works of major philosophers. The editors have selected ar
ticles designed to show the systematic structure of the
thought of these philosophers, and to reveal the relevance
of their views to the problems of current interest. These vol
umes are intended to be contributions to contemporary de
bates as wen as to the history of philosophy; they not only
trace the origins of many problems important to modem
philosophy, but also introduce major philosophers as inter
locutors in current discussions.
MODERN STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY
KANT
A Collection of Critical Essays
EDITED BY ROBERT PAUL WOLFF
MACMILLAN
LONDON • MELBOURNE
1968
ISBN 978-0-333-01326-7 ISBN 978-1-349-15263-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15263-6
©Robert Paul Wolff 1967
Reprint of the original edition 1967
First published in the United States of America 1967
First published in Great Britain rg68
Published by
MACMILLAN AND CO LTD
Little Essex Street London w c 2
and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras
Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg
The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION xi
PART ONE. DISCUSSIONS OF THE Critique of Pure
Reason
THE PREFACES AND INTRODUCTION
Can Kant's Synthetic Judgments Be Made Analytic?
Lewis White Beck 3
Kant's 111eory of Definition, Lewis White Beck 23
THE TRANSCENDENTAL AESTHETIC
Infinity and Kant's Conception of the "Possibility of
Experience," Charles D. Parsons 37
THE TRANSCENDENTAL ANALYTIC
Categories, \Y'. H. Walsh 54
Schematism, W. H. Walsh 71
A Reconstruction of the Argument of the Subjective
Deduction, Robert Paul Wolff 88
Kant's Theory of Concepts, George Schrader 134
Knowledge and the Ego: Kant's Three Stages of Self-
Evidence, Samuel J. Todes 156
THE TRANSCENDENTAL DIALECTIC
The Thing in Itself in Kantian Philosophy,
George Schrader 172
Kant's 'Refutation' of the Ontological Argument,
S. MOTTis Engel 189
viii Contents
PART Two: DISCUSSIONS OF KANT's ETHICAL THEORY
THE CATECORICAL IMPERATIVE
Interpretation and Misinterpretation of the Categori-
cal Imperative, Julius Ebbinghaus 211
Kant's Examples of the First Formulation of the Cate-
gorical Imperative, Jonathan Harrison 228
Kant's Examples of the Categorical Imperative,
J. Kemp 246
The Categorical Imperative, Jonathan Harrison 259
The Copernican Revolution in Ethics: The Good Re-
examined, JOhh R. Silber 266
The Concept of Man as End-in-Himself,
Pepita Haezrahi 291
"'hat Does Kant Mean by 'Acting from Duty'?
Paul Dietrichson 314
Kant as Casuist, W. I. Matson 331
PART TUREE: DISCUSSIONS OF KANT's AESTHETIC
THEORY
Perception and Perfection in Kant's Aesthetics,
Ingrid Stadler 339
Kant: The Aesthetic Judgment,
Robcrt L. Zimmcrman 385
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography of Works bv and about Kant 409
Selected Bibliography of Articles on Kant, 1945 to
the Present 413
KANT
A Collection of Critical Essays
A*
INTRODUCTION
It is now only a few years short of two centuries since Im
manuel Kant announced a revolution in philosophy, with his
Inaugural Dissertation of 1770. The Critical Philosophy, as
Kant came to call his system, received its definitive state
ment in the Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1781, and
in the series of works that issued from his pen during the
next two decades. Virtually singlehanded, Kant destroyed the
discipline of rational theology, to which the greatest philoso
phers of the preceding two millennia had devoted their sober
est attention. He transformed metaphysics, established the
theory of knowledge on a firm theoretical foundation, dis
covered hitherto unrecognized problems in the philosophy of
mathematics, and even gave moral philosophy a new direc
tion. All philosophy before 1781 seems to flow into Kant's
great system, and little that has appeared since cannot be
traced back to his influence. It has been truly observed that
in the modem world, one can philosophize against Kant or
with him, but never \\ithout him.
It follows that a survey of the influence of Kant on recent
philosophical literature would reduce simply to a survey of
recent philosophical literature, and a book of readings of
that sort would lose its focus and reason for being. Even if
we were to restrict ourselves to the literature directly con
cerned with particular problems first posed by Kant, our nets
would be thrown far too widely. For example, all the discus
sions of the distinction between analytic and synthetic judg
ments, and the wealth of books and articles on the univcr
salizability of ethical judgments, would have to be included.
In this volume, I have restricted myself to a selection of
papers which have appeared in some of the major journals