80-351 Kant
News:
Here is where to look for course news.
Practical:
- Room: BH 237B
- Time: MW 3:00-4:20 PM
- Instructor: Kevin T. Kelly BH 135 K X8567 kk3n@andrew.cmu.edu
- Office hours: 9:30-10:30 MW or by
appointment.
Texts: available online from this page.
Structure:
The class will be about Kant, his antecedents, and his legacy. It
will be impossible to be systematic; instead, we will cover some
aspects of the story in detail.
This is a small discussion class. I'll ask leading questions and
do
some light lecturing to set the stage, but the success or failure of
the
class will be decided by your preparation for class discussion.
To
this end, it is imperative that all of you read the course material
twice over and think about what you are reading. To credit
you for this hard, but private work, I will assign short reading
questions along with each reading assignment to be turned in at the end
of the class at which the reading is discussed. Kant would simply say that it is your duty!
Regarding technology: the internet is a very rich resource for
stray facts about Kant, so I will allow laptops in class. But don't even think of surfing the web or doing email in class!
Requirements:
- 33% reading exercises to be turned in at the end of class.
- 33% first paper project (4 page max)
- final paper proposal (counts as one reading exercise)
- 34% final paper project (5 page max)
Out of fairness to all students, late penalties (8% per day), assessed from 4:20 PM, will apply.
A little advice about assignments.
- Many students feel that their answers
must
be original, so they put a proposed philosophical theory into their
"own
words".
- Please don't do that. Use
the
words given and try not to replace them with others.
- It is hard to find a paraphrase exactly
equivalent to the theory. Changing words will usually introduce
awkward differences.
- The proponent of the theory, if he is
worth his salt, probably spent a good deal of time making the theory
sound as simple as possible already.
- Understanding comes from applying the
theory, as it is originally stated, to lots of examples and checking it
for self-consistency.
- Philosophical creativity is not a
matter
of re-stating the theory in your own terms, but of criticizing it as it
is stated and proposing improvements.
- At this introductory level I mainly want you to convince me that
you know what the various theories are and that you can work with them.
Bold originality is great, but is not required for a good grade.
Succinctness, precision and accuracy are paramount.
- The papers should do one of the following things:
- Resolve a tension in some metaphysical theory.
- Compare and/or contrast two or more metaphysical theories.
- Expose a tension or difficulty in a metaphysical theory.
- Resolve a tension or difficulty in a metaphysical theory.
- Propose and defend an alternative metaphysical theory.
- The papers are very short. Basically, write a 10-15 page
paper and cut it down to the real points you can make.
- Don't waste time on boring introductory platitudes like
"Kant is a very important philosopher". Just state your
particular point right away. Don't worry if it seems
abrupt.
- Think about explaining something to the reader. Don't think
of the paper as a statement of your own beliefs or feelings.
Topic:
Kant was a student of the Newtonian Enlightenment whose main purpose
was to square the Newtonian scientific worldview in natural philosophy
with the more traditional areas of metaphysics and ethics. His
raw
materials were drawn from Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz (Wolff), Locke, and
Hume. Since Kant's philosophy was a mandatory topic both within
the
arts and sciences in the German Gymnasiium (high school + junior
college) establishment, he casts a long shadow over subsetquent
developments both in the arts and the sciences. It's fun to see
how he
put the pieces together and how his views were stretched one way and
then another by his successors. Kant was also a pivotal figure in
the
divide between "analytic" and "continental" philosophy, as both sides
can claim him as an antecedent.
Kant's writing is not entirely clear, so it is not necessarily your
fault if you don't understand some passage. Those are the
passages
that professional historians of philosophy focus on and need to have
something interesting to say about. I recommend this
procedure. When you are stuck, mark the passage and read on,
since there may be more clues to its interpretation later. Then
go back and revisit the hard passages and try to work out a natural
interpretation. Draw some pictures. Consider doing an
electronic search for
the
relevant vocabulary to see where it occurs elsewhere in the
document. Then we can
discuss
your findings in class. That is what an ideal class
discussion is like.
Online Sources
Ancestors
Plato
Plato,
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Plato's
Middle Period, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Plato, Phaedo, in Plato's Phaedo, E. M. Cope, ed.,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1875.
Aristotle
Aristotle's
Categories, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Aristotle's
Metapphysics, Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy
Aristotle's
Categories
Aristotle's
Metaphysics
Aristotle's
Physics
Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz, Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz, The Monadology,
in The Monadology by
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Robert Latta, trans.
http://www.rbjones.com/rbjpub/philos/classics/leibniz/monad.htm
Wolff
Christian
Wolff, Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
Locke
John Locke, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Hume
David Hume, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Kant
Annotated,
chornological bibliography
Immanuel Kant, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Immanuel
Kant, What is Enlightening?, in
Essays and Treatises on Moral, Political, and Various Philosophical
Subjects by Immanuel Kant, William Richardson, trans., London: William
Richardson, 1798.
Immanuel
Kant, The False Subtilty of the Four Syllogistic Figures Evinced, in
Essays and Treatises on Moral, Political, and Various Philosophical
Subjects by Immanuel Kant, William Richardson, trans., London: William
Richardson, 1798.
Immanuel
Kant, Dreams of a Spirit-Seer
Illustrated by Dreams of Metaphysics, in Kant's Dreams of a Spirit-Seer,
Frank Seqall, trans., New York: Macmillan 1900.
Immanuel
Kant, Inaugural Dissertation, in Kant's
Inaugural Dissertation of 1770, William J. Eckoff, trans., New
York: Columbia College Press, 1894.
Immanueal
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason,
in Critique of Pure Reason by
Immanuel Kant, J. M. D. Meiklejohn, trans., New York: The
Colonial Press,
Immanuel
Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, in Kant's Prolegoena to
Any Future Metaphysics, in Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future
Metaphysics, Paul Carus, ed., Chicago: Open Court 1912.
Immanuel
Kant, Groundwork of the
Metaphysic of Morals, Jonathan Bennett, trans, 2008.
Immanuel
Kant, Critique of Judgment,
in Kant's Kritik of Judgment,
J. H. Bernard, trans. New York: Macmillan, 1892.
Intellectual Descendents
German Idealism in Jena
Fichte
Johann
Gottlieb Fichte, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Schelling
Friedrich
Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism
Helmholz
Hermann
von Helmholtz, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Cohen
Hermann Cohen,
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Logic, Positivism, Intuitionism, etc.
Reading assignments
The default procedure is to proceed to the next one unless I say not to
at the end of class. Read the text provided and type and
print the answers to the questions. Readings are divided into
primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are required to be
read. Secondary sources are intended mainly to help you with the
primary sources.
1. Plato
Plato, Phaedo, in Plato's Phaedo, E. M. Cope, ed.,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1875.
Plato,
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Plato's
Middle Period, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Reading questions:
- Contrast forms with sensible things. How are they related?
- How does Plato prove the immortality of the soul from the theory
of forms?
- How are forms supposed to be discovered?
- How would Plato rank the objectivity and prospects of ethics as
opposed to, say, chemistry?
2. Aristotle
Aristotle's
Categories, parts 1 through 8.
Aristotle's Metaphysics,
Book VIII (On substance, matter and form)
Aristotle's Physics,
Book II, Chapter 3 (On the four causes)
Aristotle's
Categories, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Aristotle's
Metapphysics, Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy
Reading Questions:
- What is the list of possible significations of simple
expressions? The items on this list are called "Aristotle's
catogories".
- Aristotle and Plato have different opinions concerning what is
most fully "real" or "existent". Say how.
- List four tests for determining whether something is a substance.
- Relate Aristotle's theory of causes to his theory of substance.
5. Descartes
Now we skip over a few details. Here's a toy outline of what we
are skipping, with lots of major gaps. Notice how Plato and
Aristotle dominate the story.
- The development of Plato's Academy into a mystical branch
(Plotinus) and a skeptical branch (Academic Skepticism).
- The emergence of Christianity in the Roman Empire, which is a
syncretism of
Platonic and Jewish ideas.
- The collapse of the Western Roman Empire---Greek philosophy
survives mainly as a tacit, Platonic strain within Christian teaching.
- Islam recovers the original Greek texts and develops a detailed
commentary tradition.
- The
West encounters the Arabic translations and commentaries of Aristotle.
- Universities are invented to force Aristotle to fit with the
Platonic and Jewish elements in Christianity.
- The fall of Constantinople leads
to a new influx of Greek texts including those of Plato and Archimedes.
- The translation of Platonic and Neo-Platonic texts inspires the
emergence of Renaissance Humanism in northern Italy.
- Platonic and Pythagorean views inspire astronomers like
Copernicus and Kepler.
- The translation of Archimedes' texts inspires engineers and
mathematicians like Galileo, launching the scientific revolution.
- Descartes represents a turn toward Plato and an extended role for
mathematics in natural science.
- Newton studies Descartes carefully and corrects his physical
errors, launching the Enlightenment.
- John Locke wanted to be the Newton of the mind---particles are
replaced with basic ideas.
Rene Descartes, Principles of Philosophy,
Chapter 1.
Rene
Descartes, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Reading Questions:
Based on the primary sources we have read, very succinctly compare
Descartes' views with those of Plato and Aristotle on the following
points:
- Substance
- Mode
- Mind/Body
- Knowledge and experience
6. Leibniz' Monadic Metaphysics
Readings:
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , The
Monadology.
Leibniz, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Questions:
Sam kills Bill. What's really going on? A lot.
- Sam freely chooses to kill Bill.
- Sam sees Bill.
- Sam approaches Bill.
- Sam stabs Bill .
- Time passes.
- Bill dies.
- God freely created the whole world in which this happens
- God should be praised for it.
What is the true Leibnizian analysis of all of this?
7. Locke's Empiricism
John Locke, An
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Book II, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 24. Focus
your attention on space, time, substance, power, and freedom.
Locke, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Questions:
- What are the two sources of ideas?
- Contrast Locke's views on space and mind with those of Leibniz
and Descartes.
- Contrast Locke's views on substance with those of Leibniz and
Descartes.
- What is Locke's account of power and liberty?
7. Hume's Empiricism
David Hume, An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Hume, Stanford entry
Questions:
- What are the two sources of all objects of human reason?
Compare with Leibniz.
- What is probability?
- What is the origin of the idea of causation? How does Hume
criticize Descartes? Locke? (Don't forget the footnotes!)
- What is Hume's view on freedom? Compare it to Locke's.
8. Kant's Prolegomena: Intuition
Readings:
Kant, Stanford entry,
sections 1-4. Be sure to look at the timing of his publications.
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena
to Any Future Metaphysics.
Preface and sections 1-12.
Reading questions:
- What is Kant's fundamental question?
- What did Kant think he learned from Hume?
- Contrast Kant's view of mathematics with that of Leibniz as
expressed in the Monadology. Why is mathematics so important to
Kant?
- How is pure mathematics possible?
8. Kant's Prolegomena: Intuition
Readings:
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena
to Any Future Metaphysics.
Sections 12-13 including remarks
The journal article is on JSTOR. You must access the web through
the university to access it, since the library pays for access.
- How do we know that a line can be drawn to infinity? Do you
think Kant means that you can intuit all of space at once?
- What is the point of the gloves and triangles? Why do you
think he puts the triangles on a sphere when the gloves seem to make
the same point?
- Why do actual things necessarily correspond to geometry?
- How does Kant differ from idealists and go farther than Locke?
Supplementary reading:
James
Van Cleve, "Right, Left, and the Fourth Dimension", The Philosophical
REview XCVI, 1, January 1987.
For lots more on Kant's triangles:
Bibliography on Substantivalism of Spacetime.
9. Kant's Prolegomena: Understanding
Readings:
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena
to Any Future Metaphysics.
Sections 14-39
- What are judgments of perception and judgments of experience?
- What is objective validity?
- What is Hume's doubt and how does Kant resolve it?
- What are laws of nature?
10. Kant's Prolegomena: Reason
Readings:
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena
to Any Future Metaphysics.
Sections 14-end.
- Distinguish the ideas of reason from the ideas of understanding.
- Describe the psychological, cosmological, and theological
ideas. How are they similar? How are they different?
- What are the mathematical antinomies and how does Kant resolve
them?
- What are the dynamical antinomies and how does Kant resolve them?
11. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Prefaces and
Introduction
Readings:
Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason
Prefaces and Introduction
- Why is a complete critique of pure reason feasible?
- What is Kant's Copernican analogy?
- Why does the Critique deserve government funding?
- How does critique fall short of a full transcendental philosophy?
12. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Transcendental
Aesthetic
Readings:
Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason
Aesthetic
- Why does Kant use the puzzling word "aesthetic" to describe the
science of a priori principles of sensibility?
- What are space and time?
- How can it be shown that space is prior to
experience? How can it be shown that space is not
conceptual? Several argumlents are given.
- How does Kant answer the objection that time is real because
change is real?
13. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Transcendental
Doctrine of Elements
Readings:
Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason
Analytic of Concepts
- What is truth?
- How is the third category in each group derived from the first
two?
- What is transcendental deduction?
- What the heck is the
transcendental deduction of the categories? Where exactly does
the magic happen?
14. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Analytic of
Principles:
First Chapter: On the Schematism of the Pure Concepts of the
Understanding
Second Chapter: System of All Principles of Pure Understanding
Readings:
Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason
Analytic of Principles up to analogies of experience
- Define the schemata of substance, cause, community, possibility,
actuality, and necessity.
- Relate the schemata of quantity, quality, relation, and modality
to time.
- How does mathematics contrast with pure principles of the
understanding?
- What is is about quality that can be cognized a priori?
15. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Analytic of
Principles:
Second Chapter: System of All Principles of Pure Understanding
Readings:
Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason
From analogies of experience to end of chapter
- What is the first analogy and what is its proof?
- What is the second analogy and what is its proof?
- What is the piont of the house and of the ship?
- What is the third analogy and what is its proof?
16. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Readings:
Groundwork
for the Metaphysics of Morals
Preface and section 1.
- Relate ethics, pratical anthropology, and morality.
- What can be called good?
- What is a practical faculty?
- From what does the worth of an act derive?
16. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Readings:
Groundwork
for the Metaphysics of Morals
Sections 2 and 3.
What is an imperative?
Distinguish maxims from practical laws. Compare to judgments of
perception vs. causal laws.
What is the categorical imperative?
How is a categorical imperative possible?