Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Posthumous notes', 'Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason' and 'Paradox without Self-Reference'

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8 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / c. Eighteenth century philosophy

21463	Hamann, Herder and Jacobi were key opponents of the Enlightenment [Gardner]
	Full Idea: Hamann, Herder and Jacobi are central figues in the reaction against Enlightenment.
	From: Sebastian Gardner (Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason [1999], 10 'immediate')
	A reaction: From a British perspective I would see Hume as the leading such figure. Hamann emphasised the neglect of the role of language. Jacobi was a Christian.

21459	Kant halted rationalism, and forced empiricists to worry about foundations [Gardner]
	Full Idea: Kant's Critique swiftly brought rationalism to a halt, and after Kant empiricism has displayed a nervousness regarding its foundations, and been forced to assume more sophisticated forms.
	From: Sebastian Gardner (Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason [1999], 10 Intro)
	A reaction: See the ideas of Laurence Bonjour for a modern revival of rationalism. After Kant philosophers either went existential, or stared gloomily into the obscure depths. Formal logic was seen as a possible rope ladder down.

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems

21460	Only Kant and Hegel have united nature, morals, politics, aesthetics and religion [Gardner]
	Full Idea: Apart from Hegel, no later philosophical system equals in stature Kant's attempt to weld together the diverse fields of natural science, morality, politics, aesthetics and religion into a systematic overarching epistemological and metaphysical unity.
	From: Sebastian Gardner (Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason [1999], 10)
	A reaction: Earlier candidate are Plato and Aristotle. Earlier Enlightenment figures say little about morality or aesthetics. Hobbes ranges widely. Aquinas covered most things.

2. Reason / E. Argument / 2. Transcendental Argument

21443	Transcendental proofs derive necessities from possibilities (e.g. possibility of experiencing objects) [Gardner]
	Full Idea: A transcendental proof converts a possibility into a necessity: by saying under what conditions experience of objects is possible, transcendental proofs show those conditions to be necessary for us to the extent that we have any experience of objects.
	From: Sebastian Gardner (Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason [1999], 02 'Transc')
	A reaction: They appear to be hypothetical necessities, rather than true metaphysical necessities. Gardner is discussing Kant, but seems to be generalising. Hypothetical necessities are easy: if it is flying, it is necessarily above the ground.

5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 6. Paradoxes in Language / a. The Liar paradox

9138	An infinite series of sentences asserting falsehood produces the paradox without self-reference [Yablo, by Sorensen]
	Full Idea: Banning self-reference is too narrow to avoid the liar paradox. With 1) all the subsequent sentences are false, 2) all the subsequent sentences are false, 3) all the subsequent... the paradox still arises. Self-reference is a special case of this.
	From: report of Stephen Yablo (Paradox without Self-Reference [1993]) by Roy Sorensen - Vagueness and Contradiction 11.1
	A reaction: [Idea 9137 pointed out that the ban was too narrow. Sorensen p.168 explains why this one is paradoxical] This is a nice example of progress in philosophy, since the Greeks would have been thrilled with this idea (unless they knew it, but it was lost).

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 2. Geometry

21444	Modern geoemtry is either 'pure' (and formal), or 'applied' (and a posteriori) [Gardner]
	Full Idea: There is now 'pure' geometry, consisting of formal systems based on axioms for which truth is not claimed, and which are consequently not synthetic; and 'applied', a branch of physics, the truth of which is empirical, and therefore not a priori.
	From: Sebastian Gardner (Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason [1999], 03 'Maths')
	A reaction: His point is that there is no longer any room for a priori geometry. Might the same division be asserted of arithmetic, or analysis, or set theory?

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / c. Monads

21453	Leibnizian monads qualify as Kantian noumena [Gardner]
	Full Idea: Leibnizian monads clearly satisfy Kant's definition of noumena.
	From: Sebastian Gardner (Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason [1999], 06 'Noumena')
	A reaction: This needs qualifying, because Leibniz clearly specifies the main attributes of monads, where Kant is adamant that we can saying virtually nothing about noumena.

11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / d. Absolute idealism

21971	Transcendental philosophy is the subject becoming the originator of unified reality [Kant]
	Full Idea: Transcendental philosophy is the act of consciousness whereby the subject becomes the originator of itself and, thereby, of the whole object of technical-practical and moral-practical reason in one system - ordering all things in God
	From: Immanuel Kant (Posthumous notes [1799], 21:78, p.245), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 06 App
	A reaction: This is evidently Kant's last word on the matter (c.1799), and Moore says he was drifting close to Fichte's idealism, in which reality is actually (sort of) created by our own minds. Disappointing! God's role here is unclear.