Exploring Kant's Third Antinomy: Thesis versus Antithesis

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A precise problem with the third antinomy arises in the interpretation with its' antithesis and its' relationship to the thesis: a charge of triviality. The antithesis is supposed to start with the thesis, demonstrate a fallacy within the thesis in order indirectly prove the thesis. While the thesis talks about the necessity for a notion of transcendental freedom or non-natural causality, it is possible that the antithesis merely expresses that transcendental freedom is not compatible with natural causality, which is a trivial point. If the antithesis does not necessarily undermine the thesis, we are no longer unavoidably tempted to think of either the thesis or antithesis as necessary. This means that Kant's articulation of freedom as dependent on the skeptical rejection would no longer hold and his conception of freedom would be inarticulable. A valid interpretation of this third antinomy would need to guarantee that the nontrivial antithesis necessarily relates with the thesis. In his attempt to resolve this third antinomy, Henry Allison begins by arguing that the thesis demands an unconditioned causality.6 …show more content…

For Watkins, cauality of the second analogy is the causality of transcendental idealism while the causality of the antithesis of the third antinomy remains tied to transcendental realism. The second analogy refers to a variation of causation that is not an event based model of causation, but rather a more nuanced Leibnizian variation that depends more on "substances exercising their causal powers so as to determine each other's states.15 The causality of third antinomy on the other hand, is based on the second antinomy's view of natural causation and the principle of sufficient reason (305). Eric Watkins manages to avoid an obfuscation with the second analogy in his view of the third

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