. ... middle of paper ... ...or" of the moral law. KGS IV, 431. (28) "Würde man unter dem Legislator einen autorem legis verstehen, so würde dieses bloß statutarische Gesetze betreffen. Gesetzen aber, die aus der Natur der Sache durch die Vernunft erkannt werden, wenn man denen einen auctorem beilegt, so kann er nur autor der Verbindlichkeit sein, die im Gesetz enthalten ist. ... unter dem autore eines natürlichen Gesetzes nur der Urheber der Verbindlichkeit nach dem Imperativ des Gesetzes
The individual is herein shown as lord and master of the world, of his own and unique world. A world that is at his disposal even until the final moment. The last verse, «I bequeath nothingness to no one», which works as testament (not from that who runs, not from that who abandons, but from that who destroys), goes beyond all of this, maximizing –or even better–making the coherence explicit: If he achieves his aim, there would not be nothing to be bequeathed nor anybody whom to bequeath. Because
Representationalism and Antirepresentationalism - Kant, Davidson and Rorty (1) ABSTRACT: The notions of representationalism and antirepresentationalism are introduced and used in contemporary philosophical discussions by Richard Rorty to describe his and the neopragmatists' attitude toward traditional problems of epistemology. Rorty means that the history of philosophy shows that there are no final answers to the traditional questions about knowledge, truth, and representation; consequently, they
Evil and the Possibility of the Conversion into Good According to Kant, radical evil is the deep inherent blemish of our species that does not spare even the best of people. Despite judging the extirpation of such evil as an impossibility, Kant holds out the possibility of converting evil into good by means of human forces. But how can this be given the radical evil of human nature? I articulate various problems that arise from Kant’s conception of conversion while exploring certain resources
Kant's Theses: Unknowability and Non-Spatiotemporality In the present paper is analyzed the relationship between Kant's theses concerning unknowability and non-spatiotemporality of things in themselves. First of all, it is argued that even by taking for granted that the Unknowability Thesis does not contradict the Non-Spatiotemporality Thesis, because the former can be thought as a consequence of the latter, this is not enough to avoid another problem, namely, that the Non-Spatiotemporality Thesis
Recovering Paul Ricoeur's Intervention in the Gadamer-Habermas Debate ABSTRACT: In this paper I will examine a contemporary response to an important debate in the "science" of hermeneutics, along with some cross-cultural implications. I discuss Paul Ricoeur's intervention in the debate between Gadamer and Habermas concerning the proper task of hermeneutics as a mode of philosophical interrogation in the late 20th century. The confrontation between Gadamer and Habermas turns on the assessment
(3) Helmuth Plessner: Die versptete Nation. ber die politische Verfhrbarkeit brgerlichen Geistes (1935). Stuttgart 1959 (Kohlhammer), pp. 150, 176 (4) Conversation Gerhard Vollmer - Joachim Jung 24.8.1994 (5) in German as: 'Der Niedergang der Vernunft. Kritik der deutschsprachigen Universittsphilosophie', Frankfurt 1997, Campus Publ. (6) Lorenz B. Puntel: The History of Philosophy in Contemporary Philosophy: The View from Germany, Topoi 10/1991, p. 147 (7) ibid. p. 151f. (8) Edmund Husserl:
Justification by Reflective Equilibrium Famously, John Rawls is regarded as using reflective equilibrium (RE) to justify his principles of justice. But the point of justification by RE in Rawls's more recent work is not easily established since he regards his own work as still contractarian. In order to clarify matters, I distinguish between wide and narrow RE, as well as show that wide RE consists of several kinds of narrow RE: RE as a plea for (re)consideration, RE as a constructive procedure
Hegel and The Libertarians ABSTRACT: This paper aims to show how the Hegelian philosophy can contribute to the conceptual discussions between the two strains of contemporary ethical-political philosophy. I argue that the Hegelian political theory is of central import to the discussion between communitarians and libertarians, both in the communitarian criticism of the libertarian — mainly in Michael Sandel's criticism of Rawls — and in the Rawlsian project of a society founded in justice as equality
Music, Truth, Profundity PART I 1. Theme One of my long-standing philosophical ‘worries’ is what I describe as a ‘cognitive dilemma’ in relation to musical communication. How can an art form which lacks a discursive element and addresses itself primarily and indeed immediately to the auditory sense, be discerned as conveying ‘truth’ or ‘profundity’? The power is amply attested — so much so that alone among the arts music occasionally figures as a ‘surrogate religion’. The pieces of this
The Moral Importance of the Beautiful in Kant I argue for an interpretation of Kant's aesthetics whereby the experience of the beautiful plays the same functional role in the invisible church of natural religion as Scripture does for the visible churches of ecclesiastical religions. Thus, I contend, the links that Kant himself implies between the aesthetic and the moral (in the third Critique and the Religion) are much stronger than generally portrayed by commentators. Indeed, for Kant, experience
Eichmann, the Banality of Evil, and Thinking in Arendt's Thought* ABSTRACT: I analyze the ways in which the faculty of thinking can avoid evil action, taking into account Hannah Arendt's discussion regarding the banality of evil and thoughtlessness in connection with the Eichmann trial. I focus on the following question posed by Arendt: "Could the activity of thinking as such, the habit of examining and reflecting upon whatever happens to come to pass, regardless of specific content and quite