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Author: Julian Wuerth Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0199587620 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 366
Book Description
Julian Wuerth offers a radically new interpretation of Kant's theories of mind, action, and ethics. As the author of a Copernican turn in philosophy, Kant places the mind at the center of his philosophy, and yet his theory of the mind remains an enigma. Wuerth begins with a revolutionary new interpretation of this theory of mind. This new interpretation considers a far wider range of Kant's recorded thought from across his philosophical corpus than previous interpretations and advances in tandem with an interpretation of the foundations of Kant's transcendental idealism and his metaphysics of substance. Against traditional empiricist approaches, Wuerth demonstrates that Kant argues that we are conscious of our own noumenal substantiality and simplicity. But against rational psychologists, Kant draws on the teachings of his transcendental idealism to strip the conclusions of our noumenal substantiality and simplicity of their "usefulness." In the Paralogisms and elsewhere, Kant thus argues that we are not licensed to conclude our substantiality and simplicity in a sense that entails our permanence, our incorruptibility, or our immortality. Wuerth goes on to undertake a ground-breaking study of Kant's notoriously vast, complex, and opaque account of the mind's powers, and argues that Kant structures his system of philosophy on this system of the mind's powers. He next confronts the persisting stumbling block of interpretations of Kant's ethics--Kant's theory of action--and shows that Kant rejects intellectualist theories of action that reduce practical agents to pure reason. He argues that Kant's practical agent is shown to exercise a power of choice, or Willkur, subject to two irreducible conative currencies: moral motives and sensible incentives. While our intellectual nature provides us with insight into morality and in turn with moral motives, our sensible nature provides us with distinct-in-kind sensible incentives. Immoral choices at odds with the former can thus nonetheless be coherent choices in harmony with the latter. Finally, Wuerth applies these new findings about Kant's theory of mind and action to an analysis of the foundations of Kant's ethics. He rejects the dominant constructivist interpretation in favor of a moral realist one. At the heart of Kant's Enlightenment ethics is his insistence that the authority of a moral law rests in our recognition of its truth, not in an alleged commitment unfettered by truth. Kant guides us to clarity regarding the moral law, across his writings and across his various formulations of the moral law, using a single elimination of sensibility process that rejects the pretences of sensibility to isolate reason and its insights into moral right and wrong. Because moral authority issues from the cognition of pure practical reason and because sensibility can present coherent alternatives to moral choice, moral virtue requires more than mere clarity in cognition. Kant instead recognizes the centrality to moral living of the ongoing cultivation of our capacities more broadly, including our capacities for cognition, feeling, desire, and character.
Author: Julian Wuerth Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0199587620 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 366
Book Description
Julian Wuerth offers a radically new interpretation of Kant's theories of mind, action, and ethics. As the author of a Copernican turn in philosophy, Kant places the mind at the center of his philosophy, and yet his theory of the mind remains an enigma. Wuerth begins with a revolutionary new interpretation of this theory of mind. This new interpretation considers a far wider range of Kant's recorded thought from across his philosophical corpus than previous interpretations and advances in tandem with an interpretation of the foundations of Kant's transcendental idealism and his metaphysics of substance. Against traditional empiricist approaches, Wuerth demonstrates that Kant argues that we are conscious of our own noumenal substantiality and simplicity. But against rational psychologists, Kant draws on the teachings of his transcendental idealism to strip the conclusions of our noumenal substantiality and simplicity of their "usefulness." In the Paralogisms and elsewhere, Kant thus argues that we are not licensed to conclude our substantiality and simplicity in a sense that entails our permanence, our incorruptibility, or our immortality. Wuerth goes on to undertake a ground-breaking study of Kant's notoriously vast, complex, and opaque account of the mind's powers, and argues that Kant structures his system of philosophy on this system of the mind's powers. He next confronts the persisting stumbling block of interpretations of Kant's ethics--Kant's theory of action--and shows that Kant rejects intellectualist theories of action that reduce practical agents to pure reason. He argues that Kant's practical agent is shown to exercise a power of choice, or Willkur, subject to two irreducible conative currencies: moral motives and sensible incentives. While our intellectual nature provides us with insight into morality and in turn with moral motives, our sensible nature provides us with distinct-in-kind sensible incentives. Immoral choices at odds with the former can thus nonetheless be coherent choices in harmony with the latter. Finally, Wuerth applies these new findings about Kant's theory of mind and action to an analysis of the foundations of Kant's ethics. He rejects the dominant constructivist interpretation in favor of a moral realist one. At the heart of Kant's Enlightenment ethics is his insistence that the authority of a moral law rests in our recognition of its truth, not in an alleged commitment unfettered by truth. Kant guides us to clarity regarding the moral law, across his writings and across his various formulations of the moral law, using a single elimination of sensibility process that rejects the pretences of sensibility to isolate reason and its insights into moral right and wrong. Because moral authority issues from the cognition of pure practical reason and because sensibility can present coherent alternatives to moral choice, moral virtue requires more than mere clarity in cognition. Kant instead recognizes the centrality to moral living of the ongoing cultivation of our capacities more broadly, including our capacities for cognition, feeling, desire, and character.
Author: Julian Wuerth Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191026441 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
In this book Julian Wuerth offers a radically new interpretation of Kant's theories of mind, action, and ethics. As the author of a Copernican revolution in philosophy, Kant grounded his philosophy in his positive theory of the mind, which remains an enigma two centuries later. Wuerth's original interpretation of Kant's theory of mind consults a far wider range of Kant's recorded thought than previous interpretations, revealing a fascinating evolution in Kant's thought in the decades before and after his 1781 Critique. Starting in the 1760s, Kant recognized the unique status of our epistemic contact to ourselves. This is the sole instance of our immediate epistemic contact with a substance, of being a substance, and it is the sole instance of epistemic contact with something other than the particular states of inner sense. Contrary to empiricists, Kant thus rejects the reduction of the self to a bundle of mental states of inner sense. But Kant also rejects the rational psychologists' assumption that the souls substantiality and simplicity implies its permanence, incorruptibility, and immortality. As Kant developed his transcendental idealism, he eventually pinpointed the source of their errors, a source neither unique to a particular, historical school, nor random. It is instead a deep, natural, and timeless transcendental confusion. Kants new account of substance allows him to draw new distinctions in kind between sensibility and understanding and between phenomenal and noumenal substance, setting the stage for a transcendental argument that only at the phenomenal level do substantiality and simplicity imply permanence and incorruptibility. Wuerth next undertakes a groundbreaking study of Kant's theory of action and ethics. He first maps Kant's notoriously vast and complex system of the minds powers, drawing on all of Kant's recorded thought. This system structures Kant's philosophy as a whole and so provides crucial insights into this whole and its parts, including Kant's theory of action, a persisting stumbling block for interpreters of Kant's ethics. Wuerth demonstrates that Kant rejects intellectualist theories of action that reduce practical agents to pure reason. We are instead irreducibly both intellectual and sensible, exercising a power of choice, or Willkür, subject to two irreducible conative currencies, moral motives and sensible incentives, as Kant makes clear long before his 1785 Groundwork. Immoral choices at odds with the former can thus nonetheless be coherent choices in harmony with the latter. Wuerth applies these new findings about Kant's theory of mind and action to an analysis of the foundations of Kant's ethics. He rejects the dominant constructivist interpretation in favor of a moral realist one. At the heart of Kant's Enlightenment ethics is his insistence that the authority of the moral law ultimately rests in our recognition of its authority. Kant guides us to this recognition of the authority of the moral law, across his works in ethics and his various formulations of the moral law, using a single elimination of sensibility procedure. Here Kant systematically rejects the pretenses of sensibility to isolate reason and its insights into moral right and wrong. Precisely because immoral choice remains a coherent alternative, however, moral virtue demands our ongoing cultivation of our capacities for cognition, feeling, desire, and character.
Author: Maria Borges Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350078387 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Though Kant never used the word 'emotion' in his writings, it is of vital significance to understanding his philosophy. This book offers a captivating argument for reading Kant considering the importance of emotion, taking into account its many manifestations in his work including affect and passion. Emotion, Reason, and Action in Kant explores how, in Kant's world view, our actions are informed, contextualized and dependent on the tension between emotion and reason. On the one hand, there are positive moral emotions that can and should be cultivated. On the other hand, affects and passions are considered illnesses of the mind, in that they lead to the weakness of the will, in the case of affects, and evil, in the case of passions. Seeing the role of these emotions enriches our understanding of Kant's moral theory. Exploring the full range of negative and positive emotions in Kant's work, including anger, compassion and sympathy, as well as moral feeling, Borges shows how Kant's theory of emotion includes both physiological and cognitive aspects. This is an important new contribution to Kant Studies, suitable for students of Kant, ethics, and moral psychology.
Author: Immanuel Kant Publisher: Psychology Press ISBN: 0415078431 Category : Ethics Languages : en Pages : 118
Book Description
Kant'sMoral Law: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Moralsranks with Plato'sRepublicand Aristotle'sEthicsas one of the most important works of moral philosophy ever written. InMoral Law,Kant argues that a human action is only morally good if it is done from a sense of duty, and that a duty is a formal principle based not on self-interest or from a consideration of what results might follow. From this he derived his famous and controversial maxim, the categorical imperative: "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature." H. J. Paton's translation remains the standard in English for this work. It retains all of Kant's liveliness of mind, suppressed intellectual excitement, moral earnestness, and pleasure in words. The commentary and detailed analysis that Paton provides is an invaluable and necessary guide for the student and general reader.
Author: Maria Borges Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350078379 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Though Kant never used the word 'emotion' in his writings, it is of vital significance to understanding his philosophy. This book offers a captivating argument for reading Kant considering the importance of emotion, taking into account its many manifestations in his work including affect and passion. Emotion, Reason, and Action in Kant explores how, in Kant's world view, our actions are informed, contextualized and dependent on the tension between emotion and reason. On the one hand, there are positive moral emotions that can and should be cultivated. On the other hand, affects and passions are considered illnesses of the mind, in that they lead to the weakness of the will, in the case of affects, and evil, in the case of passions. Seeing the role of these emotions enriches our understanding of Kant's moral theory. Exploring the full range of negative and positive emotions in Kant's work, including anger, compassion and sympathy, as well as moral feeling, Borges shows how Kant's theory of emotion includes both physiological and cognitive aspects. This is an important new contribution to Kant Studies, suitable for students of Kant, ethics, and moral psychology.
Author: Mark Dimmock Publisher: Open Book Publishers ISBN: 1783743913 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
What does pleasure have to do with morality? What role, if any, should intuition have in the formation of moral theory? If something is ‘simulated’, can it be immoral? This accessible and wide-ranging textbook explores these questions and many more. Key ideas in the fields of normative ethics, metaethics and applied ethics are explained rigorously and systematically, with a vivid writing style that enlivens the topics with energy and wit. Individual theories are discussed in detail in the first part of the book, before these positions are applied to a wide range of contemporary situations including business ethics, sexual ethics, and the acceptability of eating animals. A wealth of real-life examples, set out with depth and care, illuminate the complexities of different ethical approaches while conveying their modern-day relevance. This concise and highly engaging resource is tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies, with a clear and practical layout that includes end-of-chapter summaries, key terms, and common mistakes to avoid. It should also be of practical use for those teaching Philosophy as part of the International Baccalaureate. Ethics for A-Level is of particular value to students and teachers, but Fisher and Dimmock’s precise and scholarly approach will appeal to anyone seeking a rigorous and lively introduction to the challenging subject of ethics. Tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies.
Author: Onora O'Neill Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1107512433 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 299
Book Description
'Two things', wrote Kant, 'fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe: the starry heavens above and the moral law within'. Many would argue that since Kant's day, the study of the starry heavens has advanced while ethics has stagnated, and in particular that Kant's ethics offers an empty formalism that tells us nothing about how we should live. In Acting on Principle Onora O'Neill shows that Kantian ethics has practical as well as philosophical importance. First published in 1975, the book is regarded as a classic account and defence of the Kantian ethical position. It addresses Kant's account of reasoning about action, in particular his controversial claim that the Categorical Imperative guides action and is basic to ethics and justice. This second edition offers a substantial new introduction and updated bibliography, and will be valuable for a wide readership in Kant studies and those studying ethics.
Author: Richard McCarty Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 019160996X Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
The theory of action underlying Immanuel Kant's ethical theory is the subject of this book. What 'maxims' are, and how we act on maxims, are explained here in light of both the historical context of Kant's thought, and his classroom lectures on psychology and ethics. Arguing against the current of much recent scholarship, Richard McCarty makes a strong case for interpreting Kant as having embraced psychological determinism, a version of the 'belief-desire model' of human motivation, and a literal, 'two-worlds' metaphysics. On this interpretation, actions in the sensible world are always effects of prior psychological causes. Their explaining causal laws are the maxims of agents' characters. And agents act freely if, acting also in an intelligible world, what they do there results in their having the characters they have here, in the sensible world. McCarty additionally shows how this interpretation is fruitful for solving familiar problems perennially plaguing Kant's moral psychology.
Author: Julian Wuerth
Author: Julian Wuerth
Author: Julian Wuerth
Author: Maria Borges
Author: Andrew Brook
Author: Immanuel Kant
Author: Maria Borges
Author: Mark Dimmock
Author: James Hervey Hyslop
Author: Onora O'Neill
Author: Richard McCarty