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Are computers on the way to acquiring “superintelligence”? Can human deliberation and decision-making be fully simulated by the mechanical execution of AI programmes? On close examination these expectations turn out not to be well-founded, since algorithms (or, in Kantian terms, “imperatives of skill” that are implemented by technological means) do, ultimately, have “heteronomous” characteristics. So-called AI-“autonomy” is a sensor-directed performance automatism, which — compared with the potential...

This article assesses the role of Immanuel Kant’s ideas in the historical philosophy of Gustav Shpet (1879—1937). This theme has been largely ignored by Shpet scholars who have concentrated on comparing his logical-methodological theories with the ideas of representatives of phenomenology (E. Husserl, R. Ingarden and others) and hermeneutics (F. Schleiermacher, W. Dilthey, H. Lipps, H.-G. Gadamer and others). Accordingly, the authors consistently reconstruct “the sphere of conversation” within which...

The aim of this research is to explore what relations self-affection bears to the intuitions of inner sense. I propose that self-affection makes some contribution to formal intuitions and empirical consciousness by arguing that the functions of self-affection consist respectively in conceptualising and conscious-making. I begin by examining Kant’s concept of inner sense and point out that inner sense as a receptive faculty depends on self-affection. In so doing, I emphasise that self-affection includes...

The third formulation of the Categorical Imperative rarely receives the attention devoted to its predecessors. This paper aims to develop a naturalistic approach to morality inspired by Kant’s conception of moral agents as legislating in a Kingdom of Ends. Positions derived from the third formulation, John Rawls’s Kantian Constructivism and T. M. Scanlon’s Contractualism, cleave closely to Kant in idealising the process of legislation. For Rawls, the citizens of the Kantian Reich can be reduced to...

Prof. Deng Xiaomang’s translations of the Critique of the Power of Judgment (2002), the Critique of Practical Reason (2003), and the Critique of Pure Reason (2004), were the first Chinese editions of Kant’s three Critiques translated in their entirety from the German originals. This interview tracks his scholarship, placing it within the broader scope of historical and contemporary Kant scholarship in China. Among the topics addressed, the reception of Kantian philosophy among the so called “New...

The 13th International Kant Congress was held on August 6-9, 2019 in Oslo, Norway. The main tasks of this review are to analyse the central theme of the Congress, “The Court of Reason”, the related spheres of philosophical inquiry such as metaphilosophy and philosophical methodology, as well as to reveal the main approaches and development trends of transcendental philosophy in “theoretical” and “practical” fields and modern Kant studies, notably transcendental philosophy of language and consciousness...

The house which Immanuel Kant bought in Königsberg in 1783 has not survived, having been pulled down in the late nineteenth century. Likewise, hardly any of the great philosopher’s personal belongings have survived. Many pieces of furniture and household utensils were auctioned off after his death. So the Kant museum had few original exhibits from the Königsberg thinker’s house, and almost all these artefacts were lost during the Second World War. Today, digital technologies make it possible to present...

Kant’s natural philosophy in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science is heavily influenced by Newton’s Principia. However, a closer look makes it clear that Kant’s project has also been influenced by other thinkers. One of these thinkers is Leonard Euler. His work was of great influence for Kant, not only with regards to his view on space and inertia but on the relation between metaphysics and natural science in general. Even though Euler’s Physics built on Newton’s work, he differs from...

Transcendental philosophy was not born like Athena out of Zeus’s head, mature and in full armour from the very beginning. That is why in both prefaces to the Critique of Pure Reason (1781 and 1787) Kant introduces the concept of transcendental philosophy as an “idea.” The idea understood architectonically develops slowly and only gradually acquires a definite form. As witnessed by the works of Kant himself and of his predecessors and followers, the idea of transcendental philosophy has undergone...

It is necessary to reconsider P. M. S. Hacker’s assessment of Kant and Wittgenstein’s philosophical affinities and the question concerning Wittgenstein’s alleged use of “transcendental arguments”. First, Alfred Norman’s reading of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as a thought experiment receives revision to develop a view of the Critique of Pure Reason as a large-scale thought experiment that shares important logical features with the Tractatus. Then the question is addressed whether the middle...

The “Cambridge pragmatists”, Charles S. Peirce, William James and Josiah Royce, are at least in two respects significantly indebted to Kant: first, as von Kempski, Apel and Murphey have shown, with regard to the epistemological issues investigated in pragmatism; secondly, with regard to the various pragmatic approaches to religion, something which has been long overlooked. These approaches are best understood as innovative re-readings of Kant’s postulates of freedom, immortality, and God. Since Hilary...

Some ideas expressed in the collective monograph Universality in Morality (2020), edited by Ruben Apressyan, are here critically examined. The book is based on the results of a large-scale study by professional ethical philosophers devoted to the question of the nature of universality in morality and the mechanisms of universalisation of individual maxims and norms from antiquity to modern ethical theories, represented above all by the analytical tradition in philosophy. Of great interest is the...

Kant’s turn to the subject has changed the epistemological conditions for theology. Four intellectual backgrounds of objections are examined: an Aristotelian and Thomistic teleological order of nature (1); Augustinianism based on original sin in which human agency is completely attributed to God’s grace (2); a Hegelian critique of the deontological conception of an “unconditional ought” which also puts Kant’s postulate of the existence of God into question (3); the combination in Radical Orthodoxy...

De Boer, K., 2020. Kant’s Reform of Metaphysics: The Critique of Pure Reason Reconsidered. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gloy, K., 1998. Bewusstseinstheorien: zur Problematik und Problemgeschichte des Bewusstseins und Selbstbewusstseins. Freiburg & München: Alber. Henrich, D., 1966. Fichtes ursprüngliche Einsicht. In: Subjektivität und Metaphysik. Festschrift für Wolfgang Cramer. Edited by D. Henrich and H. Wagner. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, pp. 188-232. Lewin, M., 2021. Das...

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the question of whether humans should reproduce. Some say human life is too punishing and cruel to impose upon an innocent. Others hold that such harms do not undermine the great and possibly unique value of human life. Tracing these outlooks historically in the debate has barely begun. What might philosophers have said, or what did they say, about human life itself and its value to merit reproduction? Herein it is useful to look to Kant, who wrote much...

As recent social research demonstrates, the life world is increasingly impacted by a corrosion of social bonds and aggressive habits expressed, for instance, in hate speech in the social media. Significantly, such phenomena have not been prevented from evolving within the framework of constitutional liberal states. In search of an appropriate mode of challenging the current social pathologies, we should examine Kant’s claim that, alongside the “juridico-civil (political) state”, an “ethico-civil...

An unrecognised copy (1665) in Kant’s private library of Michael Piccart’s Isagoge (1605), an introduction to the system of Aristotelian philosophy together with Kant’s own remarks on this author (Refl 4160, AA 17, p. 439) can be established as an original source for the Kantian ‘ideosphere’. First, I point out contexts and consequences of Piccart’s Altdorfian Aristotelianism, in contrast to the Königsbergian Aristotelianism (emphasised by Tonelli’s research). To further check the quality of Piccart...

My aim is to demonstrate the specificities and differences between transcendental deduction of concepts and deduction of the fundamental principles of pure practical reason in Kant’s metaphysics. First of all it is necessary to examine Kant’s attitude to the metaphysics of his time and the problem of its new justification. Kant in his philosophy explicated not only the theoretical world of cognition, but also the practical world of freedom. Accordingly, the fundamental means of proving metaphysics’...

The starting point of my study is Kant’s remark to the effect that Garve in his treatise on the connection between morality and politics presents arguments in defence of unjust principles. Recognition of these principles is, according to Kant, an inadvisable concession to those who are inclined to abuse it. I interpret this judgement by making a detailed comparison of the texts of the two treatises. I demonstrate that Garve’s work is an eclectic attempt to combine in one concept the lessons of historical...

Unterstützt durch zehn Abbildungen wird erstens versucht, den Umständen nachzuspüren, die Kant´s Interesse an der Geographie geweckt und aufrecht erhalten haben. Zweitens werden die kartographischen und literarischen Quellen im Umriß skizziert, aus denen Kant den Stoff für den Abschnitt über ›Asien‹ in seinen Vorlesungen über Physische Geographie bezogen hat. Ein abschließenden Blick gilt der historischen Entwicklung der Vorlesung.

Kant was never satisfied with the version of his “Refutation” published in 1787 (KrV, B 275-279). His dissatisfaction is already evident in the footnote added to the preface of the second edition of the Critique in 1787. As a matter of fact, Kant continued to rework his argument for at least six years after 1787. The main exegetical problem is to figure out who is the target of the “Refutation”: a non-sceptic idealist or a global sceptic of Cartesian provenance or both. In this last case, a related...

The aim is to examine Alois Riehl’s contribution to the “culture war” (Kulturkampf) in the second half of the nineteenth century. We show that he used Kant’s autonomy principle to argue against the idea that religious dogmatism is a fundament of morality. We prove this thesis by focusing on the forgotten historical background, which is important for an understanding of Morals und Dogma. Originally this essay was an expert opinion for the court case of the socialist H. Tauschinski who was accused...

1. Belov, V. N., 2013. A. I. Vvedneksy, the Forefather of Russian Neo-Kantianism. In: V. N. Bryushinkin, V. S. Popova, eds. 2013. Neo-Kantianstvo v Rossii: Aleksandr Ivanovich Vvedensky, Ivan Ivanovich Lapshin [Neo-Kantianism in Russia: Aleksandr I. Vvedensky, Ivan I. Lapshin]. Moscow: ROSSPEN, pp. 74-93. (In Russ.) 2. Belov, V. N., Czardybon, B., 2016. Studies into the History of Russian Neo-Kantianism in Poland. Kantovsky sbornik [Kant­ian Journal], 1, pp. 66-86. (In Russ.) 3. Czardybon, B., 2015...

Kant’s concept of Gesinnung reveals the whole range of its problematic potential when it has to be translated into other languages: there are no ready-made equivalents. The problem stems from the evolution of this concept in Kant himself from the pre-Critical (“mode of thinking”, “convictions”, “virtuousness”, “virtues”, “sentiments”, “inclinations”, “aspirations”) to the critical works and then in the Critical period in Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Further problems arise from the complex...

Carruthers, P., 2017. Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness. In: S. Schneider and M. Velmans, eds. 2017. The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. Hoboken. N. J.: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 288-297. Home, H., 2005. Essays on Principles of Morality and Natural Religion. Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. Hume, D., 1960. A Treatise of Human Nature. Reprinted from the original edition in 3 volumes and edited, with an Analytical Index, by L. A. Selby-Bigge. Oxford: Clarendon...

Carl Arnold Wilmans received his degree of doctor in philosophy in Halle in 1797 for a bold thesis. He claimed a latent similarity between Kant’s enlightened philosophy of religion and the pure mysticism of some so-called separatists — and sent his work to Kant. The fact that and how the latter re­acted to it, makes the matter all the more interesting. Could Kant have been a secret mystic? The following study attempts to give a differ­entiated presentation of Kant’s intellectual relationship with...

... of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers. 3rd edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 633-635. Tschirnhaus, E. W., 1695. Medicina mentis sive artis inveniendi praecepta generalia. Lipsiae: Fritsch. Unzer, J. C., 1751a. Grundriß einer Natürlichen Historie und eigentlichen Naturlehre für das Frauenzimmer. Halle: Hemmerde. Unzer, J. C., 1751b. Grundriß einer Weltweißheit für das Frauenzimmer. Halle: Hemmerde. Unzer, J. C., 1767. Grundriß einer Weltweißheit für das Frauenzimmer. Mit Anmerkungen ...

Numerous passages in the context of Kant’s philosophy of religion show without doubt his acquaintance with Lessing. But apart from the obvious affinity and agreement between Kant and Lessing with regard to many substantial questions, serious differences cannot be overlooked; the frequently diagnosed closeness and widely suspected “harmony” between the two is probably also the primary reason why important factual differences and controversial aspects have so far usually been neglected or ignored in...

The cultural movement known as “humanism” has unfortunately not received a clear and careful definition. Historians and philosophers have lumped together their various understandings of outlooks that stress the value and importance of human life under the collective term “humanism.” This essay sets out to contrast, in particular, three types of humanism, all of which attracted attention at overlapping times in Imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union. The youngest of the three, Marxist humanism...

This review presents the discussion on “Freedom and Arbitrariness. The Relevance of Kant’s Ethics and the Modern World”, which took place at the 16th Philosophical Workshop “I. Kant and the Current Problems of Modern Philosophy” held in Saratov on 14 May 2019. The discussion was organised by the Department of Ethics and Esthetics at the Philosophical Faculty of the N. G. Chernyshevsky Saratov State University and the Department of Ontology and Epistemology of the Peoples’ Friendship University of...

A murder of an Afro-American detainee by a policeman at the end of May 2020 caused a public outrage in the United States, which led to a campaign against the monuments to historical figures whose reputation, according to the protesters, was marred by racism. Some German publicists, impressed by the campaign, initiated an analogous search for racists among the national thinkers and politicians of the past. Suddenly Kant emerged as a ‘scapegoat’. This statement is an attempt to assess such reactions...

At the centre of discussion lies the reception of Plato’s philosophy, particularly his theory of Ideas, in Kant’s moral philosophy, his ethics and his doctrine of right. Kant saw himself as a follower of Platonism insofar as its anti-empiri­cist principles of human conduct are concerned, although his own version of practical rationalism differs considerably from Plato’s. This is also true of Kant’s conception of freedom and of human rights. The greatest impact on Kant’s moral philosophy is due to...

This study aims, first, to delimit the seemingly synonymous concepts of “phenomenon” and “appearance” and second, to trace the functions of each in Kant’s philosophy and the phenomenological tradition. The analy­sis is based on Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and the central works of Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink. Kant does not explicitly distinguish the two terms and only speaks about phenomena when he deals with the categorial application of reason. With Husserl, appearance is linked with...

Sergey Hessen builds his philosophy of culture on Heinrich Rickert’s theory of values. Like Rickert, he believes that the individual plays a key role in the formation of culture. The individual exercises freedom only in creative activity and the degree to which he fulfils his creative potential depends not only on the cultural context in which it happens, but also on the regulation of the opportunities for self-actualisation in any given society. Accordingly, Hessen defines society as the sphere...

The sources of Kant’s term Gesinnung and a review of the problems of its translation into English were presented in the first part of this article; the second part examines the novel features that Kant brings to the interpretation of this concept in the critical period. In the Critique of Practical Reason these include the questions of manifestation of Gesinnung in the world, apprehended through the senses, the method of establishing and the culture of truly moral Gesinnung, as well as the problem...

At the beginning of the twentieth century in the Russian-speaking philosophical space philosophical projects emerged which brought ontology and gnoseology closer together. One can observe this process, for example, in the philosophical doctrines of the Russian intuitivists Nikolay Lossky and Semyon Frank. I demonstrate that the emergence of these doctrines and the development of their onto-gnoseological categorial apparatus were mainly connected with the criticism of the Neo-Kantian theory of cognition...

his review sums up the main ideas presented at the international conference “Kant and Solovyov: Convergences and Divergences” held in Kaliningrad, Russia on 15-16 November 2018. The Conference was organised by the Academia Kantiana, a research unit of the Humanities Institute, Immanuel Kant Baltic University, in conjunction with the Department of the History of Russian Philo­sophy at the Philosophical Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The presentations were divided into two thematic blocks...

The period between the late 1910s and early 1920s saw the emergence of onto-epistemological philosophical projects in Russia that was determined by criticism and attempts to overcome the domination of epistemology in philosophy which was the result of the intensive development of Neo-Kantianism and the influence of Husserl’s phenomenology. Attempts to turn towards ontology were made both by Russian religious philosophers and by Russian Neo-Kantians. I look at the little-studied philosophical projects...

This article addresses the problem of presuppositions in a methodological work of A. S. Lappo-Danilevsky (1863—1919) — a Russian historian and theorist of historical science. The author identifies the existential strategies applied by Lappo-Danilevsky in the practical interpretation of Kant’s philosophy and specifies the meaning of A. S. Lappo-Danilevsky's work for modern philosophy of historical science. 1. Кант И. Критика чистого разума // Кант И. Соч.: в 6 т. М., 1964. Т. 3. 2. Кант И. Антропология...

The paper notes that the deduction of the a priori cognitive forms conducted by I. Kant was continued by E. Cassirer and М. Heidegger, who showed that the basis of a priori lies in certain ways of being of the man. Developing this approach to the interpretation of the basis a priori, the author of the paper shows that culture as a way of existence of meaningful being gives a rise to the initial (autochthonic) ideas which become its categorical language and arrange the space of a sense in culture...

The author addresses Kant’s transcendental solution to the problem of objectness. This article focuses on Kant’s concept of object and the problem of legitimacy of establishing correlation between ‘I’ and objects. The author specifies the substantive elements of this correlation through addressing the concept of experience and the objectivity of experience and comes to the conclusion that objectivity as a result of objectification and as objectivity primary to the given objectivity indicate one another...

This historical-philosophical essay is dedicated to the Russian publicist, chief editor of the "Musaget" publishing house Emil Metner and to Fyodor Stepun — the chief editor of the "Logos" magazine — and their contribution to the increasing influence of contemporary German thought on Russian philosophy. Emil Medtner and the "Musaget" publishing house championed Neo-Kantianism in Russia. 1. Безродный М. Из истории русского германофильства: издательство «Мусагет» //...

The author analyses the Enlightenment's principle of justifying lie from altruistic motives, which was criticised by Kant in the article "On a supposed right..." The article considers the advantages and disadvantages of arguments drawn in Kant's work. The author proves and specifies the admissibility of lie due to ethical and legal principles put forward by Kant in other publications and lectures, namely: need for self-defence and internal legal duty to humanity (categorical imperative)...

This article attempts to demonstrate the influence of Kant's philosophy of law and politics and philosophy of history alongside his aesthetic ideas on “The Bronze Horseman” by A. Pushkin. 1. Белый А. Искуситель // Белый А. Стихотворения. М., 1928. 2. Гаспаров Б. М. Поэтический язык Пушкина как факт истории русского литера­турного языка. СПб., 1999. 3. Калинников Л. А. Теория гения в эстетике Канта и «Моцарт и Сальери» Пуш­кина // Кантовский сборник. Вып. 22. Калининград, 2001. С. 138—171. 4. Кант...

This article analyses, first of all, the epistemological theory of reflection (Abbildtheorie) of Heinrich Rickert, the main representative of the Baden Neo-Kantianism School. The author analyses the key arguments put forward by Rickert against the understanding of cognition as a reflection of reality. Rickert’s standpoint is neutral. He criticises the transcendental theory of reflection, but does not reject the idea of reflection as a model of cognition and acknowledges the immanent theory of reflection...

Der Autor des Artikels analysiert zunächst den Inhalt der Kantschen Religionsphilosophie (Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft), um dann ihre Wirkungsgeschichte zu verfolgen und ihre Aktualität aufzuzeigen. In groben Zügen, aber doch ausführlicher als andere Lehren, betrachtet er in diesem Zusammenhang die philosophischen Ansichten von Hegel, Schleiermacher und Kierkegaard. Habermas schlägt vor, Kants Moralphilosophie insgesamt als Versuch anzusehen, das kategorische Sollen göttlicher...

The brief letter exchange between Hamann and Kant, in which they discussed a physics textbook for children, is the main purpose of this text. It unravels an urgent question about the nature of consciousness and its role in the structure of the physical world. 1. Аристотель. Сочинения: в 4 т. М., 1978. 2. Вергилий. Буколики. Георгики. Энеида. Гораций. Оды. Эподы. Сатиры. Посла­ния. Наука поэзии. М., 2005. 3. Гаман И. Г. Aesthetica in nuce (пер. и коммент. В. Х. Гильманова) // Гильманов В. Х. Герменевтика...

The text is devoted to the influence of Kant’s personality and philosophical ideas on the Russian thought. Kant considered as the great philosopher, who was the bright spokes of German spirit, the creative genius and genius loci of Königsberg, which has been the town of dramatic historical fate. 1. Абрамов А. И. Кант в русской духовно-академической философии // Абрамов А. И. Сборник научных трудов по истории русской мысли. М., 2005. С. 118—150. 2. Абрамов А. И. О русском кантианстве и неокантианстве...

This report presents the features of the organisation and the main ideas of the international scientific conference “‘No Right of Sedition’. Kant and the Problem of Revolution in the 18th—21st Century Philosophy.” The conference was held at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU) in Kaliningrad on November 9—10, 2017 and was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The event was organised by the Academia Kantiana — a research unit on comparative studies on Russian...