Stephen R. Palmquist

Kant’s Ethics of Grace: Perspectival Solutions to the Moral Difficulties with Divine Assistance

Throughout most of the history of Kant interpretation, the Sage of Konigsberg has been portrayed either as a philosopher without any serious interest in religion or as one who sought to bolster an essentially secular moral philosophy by reducing religion to nothing but ethical conduct. When such interpreters turn to Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (1793), they typically ignore or explain away his references to divine assistance (e.g., 44–45) and his arguments that our practical need to believe in God justifies a believer’s hope that a morally

Cultivating Personhood: Kant and Asian Philosophy

Authors from all over the world unite in an effort to cultivate dialogue between Asian and Western philosophy. The papers forge a new, East-West comparative path on the whole range of issues in Kant studies. The concept of personhood, crucial for both traditions, serves as a springboard to address issues such as knowledge acquisition and education, ethics and self-identity, religious/political community building, and cross-cultural understanding. Edited by Stephen Palmquist, founder of the Hong Kong Philosophy Cafe and well known for both his Kant expertise and his devotion to fostering philosophical dialogue, the book presents selected and reworked papers from the first ever Kant Congress in Hong Kong, held in May 2009. Among others the contributors are Patricia Kitcher (New York City, USA), Gunther Wohlfahrt (Wuppertal, Germany), Cheng Chung-ying (Hawaii, USA), Sammy Xie Xia-ling (Shanghai, China), Lau Chong-fuk (Hong Kong), Anita Ho (Vancouver/Kelowna, Canada), Ellen Zhang (Hong Kong), Pong Wen-berng (Taipei, Taiwan), Simon Xie Shengjian (Melbourne, Australia), Makoto Suzuki (Aichi, Japan), Kiyoshi Himi (Mie, Japan), Park Chan-Goo (Seoul, South Korea), Chong Chaeh-yun (Seoul, South Korea), Mohammad Raayat Jahromi (Tehran, Iran), Mohsen Abhari Javadi (Qom, Iran), Soraj Hongladarom (Bangkok, Thailand), Ruchira Majumdar (Kolkata, India), A.T. Nuyen (Singapore), Stephen Palmquist (Hong Kong), Christian Wenzel (Taipei, Taiwan), Mario Wenning (Macau).

What is Kantian Gesinnung? On the priority of volition over metaphysics and psychology in religion within the bounds of bare reason

Kant’s enigmatic term Gesinnung baffles many readers of Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason . This study clarifies the notion in Kant’s theories of both general moral decision-making and specifically religious conversion. It is argued that Kantian Gesinnung is volitional, referring to a person’s principle-based choice to live a certain way. More specifically, interpreted as principled ‘conviction’, Kantian Gesinnung is a religiously manifested, moral form of Uberzeugung (‘convincing’). This is confirmed by a detailed analysis of the 169 occurrences of Gesinnung and cognate words in Religion . It contrasts with what is suggested by translating Gesinnung as ‘disposition’, which reinforces a tendency to interpret the notion more metaphysically, and also with Pluhar’s translation as ‘attitude’, which has too strongly psychological connotations.

The implied standpoint of Kant's religion: An assessment of Kant's reply to (and an english translation of) an early book review of religion within the bounds of bare reason

In the second edition Preface of Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason Kant responds to an anonymous review of the first edition. We present the first English translation of this obscure book review. Following our translation, we summarize the reviewers main points and evaluate the adequacy of Kants replies to five criticisms, including two replies that Kant provides in footnotes added in the second edition. A key issue is the reviewers claim that Religion adopts an implied standpoint, described using transcendental terminology. Kant could have avoided much confusion surrounding Religion , had he taken this review more seriously. We therefore respond to three objections that Kant failed to address: how the Wille–Willkur distinction enables the propensity to evil to be viewed as coexisting with freedom of choice; how moral improvement is possible, even though the propensity to evil is necessary and universal; and how a ‘deed’ can be regarded as ‘noumenal’.

Three Perspectives on Abraham’s Defense against Kant’s Charge of Immoral Conduct

Throughout history no mere mortal has been more revered and esteemed by so many diverse people than Abraham, great patriarch of the three enduring monotheistic religions. Yet Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all agree that this man attempted to kill his own, innocent son, an act so dastardly that it would normally be judged both immoral and illegal in any civil society. Surprisingly, the scriptures of these three religious faiths praise Abraham for this very act, justifying it in very different ways, but all portraying it as the paradigm of religious obedience. In the reasoned opinion of Immanuel Kant, one of the Western philosophers most highly respected by scholars of all three faiths, Abraham’s murderous intent should not be so easily excused. Instead of following the traditional religious interpretations, we should condemn Abraham and learn from his near fatal mistake. If Abraham really was

Is There a Logic of the Ineffable? Or, How Is it Possible to Talk About the Unsayable?

This chapter defends a single, fixed, definite answer to the question: Is there a logic that governs the unsayable? The proposed answer is: “Yes, and no. Or yes-but-not-yes. And/or yes-no.” Each component of this answer is examined and used to generate three laws of what Palmquist terms “synthetic logic”, which correspond directly to the laws of classical (Aristotelian) logic: the law of contradiction (“A = −A”), the law of non-identity (“A ≠ A”), and the law of the included middle (“−(Av-A)”). Ultimately, Palmquist concludes by arguing that we can talk about the unsayable only by assuming that propositions constructed in accordance with these three alternative logical laws can be meaningful.

Lawrence R. Pasternack: Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kant on Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: An Interpretation and Defense. London/New York: Routledge, 2014. XV; 272 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-50786-8.

als sachgerecht und der Vielschichtigkeit des Denkens Kants angemessen. Diese Pluralität der interpretatorischen Perspektiven ist also positiv zu erwähnen und zu begrüßen. Zur Lektüre ist der Sammelband zu empfehlen, da er eine breite und vor allem problemorientierte Palette an möglichen Ansätzen bezüglich des Themenkomplexes der menschlichen „Gefühlswelt“ im Werk Kants anbietet. In dieser Hinsicht stellt das Buch eine sehr gute Anregung hinsichtlich der untersuchten Problematik dar, die eine kritische Diskussion nicht abschließt, sondern herausfordert.

Mapping Kant's Architectonic onto the Yijing Via the Geometry of Logic

Both Kants architectonic and the Yijing can be structured as four perspectival levels: 0 + 4 + 12 + (4 × 12) = 64. The first, unknowable level is unrepresentable. The geometry of logic provides well-structured maps for levels two to four. Level two consists of four basic gua (2, 64, 63, 1), corresponding to Kants category-headings (quantity, quality, relation, modality). Level threes twelve gua, derived logically from the initial four, correspond to Kants twelve categories. Level four correlates the remaining 48 gua (in twelve sets of four) to Kants theory of the four university faculties (philosophy, theology, law, medicine), and to four categorially organized (twelvefold) domains comprising his philosophical system.

Philosophy of Religion after Kant and Kierkegaard

At first sight the scope of this conference’s sixth and final topic seems clear enough: it calls for an examination of major developments in the philosophy of religion during the 150–200 years since Kant and Kierkegaard. Two ambiguities, however, must be clarified before the topic’s scope can be properly determined. The first ambiguity concerns the role of the word ‘after’ in the title. For this little word conveys an interesting dual meaning: ‘after’ can mean either ‘along the lines of (as in ‘Kant takes after his mother’) or ‘subsequent to’ (as in ‘Kierkegaard was born after Kant died’). For reasons that will become apparent as we proceed, I shall take the word to have both meanings, dealing specifically with the implications of the former in section 2 and with those of the latter in section 3.

Kant's “Appropriation” of Lampe's god

E The Problem of Transcendental Theology t would be difficult to find a philosopher who has suffered more injustices at the hands of his commentators (friends and foes alike) than Immanuel Kant. This is particularly true when it comes to the many anecdotes that commentators are, for some reason, quite fond of reciting about Kant. The problem is that such tales are often used surreptitiously to twist Kants own explicit claims about what he was attempting to accomplish, so that when his writings are read with these stories in mind, misunderstanding is almost inevitable. As an example, it is only necessary to think of the tale of the old ladies of KOnigsberg who became so familiar with Kants rigid schedule that they used to set their clocks by his daily comings and goings. This may or may not be true; the point is that unless this anecdote is recounted with a certain skepticism, it is likely to encourage a prejudice whereby the reader of Kant assumes at the beginning that Kants writings are filled with the unreasonably rigid and formalistic ravings of someone