Kant on the Human Standpoint

Kant's philosophy considered under one unifying standpoint: his conception of our capacity to form judgements.

Béatrice Longuenesse (Author)

9780521112185, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 June 2009

320 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

"...a significant contribution to the project of exploring Kant's holistic and anti-foundationalist epistemology on the basis of a detailed textual analysis, a timely project undoubtedly inspired by the pioneering views of Michael Friedman." --Aaron Fellbaum, University of Graz: Philosophy in Review

In this collection of essays Béatrice Longuenesse considers the three aspects of Kant's philosophy, his epistemology and metaphysics of nature, his moral philosophy and his aesthetic theory, under one unifying standpoint: Kant's conception of our capacity to form judgements. She argues that the elements which make up our cognitive access to the world - what Kant calls the 'human point of view' - have an equally important role to play in our moral evaluations and our aesthetic judgements. Her discussion ranges over Kant's account of our representations of space and time, his conception of the logical forms of judgements, sufficient reason, causality, community, God, freedom, morality, and beauty in nature and art. Her book will appeal to all who are interested in Kant and his thought.

Introduction
Part I. Discussions: 1. Kant's categories and capacity to judge
2. Synthetics, logical forms, and the objects of our ordinary experience
3. Synthetics and givenness
Part II. The Human Standpoint in Kant's Transcendental Analytic: 4. Kant on a priori concepts: the metaphysical deduction of the categories
5. Kant's deconstruction of the principle of sufficient reason
6. Kant on causality: what was he trying to prove?
7. Kant's standpoint on the whole: disjunctive judgement, community, and the Third Analogy of Experience
Part III. The Human Standpoint in the Critical System: 8. The transcendental ideal, and the unity of the critical system
9. Moral judgement as a judgement of reason
10. Kant's leading thread in the analytic of the beautiful.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy of mind [HPM], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD], Philosophy [HP]