Kant's Early Critics on Freedom of the Will

This book makes lesser-known philosophical texts on freedom of the will after Kant available in English for the first time.

Jörg Noller (Edited and translated by), John Walsh (Edited and translated by)

9781108482462, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 March 2022

290 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.4 cm, 0.672 kg

'This is a fine collection that will help students and scholars understand the intricacies of Kant's multifaceted theory of freedom. When we see how Kant's own contemporaries debated some of the same interpretive and philosophical issues that we debate today, we get insight into the enduring appeal of Kant's approach. No philosopher before or since offered an examination of freedom as complicated and yet rewarding as Kant's, and here we can see his own contemporaries clashing over what Kant meant and how we humans are or are not free.' Frederick Rauscher, Michigan State University

This book offers translations of early critical reactions to Kant's account of free will. Spanning the years 1784-1800, the translations make available, for the first time in English, works by little-known thinkers including Pistorius, Ulrich, Heydenreich, Creuzer and others, as well as familiar figures including Reinhold, Fichte and Schelling. Together they are a testimony to the intense debates surrounding the reception of Kant's account of free will in the 1780s and 1790s, and throw into relief the controversies concerning the coherence of Kant's concept of transcendental freedom, the possibility of reconciling freedom with determinism, the relation between free will and moral imputation, and other arguments central to Kant's view. The volume also includes a helpful introduction, a glossary of key terms and biographical details of the critics, and will provide a valuable foundation for further research on free will in post-Kantian philosophy.

Note on the Edition and Translation
List of Abbreviations
Historical and Systematic Introduction
Chronology of the Translated Texts and Kant's Major Works
Part I. Freedom and Determinism: 1. Hermann Andreas Pistorius [Review:] 'Elucidations of Professor Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' by Joh. Schulze, Royal Prussian Court Chaplain. Königsberg: Dengel, 1784. 8, 254 pages.' 1786
2. Johann August Heinrich Ulrich, Eleutheriology or On Freedom and Necessity, Jena 1788
3. Christian Wilhelm Snell, On Determinism and Moral Freedom, Offenbach, 1789
4. August Ludwig Christian Heydenreich, On Freedom and Determinism and their Compatibility, Erlangen 1793
Part II. Freedom and Imputability: 5. Carl Christian Erhard Schmid, Lexicon for the Easier Use of the Kantian Writings, 1788 (2nd Edition)
6. Carl Christian Erhard Schmid, Attempt at a Moral Philosophy, Jena 1790
7. Johann Christoph Schwab, 'On the Two Kinds of I, and the Concept of Freedom in Kant's Ethics' Philosophisches Archiv 1(1) (1792), 69–80
8. Johann Christoph Schwab, 'On Intelligible Fatalism in the Critical Philosophy' Philosophisches Archiv 2(2) (1794), 26–33
9. Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Contributions to the Correction of Previous Misunderstandings of Philosophers: Volume II Concerning the Foundation of Philosophical Knowledge, Metaphysics, Ethics, Moral Religion, and Doctrine of Taste, Jena 1794
Part III: Freedom and Consciousness
10. Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob, 'On Freedom', Berlin 1788
11. Karl Heinrich Heydenreich, 'On Moral Freedom' Betrachtungen über die Philosophie der natürlichen Religion, Zweiter Band, Leipzig 1791, 56–69
12. Johann Heinrich Abicht, 'On the Freedom of the Will' Neues Philosophisches Magazin. Ed. by J.H. Abicht and F.G. Born. Leipzig 1789. Vol. 1. Part I (III), 64–85
Part IV. Freedom and Skepticism: Leonhard Creuzer, Skeptical Reflections on Freedom of the Will with Respect to the Most Recent Theories on the Same, Giessen 1793
13.Friedrich Carl Forberg, On the Grounds and Laws of Free Actions, Jena and Leipzig, 1795
14. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, [Review:] 'Skeptical Reflections on Freedom of the Will with Respect to the Most Recent Theories on the Same by Leonhard Creuzer, 1793' ALZ 303 (1793), col. 201–205
15. Salomon Maimon, 'The Moral Skeptic'
16. Berlinisches Archiv der Zeit und ihres Geschmacks Volume II (1800), pp. 271–292
Part V. Freedom and Choice: Immanuel Kant, Preliminary Notes and Reflections to the Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals (before 1797)
17. Immanuel Kant, Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals, 1797
18. Karl Leonhard Reinhold, 'Some Remarks on the Concept of the Freedom of the Will, posed by I. Kant in the Introduction to the Metaphysical Foundations of the Doctrine of Right', 1797 Auswahl vermischter Schriften Volume II, Jena 1797, 364–400
19. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, 'General Overview of the Most Recent Philosophical Literature' Philosophisches Journal, Vol. 7/2, Jena and Leipzig, 1797, 105–186
Appendix: Biographical Sketches.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP]