Philosophy 3230: Kant Instructor: Andrew
Chignell
Fall
2008, M/W 7:30-8:45 chignell@cornell.edu
Rockefeller
128 Office Hours: T 1:30-3:00
Goldwin Smith 228
An
intensive study the metaphysical and epistemological doctrines in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. This text is one of the most important in
modern philosophy, and we will try to understand why. We will also discuss which if any of Kant's
arguments are of abiding philosophical interest. Topics include: the limits of human
knowledge; the role of the mind in the production of experience; the reality of
space and time; the nature of bodies; reason and its ability to critique
itself; knowledge of the self; freedom of the will; the existence of God; the
afterlife of the soul; the status of metaphysics; and the relationship between
"appearances" and Ultimate Reality.
Course website:
The
course website will be run through Moodle (not Blackboard), though part of it
will be based in my personal Cornell site (you’ll see what I mean). Moodle is a pilot program that Cornell is
sampling this term; we will be asked for feedback as to whether we think it is
preferable to Blackboard.
Moodle
Links and Information: http://moodle.cit.cornell.edu
You
will need an account in Moodle to access the course web site. To request a
Moodle account, please complete the form at: http://tinyurl.com/667cj4
Support
email: moodle@cornell.edu
Ordering texts:
The
two required books are available for purchase through the Bookery II bookstore
(the last independent seller of new books in
Bookery II contact information:
Tel:
(607) 273-5055, Fax: (607) 275-9221
Email:
Bookery2@hotmail.com
Assigned readings:
Immanuel Kant, Critique
of Pure Reason. Ed. and trans. P. Guyer and A. Wood.
Jill
Vance Buroker. Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure
Reason’: An Introduction.
Other resources (these are on Reserve
in the Philosophy Reading Room, Olin 602):
Introductory:
Howard
Caygill, A Kant Dictionary,
[Help with terminology, covering the entire Kantian corpus. Also available electronically through the library databases.]
Georges
Dicker. Kant’s Theory of Knowledge.
2004.
[Excellent and crystal-clear introduction. A little more argument-focused than Buroker, perhaps.]
Sebastian
Gardner. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kant and the Critique of Pure
Reason.
[A solid introductory survey of the first Critique. If Buroker is too challenging for you, try this one. Tends to slant in the “anodyne” direction in its reading of transcendental idealism.]
Paul
Guyer, Kant.
[A big picture look at Kant’s entire life and work by a leading Anglo-American
scholar.]
Allen
Wood. Kant.
[Another big picture look at Kant’s life and work by another leading Anglo-American scholar. More introductory than Guyer’s book.]
Advanced:
Henry
Allison, Kant's Transcendental Idealism:
An Explanation and Defense. New
Haven: Yale, 1983. (Revised edition, 2004)
[An important topically-structured commentary that defends an "anodyne" reading of Kant's transcendental idealism.]
Karl
Ameriks, Kant’ Theory of Mind. Second
edition.
[An advanced but rewarding close reading of the Paralogisms.]
Karl
Ameriks. Interpreting Kant’s Critiques.
[The
first section of this book, on the first Critique,
contains some classic articles which defend a non-anodyne reading of Kant’s
transcendental idealism, and also allows there to be much more “metaphysics” in
Kant’s system than non-anodyne readers like Strawson, Bennett, and Guyer will
admit. This reading is now coming back
into favor.]
Jonathan
Bennett. Kant’s Analytic.
[Along with Strawson, Bennett is one of the first
“analytic” readers of Kant’s theoretical philosophy. Hostile to transcendental idealism, but still
sees arguments of value in Kant’s work.]
Jonathan
Bennett. Kant’s Dialectic.
[Companion piece to the above.]
Michele
Grier, Kant's Doctrine of Transcendental
Illusion.
[A close discussion of the main themes in the Transcendental Dialectic. Anodyne reading of transcendental idealism.]
Paul
Guyer, Kant and the Claims of Knowledge.
[Influential and in-depth treatment of the first Critique, focusing on both epistemology and metaphysics. Not an “anodyne” interpretation: Guyer reads Kant as a genuine idealist, although Guyer himself doesn’t like this doctrine and thinks Kant could have done without it.]
Paul
Guyer (ed.) The
[Well-known collection of articles by top scholars on various aspects of Kant’s philosophy]
Rae
Langton, Kantian Humility: Our Ignorance
of Things in Themselves.
[Wonderfully clear and concise
articulation of yet another reading of Transcendental Idealism.]
P.F.
Strawson. The Bounds of Sense: An essay
on Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason.’
[Along with Bennett, Strawson is one of the first “analytic” readers of Kant’s theoretical
philosophy. Hostile to transcendental idealism, but still sees arguments of value in Kant’s work.]
James
van Cleve, Problems from Kant.
[An advanced but extremely clear commentary, presenting Kant as a non-anodyne, bona fide idealist.]
Note:
This is just a sliver of the vast secondary literature on Kant. Participants in the class will not be
expected to read anything beyond what is assigned, though you may want to look
at these in preparing your final paper.
For those interested in readings beyond these, there is a good,
topically-structured bibliography at the end of the CCK. If you read German and
would like suggestions about good resources in that language, please contact
me.
Internet:
Primary
Texts, Secondary texts on-line etc.
In
German: The
http://web.uni-marburg.de/kant/
In
English: Stephen Palmquist’s massive portal at
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/Kant.html
Reference
texts
The
most important of these is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (“SEP”), which is free to all users. There are some very helpful articles on
various aspects of Kant’s work there, as well as links to other resources. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(available to people with a NetID through the Cornell library site) is also
useful.
And,
if you're really bored…
Listen
to "The Kant Song" by Paul Fine and Roderick Long:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/philosophy/kant.htm
or
check out what you will want to own by the end of term:
http://www.cafepress.com/epistemelinks/997303
Written Work:
Two
papers:
(1)
5-6 page exercise
on an assigned topic. Due October 15th.
(2) 10-12 page paper due on Dec. 17th. Rough drafts accepted through Dec. 5th..
Daily
questions:
Every
day at the beginning of class, you
will be asked to hand in a question about the reading from Kant for that
day. These questions shouldn’t be long,
but they should demonstrate thoughtful attention to the text and refer to a
particular passage or two. These
assignments must be typed. They will not typically be returned, but the
questions may influence the direction of our subsequent discussions. They will be graded on a S/U basis, and also
help me calculate attendance.
Final
Exam:
Multiple choice, short answer, one
long answer essay question.
Grading:
Questions/Attendance:
20%
Short
paper: 20%
Long
paper: 40%
Final
Exam: 20%
Writing a Philosophy paper:
Papers
should adhere to some consistent practice of footnoting and citation (
“Plagiarism,
or academic theft, is passing off someone else’s work as your own. Regardless of your background, you are
responsible for not plagiarizing. See
the sections in Cornell’s Policy Notebook
on the ‘Code of Academic Integrity’ and ‘Acknowledging the work of
others.’ Plagiarism will be prosecuted;
it can affect your permanent record.”
On
writing a philosophy paper, there is no better on-line guide than Jim
Pryor's. Please consult it:
http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html
Help
with writing: Cornell has a “walk-in” writing service that is available to
people taking this course. They won’t
proofread your papers or edit them, but they will look at your drafts and offer
general comments about structure, argumentation, grammar, etc. More information is available at: www.arts.cornell.edu/writing
Plan of Meetings, and
Notes
1.
For the most part, we will focus on the second or "B" edition of the Critique, which was published in
1787. However, there are some important
differences between the two editions, and if you decide to write a paper on a
particular passage, you should check out the A edition too. See the account of "The Changes in the
Second Edition" in Guyer/Wood Introduction (p. 66-73).
2.
Reading Kant for comprehension is hard. He wasn't a very good or clear writer, and he
needed a better editor. So although the
reading assignments here are not long, they will take a while, and ideally
should be read twice. You might consider
reading ahead a bit, and then rereading the relevant selection when we get to
it in class.
3. The companion readings from Buroker are
listed below. If you opt for Dicker or
4. This is a tentative schedule: we might fall
behind in lectures, but you should keep up with the reading in your submitted
questions unless instructed otherwise.
Week One (Sep 1)
Mon:
Introduction, Logistics
A preface (Avii-Axxii)
Wed:
The Possibility of Metaphysics (no questions due today)
B preface (Bvii-Bxliv); optional: A Preface, B860-879
Buroker ch. 1
Recommended: Martin Schönfeld,
“Kant’s philosophical development” SEP
Week Two (Sep 8)
Mon:
A priori/A posteriori, Analytic/Synthetic
B Introduction (B1-B30)
Buroker ch. 2
Recommended: James van Cleve, “Necessity, Analyticity, and
the a priori,” ch. 2
of Problems from Kant
Wed:
No class, instructor away
Week Three (Sept 15)
Mon:
Sensible conditions of experience: Space
B33-B45
Wed:
Sensible conditions of experience: Time
B46-B58
Buroker, 36-57
Week Four (Sept
22)
Mon:
Space, Time, and Transcendental Idealism
B59-B73
Buroker, 57-72
Wed:
From Aesthetic to Logic
B74-B90
Buroker, 73-80
Week Five (Sept 29)
Mon:
Conceptual conditions of experience:
Metaphysical Deduction
B90-B116
Wed:
Metaphysical Deduction, continued
Axvi-Axvii
Buroker, 80-102
Week Six (Oct 6)
Mon:
Transcendental Deduction in B, introduced
B116-B129; optional A Deduction,
A95-A130
Buroker, 103-106; optional 106-115
Recommended: Karl Ameriks, “Kant’s Transcendental Deduction as a
Regressive Argument,” in Ameriks, Interpreting
Kant’s Critiques.
Wed:
The Transcendental Deduction, continued
B129-B146 (sections 16-21)
Buroker, 116-127
Week Seven (Oct 13)
Mon:
No class, Fall break
Wed:
The Transcendental Deduction, concluded
B146-B169 (sections 22-27)
Buroker,
127-135
Recommended: James van Cleve, “Experience and Objects,” ch. 7
from Problems from Kant
→→First paper
due before or in class (no questions due today)
Week Eight (Oct 20)
Mon:
Schematism
B169-B187
Buroker, 136-143
Wed:
The Principles of Pure Understanding,
introduced
B187-B202
Buroker 143-145
Week Nine (Oct 27)
Mon:
First Analogy: Substance-Attribute
B218-232
Buroker 163-173
Recommended: van Cleve, ch. 8
Wed:
Second Analogy: Cause-Effect
B232-B256
Buroker, 173-183
Week Ten (Nov 3)
Mon:
Phenomena and Noumena (Colin McLear
lecturing)
B294-B315; optional B316-B349
Recommended: van Cleve, ch. 1
and ch. 10
Wed:
Second Analogy, continued
B232-B256 (again)
Buroker 183-186 (just to give you a
sense of the third Analogy)
Recommended: van Cleve, ch. 9
Week Eleven (Nov. 10)
Mon:
Introduction to the Transcendental Dialectic
B349-B366
Wed:
Ideas of Pure Reason
B366-B396
Week Twelve (Nov 17)
Mon:
Rational psychology: The Paralogisms
A338-A405; optional B396-B432
Buroker, ch. 8
Recommended:
van Cleve, ch. 11
Wed:
Rational cosmology: The Antinomies
B432-B453
Buroker, 226-239
Week Thirteen (Nov 24)
Mon:
Antinomies continued: Freedom
B472-B479; optional B560-B586
B825-B832
Buroker, 244-248; 253-263
Wed:
No class, Thanksgiving
Week Fourteen (Dec 1)
Mon:
The Ideal of Pure Reason: God
B595-B630; optional B631-B670
Buroker, ch. 10
Recommended: van Cleve, ch.
12
Wed:
Practical Faith
B490-B503
B 823-B858
Recommended: Allen Wood,
"Rational Theology, moral faith, and religion,"
CCK, 394-416
→→Thursday,
December 11, 9-11:30am: Exam
→→→Wednesday,
December 17, 5pm: Final paper due via Moodle