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1
Markovits, Julia. "Kantian internalism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432148.
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Miller, Raleigh S. "Kantian Conceptualism and Apperception." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2009. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/55.
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In this paper I argue, with many leading commentators, that Kant is a conceptualist. I support this conclusion, argued for independently by Hannah Ginsborg and John McDowell, by appeal to the analyticity of Kant’s apperception principle in the transcendental deduction. I argue that the apperception principle, if taken as an analytic proposition, implies that any mental representation that figures into discursive cognition is the product of a priori synthesis. I further argue that making a priori synthesis a condition for the possibility of any mental representation is sufficient to make mental representation conceptual in the relevant sense. This, I argue, strongly suggests that Kant is a conceptualist.
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Fitton, Emily. "Maimon's post-Kantian skepticism." Thesis, University of Essex, 2017. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/21131/.
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There is little doubt that Salomon Maimon was both highly respected by, and highly influential upon, his contemporaries; indeed, Kant himself referred to Maimon as the best of his critics. The appraisal and reformulation of the Kantian project detailed in Maimon’s Essay on Transcendental Philosophy played a significant role in determining the criteria of success for post-Kantian philosophy, and was thus crucial to the early development of German Idealism. Key aspects of Maimon’s transcendental philosophy remain, however, relatively obscure. In particular, it remains unclear to what degree Maimon’s skepticism is internal to the Kantian framework, and how this skepticism is related to Maimon’s so-called dogmatic rationalism. The central aim of this project is to present Maimon’s as a distinct form of post-Kantian skepticism: one which poses significant problems for Kant’s theoretical project and which motivates a reformulation of the critical framework. In Kant’s eyes, pre-Kantian forms of skepticism are insufficiently critical insofar as they involve a commitment to transcendental realism. By contrast, I argue that Maimon’s skepticism does not involve a commitment to transcendental realism and that it strikes at the heart of Kant’s critical project insofar as it constitutes what I term ‘critical’ as opposed to merely ‘empirical’ skepticism. I further argue that Maimon’s rationalism provides the materials for a response to this form of skepticism. This thesis contributes to contemporary debates in the history of philosophy concerning the nature of Maimon’s coalition system and its relation to German Idealism, but also provides an alternative perspective on contemporary problems in the philosophy of perception concerning, in particular, the possibility of non-conceptual intentional content.
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Surgener, Kirk. "Neo-Kantian constructivism and metaethics." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3298/.
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Christine Korsgaard has attempted to defend a distinct approach to metaethics – Neo-Kantian Constructivism. Not only does she present a positive case for her own view, she also attacks existing metaethical positions and even the disctinctions that metaethics has traditionally relied on. This thesis is a sustained examination of this position. I consider whether Korsgaard can legitimately claim to be offering a metaethical position at all, providing her with some defence against the scepticism of some metaethicists. I also examine her attacks on traditional metaethical positions (in particular moral realism and expressivism). I argue that her attack on moral realism can be avoided if the realism on offer takes a particular form. In the case of expressivism I claim that Korsgaard’s attack, though not fully developed in her work, motivates an examination of contemporary hybrid-expressivist theories. I argue that these are, as of yet, no advance over their non-hybrid cousins. Finally I examine Korsgaard’s own position, attempting to make it clearer by combining her claims with a framework developed by Crispin Wright for judgement-dependent qualities. This gives Korsgaard her best chance of a distinctive metaethical position. Ultimately, though, the Neo-Kantian approach to morality fails.
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Faramarzi, Danyal. "Nietzsche's epistemology : a Kantian reading." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77153/.
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The aim of this thesis is to locate Nietzsche’s thoughts on epistemology within the Kantian tradition of Transcendental Idealism. Through a critical involvement with both Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation, the Study will draw attention to the level of Nietzsche’s involvement with key issues in Kantian epistemology. In doing so it will put forward a reading of Nietzsche’s early ‘error theory’, Which rejects the idea that Nietzsche endorses a metaphysical correspondence theory of truth. It will instead be argued that in the early error theory Nietzsche is critiquing the discursivity of our understanding. The study will finish with a consideration of Nietzsche’s attempted rejection of the concept of the thing-in-itself through an epistemology of perspectivism. It will be argued that this rejection, much like Schopenhauer’s rejection of Kant’s inference to the thing-in-itself, ultimately fails and that Nietzsche’s perspectivism itself presupposes the ability to refer to, and make use of, the concept of reality in itself.
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Lee, Eunah. "Ethics of World Citizens : Kantian Cosmopolitanism." STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK, 2012. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3495268.
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Liotti, Maria Cecilia. "Rawls' Kantian egalitarianism and its critics." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79961.
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This thesis explores the role of the concept of equality in John Rawls' theory of justice. Rawls argues that the Kantian idea of the moral equality of persons translates into a primary principle of equal basic liberties, followed by a principle of fair equality of opportunity that addresses the moral arbitrariness of social and natural contingencies. Furthermore, the "difference principle" specifies that social and economic inequalities are only justified if they benefit the worst-off group. Libertarian critics such as Robert Nozick argue that Rawls' "difference principle" is inconsistent with a Kantian respect for the moral equality of persons as ends in themselves. Communitarians such as Michael Sandel and Charles Taylor argue that Rawls' egalitarian commitments are not supportable via a Kantian conception of the moral subject of justice as an autonomous pre-social self. This thesis defends Rawls' theory of justice against these challenges.
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Brown, Christopher Anthony. "A Kantian Account of Human Virtue." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195324.
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There are certain elements of Kant's moral philosophy that I believe no moral theory can afford to ignore. On the other hand, there are others which Kant's theory evidently would be better off without. I will be developing an account of human virtue by defending and exploiting some of Kant's most fertile and sustainable ideas, while arguing against other theses of his, a few of which have come to be regarded as definitive of Kantian Ethics.I begin by showing that we can plausibly interpret Kant's texts on "the good will" and "actions from duty" as presupposing that an agent's moral goodness consists in her aptitude for lawful conduct, that is, her aptitude for living in accord with practical principles valid for all possible agents. I build my basic account of virtue by showing that this aptitude inheres in the possession of certain traits. The cornerstone of virtue, I argue, is the moral commitment: the stable, non-instrumental aim of living lawfully. For, when this commitment prevails in determining an agent's actions, lawful conduct necessarily ensues--which cannot be said of any other commitment or aim. I identify four additional elements of virtue by searching for traits that a perfectly morally committed agent might possess, and which together would guarantee that her moral commitment prevails. These are: moral understanding, strength of will, empirical understanding, and empirical power. And I suggest that when an agent violates a moral requirement, this is always saliently attributable to a lack of one or more of the five proposed elements of virtue.I supplement the basic account of virtue by arguing that the morally committed human agent is rationally required to adopt four further, general aims: the efficient pursuit of her own happiness, the happiness of other agents and non-agents, her own moral perfection, and that of other similarly committed agents. This part of my view differs significantly from Kant's, so I will be largely concerned with critiquing the relevant arguments of his. But the result is still very much a Kantian account, and one that warrants serious consideration in contemporary debates about virtue.
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O'Connor, Brian Patrick. "Adorno's Kantian epistemology : interpretation and defence." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.260588.
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James, Michael. "Reflections and elaborations upon Kantian aesthetics." Uppsala : Stockholm, Sweden : Academia Ubsaliensis ; Distributor, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1987. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/18255569.html.
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Eagleson, Ian. "The epistemic role of Kantian intuitions /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9952649.
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Stachowiak, K. "Thing in itself in Kantian philosophy." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.676741.
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The aim of my thesis is to explain the meaning of the thing in itself in Kant's philosophy. In my thesis I propose a threefold approach to this key concept. I take Kant's system in its theoretical aspect to be the philosophy of cogito, its representations and the conditions of their possibility. Not only do I introduce my own approach to the problem of thing in itself, but I also explain most of the issues directly related to it. In Chapter I give a few preliminary remarks concerning various meanings of metaphysics in Kant's philosophy and I explain the term "representation". Chapter" analyses the particular meanings of the thing in itself: the empirical one, the transcendental one and the metaphysical one. Here I present the table of the technical terms used by Kant. In Chapter III I analyse some of the interpretations of the thing in itself in contemporary philosophy. I use my own independent analysis from Chapter" as an interpretative tool to analyse and assess the most often raised objections against Kant. I argue that despite these objections the properly understood teaching on the thing in itself is entirely coherent.
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King, Brian Christopher Ambrose. "Towards a Kantian foundation of mathematics." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.613022.
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Kendo, Guy Gervais. "Le cosmopolitisme à l’ère du mondialisme : nature, et réforme habermasienne, du modèle kantien." Thesis, Paris Est, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017PESC0002.
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La paix : l’Idée de l’avenir du monde selon Kant. Kant est un auteur qui ose, alors que l’Europe s’est construite par la guerre entre les Etats, penser que la guerre est « démodée » et tend à perdre toute valeur politique. Il ose penser que la paix sera désormais ce qui fait la valeur des politiques extérieures de tous les Etats. Il a inspiré la SDN et l’ONU.La paix entre les nations est d’abord une exigence morale (« la raison pratique impose son veto », écrit Kant). Mais cette exigence morale doit obtenir une validité juridique, historique et politique pour devenir une réalité juridique historique et politiqueThe peace: the Idea of the future of the world according to KantKant is an author who dares, while Europe built itself by the war between States, to think that the war is "old-fashioned" and tends to lose any political value. He(it) dares to think that the peace will be from now on what makes the value of the foreign policies of all the States. He(it) inspired LEAGUE OF NATIONS and UNO.The peace between nations is at first a moral requirement (" the practical reason imposes its veto ", writes Kant). But this moral requirement has to obtain a legal, historic and political validity to become a legal historic and political reality
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Stewart, Jennifer. "Three wise misrecognized fools, daring Kantian ethics." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ57687.pdf.
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Peteinarakis, Emmanouil. "The Kantian Peace and Greek-turkish relations." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2007. http://bosun.nps.edu/uhtbin/hyperion-image.exe/07Jun%5FPeteinarakis.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2007.Thesis Advisor(s): Donald Abenheim, James Wirtz. "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-96). Also available in print.
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Jirtle, James Vernon. "Understanding music’s theological significance : a Kantian approach." Thesis, Durham University, 2010. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/253/.
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Jeremy Begbie speaks of music as ‘theologically loaded’: as conveying a sense of intrinsic theological significance. This thesis explores the possibility that music is theologically loaded in an epistemological sense: that music is dependent on knowledge of God. Modern epistemologies, in which knowledge is constructed by the individual human mind, pose a challenge to such a conclusion, since even if divine knowledge is possible it would appear irrelevant for our understanding of objects, such as music, that can be known directly through experience. Because Immanuel Kant presents a particularly stringent theory of human-mind-dependent knowledge, we can use his aesthetic theory as an analytical tool both to assess the epistemological content of our aesthetic judgements as they relate to musical beauty, and to consider whether theological knowledge can be relevant to these judgements. Applying Kant’s aesthetic theory to musical beauty, we find that from within, music seems sublime — defying our ability to understand its form or predict its structure — while from without it remains clearly intelligible. This unique construction makes our judgements of musical beauty particularly dependent on what Kant calls a ‘common sense’: a principle that, although outside our cognition, nevertheless plays a constitutive role in our aesthetic judgements by ensuring their universal validity. The dependence of our aesthetic judgements on this common sense allows for the possibility that musical beauty is dependent on knowledge of God — even when considered within a human-mind-dependent epistemology — and thus enables us to give an account of music’s theological significance that is consistent with modern theories of knowledge. Considered within a Christian perspective, this common sense forms the basis for a grammatical understanding of beauty, in which beauty represents the distance between our awareness of divine providence and our limited knowledge of God’s purposes.
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Nie, Jing. "Kantian Peace Theory and the Taiwan Strait." Connect to full text in OhioLINK ETD Center, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=toledo1260832420.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toledo, 2009.Typescript. "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Political Science." "A thesis entitled"--at head of title. Bibliography: leaves 76-85.
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Wu, Feng-Wei. "Reason and violence the Kantian tradition reconsidered /." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2007.
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Stewart, Jennifer (Jennifer Kay) Carleton University Dissertation Philosophy. "'Three wise misrecognized fools: daring Kantian ethics'." Ottawa, 2000.
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Oldham, Heather Renee. "A Critique of Langton on Kantian Substance." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33125.
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Rae Langton's interpretation of the distinction between things in themselves and phenomena solves many traditional problems at the expense of Kant's discussion of the categories and time, which she thinks are irrelevant to explaining the problem of affection. Langton applies the concept "substance" in a transcendentally real manner to things in themselves, in order to argue that we are ignorant of the latter because they are causally inert intrinsic properties. In doing so, she misdiagnoses the source of Humility, which can be properly understood by the fact that things in themselves are not objects of experience. Langton misapplies the concept of substance to things in themselves, and says that substance of the First Analogy is phaenomenon substantiatum. I argue that substance is a concept which should only be applied to matter in order to unite perceptions in an objective time order.Master of Arts
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Pidwysocky, Stephen J. "Commercial contractual pregnancy, a Kantian argument against acceptance." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ32949.pdf.
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Asberg, Mark J. "Towards a Kantian ethics of (in)decisive obligation." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0008/MQ42119.pdf.
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Castellano, Isaac M. "Kantian Peace Extended: Liberal Influences and MIlitary Spending." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/polysci_etds/4.
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The Kantian Triangle of democratic institutions, IGOs, and economic interdependence has received a great deal of attention by international relations scholars. This project expands on liberal theory by arguing the pacific effects of the Kantian Triangle extend beyond dyadic context, and shapes state decision making on defense spending decisions. This project asserts that as states (1) build democratic institutions, (2) increase the number of memberships in international intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and (3) exposes domestic markets to the global economy and subsequent interdependence on foreign markets for both imports and exports, they are less likely to allocate resources toward the military. To test this argument I employ both quantitative and qualitative methods. I first utilize a pooled time series data set of all states from 1960-2000. I then examine the case of Brazil and its relationship with the Kantian Triangle and subsequent military planning decisions. I conclude that there is mixed evidence to support the notion that the Kantian Triangle reduces military spending. I establish that while democracies reduce military spending, consolidated democracies enjoy no additional benefit in military spending. However, the longer states are democracies the more likely they are to reduce spending, and if they have electoral systems based on consensus designs. I find that IGO memberships reduce military spending, however, the bulk of influence IGOs have on military spending decisions are retained by security focused organizations. Lastly, I find that international trade and overall economic globalization increases military spending, while regional trade decreases it. In all the Kantian Triangle has a substantial influence on military spending, yet it is clear from this project that this influence is not universal among all elements of the Kantian Triangle, and that the liberal influences are not completely pacific.
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Scott, Niall William Richard. "The compatibility between Kantian ethics and evolutionary ethics." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.421641.
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Ryall, Julian. "Worlds apart : a Copernican critique of Kantian idealism." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/58505/.
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In spite of his claim to have established with certainty and without omission the many transcendental grounds of experience, there is something fundamental pertaining to every possible experience which the ‘critical’ philosophy of Immanuel Kant fails to explain. The obstacle blocking the path to a solution is the critical method itself and the ingenious but misguided orientation which informed the Kantian enterprise from its inception. Kant compared this new orientation to ‘the first thoughts of Copernicus’ and indeed, ever since, ‘The Copernican Revolution in Philosophy’ has stood as title for that seismic shift in philosophical consciousness. Yet it is to Copernicus that we owe our problem and it is the Copernican world–view, acknowledged by Kant to be ‘true’, which requires us to reverse his dictum that ‘objects conform to our cognition’. The necessity for this rests on the most basic of observations: human beings – together with their faculties of apprehension – travel through space and time in a non–apprehensible way, implying that spatiotemporality exists independently of the observing subject since it is in virtue of this true movement alone that all apparent motion is generated, which appearances, however, ‘contradict’ the reality. The ‘something’ which Kant cannot explain, therefore, is the phenomenon of observer motion (in contrast to observed motion, the most his approach accommodates) since his ontological denial regarding space and time and his equivalence thesis in respect of ‘experience’ and ‘objectivity’ requires that he discount this phenomenon on principle. In determining, therefore, the ontological and epistemological implications of the opposing Copernican principle that it is our cognition that conforms to objects, it is argued that space and time are transcendentally real and the apprehending subject physically (rather than ‘empirically’ or ‘noumenally’) constituted, leaving the reader with a simple choice: Kant or Copernicus, but not both.
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Stepanich, Lambert Vincent. "The face of the real : realism, idealism, and Heidegger's ontology of relations." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.324349.
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McGuinn, Jacob. "To reversal : aesthetics and poetics from Kant to Adorno, Blanchot, and Celan." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2017. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/30719.
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This thesis reads radical indeterminacy into the reflective judgements of Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgement through points of connection between Kant's aesthetics and the philosophies and writing of Theodor Adorno and Maurice Blanchot. These re-situate the 'ends' of Kantian aesthetics in the historical situation of the 1960s and 1970s. In turn, this historicising of Kantian aesthetics reinterprets its original content. Such double reading - from Kant forwards, and back to Kant - is configured through what I call 'reversal': the indeterminacy of aesthetic reflection calls for a reverse 'reading' of itself which is not self-defeatingly determined by the aesthetic. Kant thus gives us the vocabulary for re-reading his aesthetics of reflection, and from this other indeterminacies of reflection, despite his attempt to organise and explain reflective relations through consistently with philosophical form through judgement. To read Kant outside his or any philosophy's economy, the task demanded by Adorno's theory and Blanchot's writing, asks for poetic readers and writers such as their near-contemporary, Paul Celan. They understand Celan's poetry as making legible how Kant's aesthetic might be thought reflectively, thus showing that the indeterminacy Kant attributes to reflection can be aesthetically experienced without being effaced by the philosophical judgement implying that indeterminacy. This turn back, the turn of verse, forms the hinge between Adorno's and Blanchot's dialectical and political thinking, allowing the common sense, the un-institutionalised 'we' Kant thinks ratifies aesthetic judgement, to remain negative or 'unavowable'. Aesthetics still structures the reading of poetry, but such poetry makes the indeterminate implications of Kantian aesthetics legible. 'Disconnection' becomes the organising principle for reflection and politics, implied by but now freed from aesthetic judgement, made visible by a poetry of 'reversal'. We conclude by finding the development of these ideas in two major elegists of Celan, Geoffrey Hill and Jeremy Prynne.
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Quin, A. C. "Kant's criticism of the cosmological argument." Thesis, Open University, 1985. http://oro.open.ac.uk/56907/.
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This thesis sets out to examine Kant's criticism of the cosmological argument. Kant's general philosophical views are expounded and his reasons for the rejection of metaphysics are explained. In the course of the argument Kant's own analysis of the cosmological proof is discussed. He laid great stress on the fact that there are two stages involved in the cosmological proof. His principal criticism concerns its second stage. There the proponent of the proof seeks to move from the necessary being, whose existence is said to have been established in the first stage of the argument, to God. Kant's claim that the second stage of the proof involves the principle of the ontological argument is discussed as is his criticism of the ontological argument itself. There are two principal forms of the cosmological argument. These are the argument from contingency and the first cause argument. Kant discusses both in the Critique of Pure Reason, the one in his critique of rational theology, the other in his chapter on the Antinomies. The thesis discusses the Kantian criticisms of both forms of the argument and considers how these criticisms may be answered. Kant's criticism of the second stage of the cosmological proof is also discussed and it is argued that his principle that this must be a pure a priori argument is unduly restrictive. Finally the possibility of founding a criticism of the cosmological argument on the central doctrines of the Critique of Pure Reason is discussed.
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Japaridze, Tamar. "The Kantian subject, sensus communis, mimesis, work of mourning." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1995. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ27788.pdf.
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Roxburgh, Fiona. "Revised Kantian naturalism : cognition and the limits of inquiry." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2011. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/33046/.
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Hoffman, Eva Hill Thomas E. "Obedience, justice & progress a Kantian account of revolution /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,2562.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Philosophy." Discipline: Philosophy; Department/School: Philosophy.
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Austin, Clayton Daniel. "Toward a Unified Theory of Cognition: A Kantian Analysis." UNF Digital Commons, 2003. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/107.
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The goal of this paper is to provide classroom teachers a more unified theory of cognition. The current cognitive theories of information processing, schema theory, and constructivism exhibit limitations and a lack of cohesion that make their implications for teachers unclear. This paper will be presented in five sections. 1) The first describes problems with current cognitive theories and the need for a unified theory of cognition 2) The second provides a review of the literature of current cognitive theories. 3) The third section consists of research in the history of cognitive theory both in philosophy and psychology. 4) The fourth describes how a fresh look at the philosophy of Immanuel Kant can provide a more unified cognitive theory to educational psychology. 5) Finally, the paper offers specific implications for instruction under these headings: Teachers should describe the concept to be taught as a rule. Teachers should introduce the concept rule by experience or by example. Teachers should use the concept rule as a framework for effective questioning. Teachers should describe the rule with abstract language only after students have understood the rule.
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Mezini, Erjus. "The Kantian Principle of Treating Humanity as an End." Thesis, State University of New York at Albany, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10813195.
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This paper emphasizes the central role of the Formula of Humanity in Kantian ethics. It focuses mostly on Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, with hypotheses being tested on Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals as well. It starts with an analysis of the argument Kant offers for the Formula of Humanity in Groundwork II , explicating the meaning of this formula and its distinction from the Formula of the Universal Law. It further develops on comparing all the formulations of the categorical imperative, and it argues that not all formulations are equivalent. It concludes that the categorical imperative is exhausted by the Formula of Humanity, insofar as the latter generates all Kantian duties.
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Hjelm, Alexander. "The Importance of Dignity : A Kantian Perspective on Transhumanism." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för statsvetenskap (ST), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-76199.
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The transhumanist movement has been hailed as optimistic and forward thinking in itsambition to “ascend humanity beyond its biological constraints” and bring it to the next stageof evolution. However, critics such as Nicholas Le Dévédec have claimed that the movementrepresents a reversal of the Enlightenment project of autonomy, despite claims otherwise. Inthis paper, we shall adopt the perspective of the moral philosophy of an Enlightenmentthinker important for the democratic thought of the era: Immanuel Kant. With an emphasis onKant’s conception of Dignity and the second formulation of the categorical imperative, thestudy shows that Kantianism is irreconcilable with transhumanism. The findings not onlyexpand upon Dévédec’s claims, but also emphasizes the potential of dignity as a concept indelineating the limits and use of enhancement technology.
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Walsh, John. "The Fate of Kantian Freedom: the Kant-Reinhold Controversy." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7714.
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This dissertation examines the relation of Kant’s theory of free will to that of K.L. Reinhold. I argue that Reinhold’s theory addresses several problems raised in the reception of Kant’s practical philosophy, particularly the problem of accounting for free immoral acts. Focusing on Reinhold’s account of free will as a condition for the conceivability of the moral law shows that the historical focus on Reinhold’s break from Kant’s own account and his alleged reliance on facts of consciousness obscures Reinhold’s decidedly ‘Kantian’ argument. This approach provides a new foundation for free will and demonstrates the significance of Reinhold’s practical philosophy as an attempted corrective to Kant.
Chapter 1 examines the influence of Rehberg, Ulrich, and Schmid on Kant’s and Reinhold’s respective theories of free will. Chapter 2 investigates the epistemic foundation of Reinhold’s theory of free will and, contrary to the dominant view in scholarship, argues that his account is not based merely on facts of consciousness. Chapter 3 illuminates a tension between the phenomenology of moral agency and Kant’s account of free agency. It is argued that while Kant talks about overcoming inclinations and adopting maxims by virtue of their lawful form, which would seemingly have to take place at the phenomenal level and be available to consciousness, Kant’s account of free agency is restricted to the noumenal, which precludes availability to consciousness. Reinhold’s theory of free will avoids this tension by positing consciousness of possible courses of action as a necessary condition for self-determination to one such action. Chapter 4 discusses the relation of Reinhold’s theory of free will to Kant’s Religion, a text that Reinhold uses as a basis for his charge that Kant’s theory is either “unintelligible” or “untenable.” I argue that although Reinhold fundamentally misunderstands Kant’s doctrine of supreme maxim adoption, Reinhold is correct in his assertion that Kant is committed to the thesis that the free spontaneity of the power of choice is a necessary condition for moral responsibility. Chapter 5 explicates the Kant-Reinhold Controversy to argue that given Kant’s own commitment to the conditions for moral responsibility, Reinhold was ultimately correct that free will ought to be defined as choosing for or against the moral law.
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Chung, Andrew H. "A Kantian Revision of the Doctrine of Double Effect." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1350.
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In this paper, I will present a Kantian revision of the Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE). In order to do so, I will explain the concept of jus in bello – focusing in particular on the distinction between intent and foresight. I will then argue that we ought to take an agency-inspired look at the DDE. Finally, I will conclude by arguing for my thesis that Boyle’s theory of agency, while good, needs to be revised in order to accommodate concerns stemming from Kant’s Formula of Humanity… namely consent.
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Duffy, Simon J. "An intuitionist response to moral scepticism : a critique of Mackie's scepticism, and an alternative proposal combining Ross's intuitionism with a Kantian epistemology." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1724.
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This thesis sets out an argument in defence of moral objectivism. It takes Mackie as the critic of objectivism and it ends by proposing that the best defence of objectivism may be found in what I shall call Kantian intuitionism, which brings together elements of the intuitionism of Ross and a Kantian epistemology. The argument is fundamentally transcendental in form and it proceeds by first setting out what we intuitively believe, rejecting the sceptical attacks on those beliefs, and by then proposing a theory that can legitimize what we already do believe. Chapter One sets out our intuitive understanding of morality: (1) that morality is cognitive, moral beliefs can be true or false; (2) that morality is real, we do not construct it; (3) that morality is rational, we can learn about it by rational investigation; and (4) that morality places us under an absolute constraint. The chapter ends by clarifying the nature of that absolute demand and by arguing that the critical idea within morality is the idea of duty. In Chapter Two Mackie’s sceptical attack on objectivism is examined. Four key arguments are identified: (1) that moral beliefs are relative to bfferent agents; (2) that morality is based upon on non-rational causes; (3) that the idea of moral properties or entities is too queer to be sustainable; and (4) that moral objectivism involves queer epistemological commitments. Essentially all of these arguments are shown to be ambiguous; however it is proposed that Mackie has an underlying epistemological and metaphysical theory, scientific empiricism, which is (a) hostile to objectivism and (b) a theory that many find attractive for reasons that are independent of morality. Chapter Three explores the nature of moral rationality and whether scientific empiricism can use the idea of reflective equilibrium to offer a reasonable account of moral rationality. It concludes that, while reflective equilibrium is a useful account of moral rationality, it cannot be effectively reconciled with scientific empiricism. In order to function effectively as a rational process, reflective equilibrium must be rationally constrained by our moral judgements and our moral principles. Chapter Four begins the process of exploring some alternative epistemologies and argues that the only account that remains true to objectivism and the needs of reflective equilibrium is the account of intuitionism proposed by Ross. However this account can be developed further by drawing upon number of Kantian ideas and using them to supplement Ross ’ s intuitionism. So Chapter Five draws upon a number of Kant's ideas, most notably some key notions from the Critique of Judgement. These ideas are: (1) that we possess a rational will that is subject to the Moral law and determined by practical reason; (2) that we possess a faculty of judgement which enables us to become aware of moral properties and (3) that these two faculties together with the third faculty of thought can function to constitute the moral understanding. Using these ideas the thesis explores whether they can serve to explain how intuitions can be rational and how objectivism can be justified.
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Leukam, Mary. "Dignified Animals: How "Non-Kantian" is Nussbaum's Conception of Dignity?" Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/89.
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Martha Nussbaum’s conception of dignity is integral to her capabilities approach. She argues that dignity is rooted in the flourishing and striving of animals. Her view is distinct from Kant’s, as Kant claims that persons have dignity in virtue of their rational nature. Though Nussbaum’s conception of dignity is important to her approach, its exact content and its relation to her thought is not clearly stated in her work, and I will attempt to provide an overview of Nussbaum’s conception of dignity. Also I will compare and contrast Nussbaum’s dignity with Kant’s (and contemporary Kantians’). Nussbaum provides four reasons for why her approach is superior to the Kantian split between rationality and animality, all of which I will examine. Finally, I will look at three areas of Nussbaum’s theory which require further exploration.
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Buchanan, Brett Charles. "Who is Nietzsche's philosophy, psychological remainders of post-Kantian anthropology." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0001/MQ42131.pdf.
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Masrour, Shalmani Farid. "Structuralism: In Defense of a Kantian Account of Perceptual Experience." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193980.
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My dissertation develops and defends a broadly Kantian account of perceptual experience. I call this account structuralism. Put briefly, the account holds that perceptual experience has a structure that is the manifestation of its priori content. I defend this account by showing that it provides a unified framework for understanding perceptual intentionality.I develop and defend structuralism by defending three theses. The first thesis is phenomenological. According to this thesis, perceptual experience has proprietary perceptual phenomenal intentionality only if it has a unity structure. I explicate the idea of the unity structure of experience in the process of defending this thesis. The second thesis is epistemic. Put roughly, this thesis holds that perceptual experience provides reasons for perceptual beliefs only if it has a priori content. I develop an account of the a priori content of perceptual experience in the process of defending this thesis. The third thesis unifies the phenomenological and the epistemic theses. According to this thesis, the dynamical unity structure of perceptual experience is the phenomenological manifestation of its a priori content. These three these, in conjunction with some plausible ideas provide a systematic account of perceptual intentionality.
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Behrendt, Kathy A. "Subjects, identity, and objective experience : the neo-Kantian/Reductionist debate." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313109.
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O'Hanlon, P. A. "A critical evaluation of kantian themes in habermas's critical theory." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.517049.
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Westerside, Andrew David. "Taste, beauty, sublime : Kantian aesthetics and the experience of performance." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2010. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/5757/.
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What does it mean to have aesthetic experience? Is it something we are all capable of? Or is our capacity for aesthetic pleasure something we develop, like a skill? What do we mean when we declare something ‘beautiful’, or when we dismiss a performance because it is ‘not to our taste’? Is taste something we possess, concerned with our own personal likes and dislikes? Or is taste part of aesthetic experience, something that happens? Indeed, what is aesthetic experience? And what is the place, in theatre and performance, for the aesthetic qua aesthetic? In this thesis I explore and develop the Kantian notion of aesthetic experience by taking three terms central to the Critique of Judgment – taste, beauty, sublime – and considering their value in the experience and analysis of contemporary performance. In exploring these ideas, the thesis centres on a range of works from the early avant-garde, including extended analyses of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896) and Edward Gordon Craig’s Dido and Æneas. The contemporary works central to the thesis are Proto-type Theater’s Virtuoso (working title) (2009), 3rd Person (redux)(2010) and Whisper (2008). The study also looks at contemporary work from Reckless Sleepers, Station House Opera, and Societas Raffaello Sanzio. The primary theoretical framework is drawn from the field of philosophical aesthetics, and, specifically, the works of Immanuel Kant. In the post-Kantian era, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Wendy Steiner, Jean-Luc Marion, Arnold Berleant, and Christian H. Wenzel provide a connection to the world of post-Enlightenment aesthetics and interconnect Kantian philosophy with developments in performance and aesthetics. In aiming to uncover the value of the aesthetic as such, the thesis looks to reflect on taste, beauty, and the sublime in a way that offers a fresh and vital perspective on the experience of performance.
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Onof, Christian Jerome. "The ethics of dutiful faith, individuated quest and Kantian imperative." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.411304.
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Whitaker, Justin. "Ethics as a path : Kantian dimensions of early Buddhist ethics." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2017. http://research.gold.ac.uk/20473/.
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In recent decades, Buddhist scholars have begun serious exploration into the theoretical dimensions of Buddhist ethics. However, due to the diversity of moral proclamations found in traditional texts and commentaries, it has been difficult to formulate a widely acceptable theory of Buddhist ethics. Working with the textual analyses of the Buddhist Pāli Canon and recent scholars of Buddhism, I present arguments for viewing early Buddhist ethics as broadly Kantian (deontological) in nature. The methodology follows that of previous authors in Buddhist ethics and in Comparative Religious Ethics with a focus on philosophical ethics and historical and textual studies. In constructing a framework of Buddhist ethics, this work draws from the ancient sources, primarily the Buddhist Pāli Canon, as well as the philological and historical work of previous Buddhist commentators and scholars. A similar construction of the ethics of Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) is based primarily on the recent writings on both the philosophy and life of Kant, and for source material critical English editions of Kant's primary works. The uniqueness of this work is found in the discussion of Buddhist ethics in the context of its theories of human nature and cosmology and secondarily in its revaluation of Kantian thought as a legitimate interlocutor for scholars of Buddhist ethics. This Kantian perspective, when combined with the insights gained from virtue ethics and consequentialist perspectives, provides a fuller understanding of Buddhist ethics. The findings suggest that Buddhist ethics may claim not only many of the same strengths, but also suffer the same weaknesses, as Kantian deontological moral theory.
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Mueller, Laura Joy. "Transcendental sensus communis: Reflective Foundations of Cognition in Kantian Epistemology." OpenSIUC, 2015. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1036.
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Pre-cognitive experience is important to Kant's epistemology, but for decades, the scholarship tended to leave this aspect aside. Pre-cognitive experience must be reintegrated, and several important works have made progress toward this goal. Some scholars maintain that the distinction between the A- and B- editions of the Critique of Pure Reason largely relates to the role of pre-cognitive experience in Kant's system. I offer an account of what Kant calls the "obscure functions of understanding," drawing from the third Critique, the Anthropology, and other writings in which Kant discusses pre-cognitive experience. I argue that the key to integrating pre-cognitive experience into Kantian epistemology lies in the proper analysis of sensus communis, or social feeling. Reflective judgment provides the logical structure by which both social feeling and the experience of the sublime come to be synthesized with cognitive experience. The result of my argument is a deepened and enhanced understanding of autonomy (which pervades the entire architectonic).
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Leech, J. F. "The varieties of modality : Kantian prospects for a relativist account." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2011. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1937/.
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The aim of this thesis is to present and motivate the relative modality view, whereby at least the non-logical alethic kinds of modality are mere relative forms of logical modality. The first chapter is devoted to presenting the relative modality view in general, providing a correct formulation, and considering some arguments for and against. The next chapter considers the particular challenges raised for the view by some essentialists. The third chapter turns to look at logical modality, the bedrock of the relative modality view, and presents an example of an account of logical necessity which suits it well. I argue that logical necessity is that necessity implicated in a deductively valid argument, and hence that its source is to be found in an account of the laws of logic. I argue that the laws of logic are constitutive-normative laws of thought. The fourth chapter takes a more historical turn. Here I argue that Kant can be understood as advocating a relative modality view, in particular for what he calls "real modality". In the fifth and final chapter I will draw on the conclusions of the preceding chapters to present a Kantian relative account of metaphysical necessity. Metaphysical necessity is that which follows, as a matter of logical necessity, from conditions on our having any experience of an objective world. I argue why this Kant-inspired kind of relative necessity is well-suited to play the role of metaphysical necessity, and consider how the view accommodates contemporary views about features of metaphysical necessity and its typical cases.
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Morgan, Diane Lesley. "The obscurities of the enlightened : reflections on Kantian blind spots." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.384843.
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This thesis focusses on dark elements of obscurity within the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, which cannot be dispelled by the light of Auflclarung. Indeed the blind-spots exainined are structurally necessary to the philosophical system and as a result cannot be removed. I suggest that for Kant, as for all metaphysical thinkers, it is the systematic need for origins and foundations which creates the unsettling effects working against absolute revelation. This search for foundational security is traditionally ,expressed through the analogy with architecture. Indeed the architectural more-than metaphor is called upon to provide metaphysics with the down-toearth, grounding principles it so desperat~ly needs. My thesis examines at length the idea of the architectonic- which leads inevitably'into a wider discussion of the image of architecture as a discipline. The first chapter addresses the question of the founder and sovereign ofa political system. Here I examine Kant's analysis of the monarch, who is supposed to keep the nation together through hislher own person. Kant apparently abhors the act of regicide, believing that it provokes the suicide of the state. However, I highlight a mysterious doubling of the sover~igu body in the Kantian system, overlooked by Kant himself; which points to the possibility that, as the st~te can never be successfully founded or incorporated, the mortal body of the king is in fact dispensable (precisely because the "immortal body" of the King is indispensable). The second chapter deals with the project offounding the ethical community in Kantian philosophy. This is an ideal project to be founded- indeed it points to the inextricable link between society's aspirations and architecture. Through an analysis of the 'concept' of "affinities" (Verwandtschaften), which form. the basis of the relations between members of the community, I discuss the form of construction that would be needed to give form to the ethical ideal The realisation of this project ~ thwarted by the nature of the "affinities" themselves. These emerge as prior to the distinction between the mechanical (that which can be constructed, initiated) and the organic (which is mysterious, secretive, not to be mastered or engineered). The "Verwandtschaften" defy the act offoundation and force are-appraisal of the place and nature. of architecture, which is grossly underestimated by Kant. The third chapter examines human nature in the light of Kant's concept of "radical evil", This is important as human nature is the basis for the political and ethical projections addressed in the previous two chapters. ·We examine how Kant struggles with his recognition of the 'Insecure, unsafe and unworthy basis on which he has tried to build. . The fourth and concluding chapter suggests ways of accounting for the inability to build a completely illuminated, philosophical system. It discusses the theme of revelation in and around Kant with help from his one-time friend, Hamann.
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Peckitt, Michael Gillan. "Heidegger and the philosophy of life : Kantian and post-Kantian thinking in the work of the early Heidegger as the foundation for a new Lebensphilosophie." Thesis, University of Hull, 2009. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:2398.
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The publication of Sein und Zeit in 1927 by the very young Martin Heidegger, a mere thirty-eight at the time, radically changed philosophy in a fashion that made returning to the ways of doing philosophy prior to Sein und Zeit impossible. Heidegger's new way of understanding Being was through understanding the ways humans exist, as worldly beings. Any future philosophy would have to repudiate, argue in favour or against Heidegger's analysis, but on whichever side a particular philosophy fell with regard to Heidegger they would have to acknowledge the importance of his work. Like many philosophy students I was intrigued by Heidegger, but felt that something was lacking in his analysis. This 'lack' I could only call a 'sense of Life', that in the insistence on the worldly and on death something equally fundamental had been lost, that human beings have life and are living. Where in Heidegger is the notion of human beings as living animals? As I read Heidegger's early lectures and those given just after the publication of Sein und Zeit, Heidegger shows himself to be quite concerned with the issue. His early lectures are replete with reference to 'Life' and his lecture courses after its publication often make references to the issue of animality, as if he were trying to correct an issue left unresolved in Sein und Zeit.In this thesis I shall argue not only that those thinkers Heidegger took himself for the most part to be disagreeing with: Descartes, Kant and Husserl, could have helped him answer the issue of Life; but that there is in Sein und Zeit itself a chance to reintroduce the notion of Life, a chance to which the early Heidegger was either blind or simply ignored. In the final chapters I will show how phenomenology may develop without rejecting Heidegger's thinking, so the concept of Life can return to phenomenological philosophy.