Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Academy Library) - Softcover

Kant, Immanuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061311596 ISBN 13: 9780061311598

Publisher: Longman Higher Education, 1964

Synopsis

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Review

'Friedman's translation and edition of Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science is really excellent. No doubt, it will replace earlier translations and become the English standard edition of this text.' History and Philosophy of Life Sciences

About the Author

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Kant created a new widespread perspective in philosophy which has continued to influence philosophy through to the 21st century. He published important works on epistemology, as well as works relevant to religion, law, and history. One of his most prominent works is the Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation into the limitations and structure of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics and epistemology, and highlights Kant's own contribution to these areas. The other main works of his maturity are the Critique of Practical Reason, which concentrates on ethics, and the Critique of Judgment, which investigates aesthetics and teleology. Pursuing metaphysics involves asking questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed through epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources and limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. He asked if an object can be known to have certain properties prior to the experience of that object. He concluded that all objects about which the mind can think must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality - which he concluded that it does - then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. However, it follows from this that it is possible that there are objects of such nature which the mind cannot think, and so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside of experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. And so the grand questions of speculative metaphysics cannot be answered by the human mind, but the sciences are firmly grounded in laws of the mind. Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists and the rationalists.

Edition details

• Publisher: Longman Higher Education
• Publication date: 1964
• ISBN 10: 0061311596
• ISBN 13: 9780061311598
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 148