Kant on science and normativity

Kant and Cognitive Science

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) has a serious claim to be the single most influential figure in the pre20th century history of cognitive research. His influence continues to be so deep-running that in many respects he is the intellectual grandfather of contemporary cognitive science. Consider the widely-held view that sensory input has to be worked up using concepts or concept-like states, or the con...

Kant on the normativity of taste: The role of aesthetic ideas

Kant , Kuhn , and the Rationality of Science

†Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Goodbody Hall 130, Indiana University, 1011 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405–7005; e-mail: [email protected]. *This paper first appeared in Michael Heidelberger and Friedrich Stadler (eds.) History of Philosophy of Science: New Trends and Perspectives (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002) Kluwer Academic ...

On Normativity

Judith Jarvis Thomson's Normativity (2008) is a formidable book in terms of both content and style (all otherwise unattributed page references in what follows are to this book). The structure is modular, as though to encourage the reader who wants to dip in and out. But as you read it becomes clear that dipping in and out would not be a good idea. Questions that occur to you are sometimes addre...

Spinoza and Kant on Suicide

In this paper I’m going to argue that both, Spinoza and Kant, construct the argument “for the impossibility of self-destruction” and examine how the concept of suicide relates to the concept of humanity in both philosophers. I will argue that Kant’s and Spinoza’s argument for the impossibility of self-destruction follows from the “external cause” premise and not from “the same subject” premise....