In this book Julian Wuerth offers a radically new interpretation of Kant's theories of mind, action, and ethics. As the author of a Copernican revolution in philosophy, Kant grounded his philosophy in his positive theory of the mind, which remains an enigma two centuries later. Wuerth's original interpretation of Kant's theory of mind consults a far wider range of Kant's recorded thought than previous interpretations, revealing a fascinating evolution in Kant's thought in the decades before and after his 1781 Critique. Starting in the 1760s, Kant recognized the unique status of our epistemic contact to ourselves. This is the sole instance of our immediate epistemic contact with a substance, of being a substance, and it is the sole instance of epistemic contact with something other than the particular states of inner sense. Contrary to empiricists, Kant thus rejects the reduction of the self to a bundle of mental states of inner sense. But Kant also rejects the rational psychologists' assumption that the souls substantiality and simplicity implies its permanence, incorruptibility, and immortality. As Kant developed his transcendental idealism, he eventually pinpointed the source of their errors, a source neither unique to a particular, historical school, nor random. It is instead a deep, natural, and timeless transcendental confusion. Kants new account of substance allows him to draw new distinctions in kind between sensibility and understanding and between phenomenal and noumenal substance, setting the stage for a transcendental argument that only at the phenomenal level do substantiality and simplicity imply permanence and incorruptibility. Wuerth next undertakes a groundbreaking study of Kant's theory of action and ethics. He first maps Kant's notoriously vast and complex system of the minds powers, drawing on all of Kant's recorded thought. This system structures Kant's philosophy as a whole and so provides crucial insights into this whole and its parts, including Kant's theory of action, a persisting stumbling block for interpreters of Kant's ethics. Wuerth demonstrates that Kant rejects intellectualist theories of action that reduce practical agents to pure reason. We are instead irreducibly both intellectual and sensible, exercising a power of choice, or Willkür, subject to two irreducible conative currencies, moral motives and sensible incentives, as Kant makes clear long before his 1785 Groundwork. Immoral choices at odds with the former can thus nonetheless be coherent choices in harmony with the latter. Wuerth applies these new findings about Kant's theory of mind and action to an analysis of the foundations of Kant's ethics. He rejects the dominant constructivist interpretation in favor of a moral realist one. At the heart of Kant's Enlightenment ethics is his insistence that the authority of the moral law ultimately rests in our recognition of its authority. Kant guides us to this recognition of the authority of the moral law, across his works in ethics and his various formulations of the moral law, using a single elimination of sensibility procedure. Here Kant systematically rejects the pretenses of sensibility to isolate reason and its insights into moral right and wrong. Precisely because immoral choice remains a coherent alternative, however, moral virtue demands our ongoing cultivation of our capacities for cognition, feeling, desire, and character.

The first collective commentary in English on Kant's landmark 1871 publication.

First essay collection devoted to Kant's faculty of feeling, a concept relevant to issues in ethics, aesthetics, and the emotions.

This volume aims to make a significant contribution to the debate surrounding the renaissance of Kant studies in the last few decades, with a particular emphasis upon some 'problems of reason'. Like no other, Kant covered the entire breadth of the modern debate concerning the concept of reason and its forms. Accordingly, despite the range of topics this volume inevitably deals with, Immanuel Kant remains the common point of reference for all contributions. The volume is divided into two sections. The first section is dedicated to Kant's philosophy in particular and its relationship with the philosophies of Kant's predecessors. From the perspective of the history of philosophy, interpretations of the significance of different philosophical traditions concerning Kant's thought will be given, and of the relationship of Kant's thought to the problems of reason with which Kant and his predecessors dealt. The second section is dedicated to the legacy of Kant's philosophy. The relevance of the concept of rationality for the genesis and systematics of post-Kantian ideas of rationality will be discussed, and the potential of Kant's critical philosophy - for contemporary thought as well - will be examined.

Julian Wuerth offers a radically new interpretation of major themes in Kant's philosophy. He explores Kant's ontology of the mind, his transcendental idealism, his account of the mind's powers, and his theory of action, and goes on to develop an original, moral realist account of Kant's ethics.

The early modern period is arguably the most pivotal of all in the study of the mind, teeming with a variety of conceptions of mind. Some of these posed serious questions for assumptions about the nature of the mind, many of which still depended on notions of the soul and God. It is an era that witnessed the emergence of theories and arguments that continue to animate the study of philosophy of mind, such as dualism, vitalism, materialism, and idealism. Covering pivotal figures in philosophy such as Descartes, Hobbes, Kant, Leibniz, Cavendish, and Spinoza, Philosophy of Mind in the Early Modern and Modern Ages provides an outstanding survey of philosophy of mind of the period. Following an introduction by Rebecca Copenhaver, sixteen specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors discuss key topics, thinkers, and debates, including: Hobbes, Descartes’ philosophy of mind and its early critics, consciousness, the later Cartesians, Malebranche, Cavendish, Locke, Spinoza, Descartes and Leibniz, perception and sensation, desires, mental substance and mental activity, Hume, and Kant. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of mind, enlightenment philosophy, and the history of philosophy, Philosophy of Mind in the Early Modern and Modern Ages is also a valuable resource for those in related disciplines such as religion, history of psychology, and history of science.

It may be a popular opinion that sports and ethics are incongruent or contradictory, but ethical principles in sports are in fact integral for its protection. Because of this invalid popular opinion, a new conversation on ethical principles and issues in sports is warranted. This should start here with a philosophical investigation into the areas of epistemology and autonomy with an effort to address ethical issues associated with the use of performance-enhancement drugs (doping) in sports, fair play, equity, and responsibility. Readers are introduced to a new theoretical approach to addressing ethical issues in sports. These issues are based on arguments advanced on responsible freedom, perspective knowledge, and duties that can be utilized by sports stakeholders (athletes, team doctors, fans, sporting organizations, coaches, etc.) as they strive for success and minimize unfair practices. Important questions are posed concerning respect for others, respect for rules, respect for the game, and respect for self. Also, an investigation into ethics and doping is conducted to unravel whether doping athletes impose undue limitations on their freedom. Thus, the idea of absolute freedom is questioned, and "privileged freedom" is explored.

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Philosophy - Miscellaneous, grade: 60, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, course: BA Politics, language: English, abstract: The enlightenment period otherwise known as the age of reason was an era or rather an academic movement where political thinkers started to question traditional authority. The era of enlightenment dominated European countries from the 18th century. The primary idea of the enlightenment period was human reasoning as the source of authority and legitimacy. This led to the state of individuals being free from oppressive restrictions imposed by the state, the separation of the state from the church as well as the idea of individual freedom and ethical behaviour. The period of enlightenment was about questioning human rationality and the general belief in human progress, as a result the French and American revolution were born of the enlightenment period. This essay is aimed at looking into the ideas of one of the early enlightenment philosophers Immanuel Kant.

Ethics by Rev. James L. Breed, Ph.D. Ethics: An Introduction to the Western Schools of Thought in Moral Philosophy is an introductory textbook in moral philosophy. It provides an outline of the main schools of thought in the Western philosophical traditions, with a brief analysis of each school of thought and the views of its critics. This text is designed to cover the major theories and schools of thought in moral philosophy: the divine command theory; the deontological theories; natural law theory; virtue ethics; other teleological theories including egoism and hedonism; the ethics of community; utilitarianism; existentialist ethics; individualism and radical individualism; relativism; realist and absolutist theories; feminist ethics; environmentalist ethics; the focus on the need for individual judgment and moral commitment; and contextualism.

List of members in v. 1-