Kant and Secular Transcendentalism
Date
2007
Authors
Phemister, Alexander Ewen
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Abstract
This writing argues that some embedded moral and religious linkages in Kant’s metaphysical
thought have been unobserved in much recent philosophical commentary, something we may
attribute to the de-emphasis of metaphysics within significant parts of the contemporary
academic world, combined with a lack of awareness of the religious milieu within which he worked. Paradoxically in the light of this, and based on the religious content I find in the first Critique and elsewhere, I explore what I perceive to be Kant’s attempt to steer traditional religious doctrines and practice into a secular, individualised, scientifically congruent,
completely independent and universally acceptable format. From this, I develop the idea that an appreciation of these efforts to reform earlier theological thought allows for a more complete and coherent interpretation of critical philosophy than has previously been available, with application, for example, to a heightened understanding of the employment of the idea of things in themselves. The primary notion involved in this amended reading is the
primacy Kant gives to practical reason...
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Thesis (PhD)