Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency
Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency provides a novel interpretation and rational reconstruction of Kant's doctrine of freedom. Markus Kohl shows how Kant defends the belief that we are free from foreign (natural and super-natural) causes as a presupposition of all meaningful human activity. While this interpretation focuses on the essential role that freedom of will plays in our moral agency, it also examines how our status as rational cognitive agents hinges on our freedom of thought, and why our aesthetic engagement with beauty requires our freedom of imagination. Kohl thereby gives a compelling sense of Kant's estimation that freedom is a "cardinal point"—even the "keystone"—of his entire critical philosophy.

Kant's doctrine of freedom emerges in this account as a systematic critique of a naturalistic worldview which regards all our capacities, representations, and actions as the causal upshot of natural laws and forces. Kant holds that the naturalistic worldview fatally undermines our self-conception as rational agents. This critique of naturalism culminates in the argument that naturalistic cognizers cannot explain away our freedom from natural forces because they must presuppose such a freedom in their own cognitive efforts to devise rationally valid naturalistic theories.
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Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency
Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency provides a novel interpretation and rational reconstruction of Kant's doctrine of freedom. Markus Kohl shows how Kant defends the belief that we are free from foreign (natural and super-natural) causes as a presupposition of all meaningful human activity. While this interpretation focuses on the essential role that freedom of will plays in our moral agency, it also examines how our status as rational cognitive agents hinges on our freedom of thought, and why our aesthetic engagement with beauty requires our freedom of imagination. Kohl thereby gives a compelling sense of Kant's estimation that freedom is a "cardinal point"—even the "keystone"—of his entire critical philosophy.

Kant's doctrine of freedom emerges in this account as a systematic critique of a naturalistic worldview which regards all our capacities, representations, and actions as the causal upshot of natural laws and forces. Kant holds that the naturalistic worldview fatally undermines our self-conception as rational agents. This critique of naturalism culminates in the argument that naturalistic cognizers cannot explain away our freedom from natural forces because they must presuppose such a freedom in their own cognitive efforts to devise rationally valid naturalistic theories.
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Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency

Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency

by Markus Kohl
Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency

Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency

by Markus Kohl

Hardcover

$115.00 
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Overview

Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency provides a novel interpretation and rational reconstruction of Kant's doctrine of freedom. Markus Kohl shows how Kant defends the belief that we are free from foreign (natural and super-natural) causes as a presupposition of all meaningful human activity. While this interpretation focuses on the essential role that freedom of will plays in our moral agency, it also examines how our status as rational cognitive agents hinges on our freedom of thought, and why our aesthetic engagement with beauty requires our freedom of imagination. Kohl thereby gives a compelling sense of Kant's estimation that freedom is a "cardinal point"—even the "keystone"—of his entire critical philosophy.

Kant's doctrine of freedom emerges in this account as a systematic critique of a naturalistic worldview which regards all our capacities, representations, and actions as the causal upshot of natural laws and forces. Kant holds that the naturalistic worldview fatally undermines our self-conception as rational agents. This critique of naturalism culminates in the argument that naturalistic cognizers cannot explain away our freedom from natural forces because they must presuppose such a freedom in their own cognitive efforts to devise rationally valid naturalistic theories.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780198873143
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 10/06/2023
Pages: 410
Product dimensions: 9.45(w) x 6.42(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

Markus Kohl, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Markus Kohl is Associate Professor of Philosophy at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012, and was Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville from 2012 to 2017.

Table of Contents

Preface and AcknowledgementsNotes on Sources and Key to Abbreviations and TranslationsIntroductionI: The Basic Framework of Kant's Doctrine1. Freedom, Idealism, and Standpoints2. Human Action as the Effect of Two Causes3. Freedom as Autonomous Self-DeterminationII: The Grounds of Kant's Incompatibilism About Free Will4. Legislative Freedom and Kant's Genealogical Anxiety5. Executive Freedom, Determinism, and the Categorical ImperativeTransition to Part 3III: Freedom of Thought as a Species of Transcendental Freedom6. Kant's Free Thinker7. Freedom of Thought as a Condition of Theoretical CognitionIV: Kant's Justification of the Belief in Free Will8. Kant's Moral Grounding of Free Will9. Kant's Theoretical Defense of Moral FreedomSummary and Transition to Part 5V: Freedom in Kant's Aesthetics and the Unity of Kant's Doctrine10. Freedom of Imagination and the "Autonomy of Taste"BibliographyIndex
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