Product Description
Immanuel Kant's "transcendental" philosophy transcends the question of "what" we know to ask "how" we know it. Before Kant, philosophers had debated for centuries whether knowledge is derived from experience or reason. Kant says that both views are partly right and partly wrong, that they share the same error; both believe that the mind and the world, reason and nature, are separated from one another. Kant says that our reason organizes our sense perception to produce knowledge. The mind is a creative force for understanding the manifold of new, unconceptualized sense impressions with which the world bombards us. Kant says we cannot know the "thing-in-itself"—the object apart from our conceptualization of it. His influence on subsequent thought has been monumental; all of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy stands in his debt.
Customer Reviews:
A great alternative to Strathern.......2005-04-24
If you are looking for a thoughtful and honest summary of the more important aspects of Aquinas' contribution to the history of philosophy, this is the best audio book I have yet found. Unlike the glib and grossly naive attempts at dealing with Aquinas such as Strathern's cheesy "Aquinas in 90 Minutes", this is actually written by a scholar devoted to understanding Aquinas. The treatment of his "five proofs for the existence of God" is precise and accurate. In fact, if you listen closely to them it will save you from thinking that the flaccid objections of people like Bertrand Russel had anything to do with what Aquinas was communicating in these proofs. Of course, if you are looking for Aquinas' theology, it is not here addressed. But then again, the title of the series is not "Giants of Theology." Overall, this is the best bang for your buck in Aquinas on audio.
what better way is there to learn and drive.......2001-04-27
The way I look at these tapes as the best way of reading philosophy while you are driving. Please keep your eyes on the road while you are driving. These series are great. I believe they are not intended to be comprehensive and they could not be in two hours but they give you %60 biography %40 philosophy. Some of them even have accent as they though they were immigrants from original contries to US, Kant speakes with German/English accent. It is fun, entertaining, illuminating. Much better than talk shows. Please this is not a substitute for a real book so judge accordingly.
Great introduction to Hume.......2001-01-12
This brief introduction to Hume is exceptional. I went from this tape to Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals". I don't think it would have been such an easy transition without learning how Hume fits into Western philosophical history and what problems concerned him. It startled me to discover that Hume's major point is that inductive thinking (thinking about "matters of fact" ) is irrational: forming general laws about the world has its basis in custom and experience and not by the sort of reasoning used in math and logic ("relations of ideas" in Hume's lexicon).
Hume's political, historical, and ethical ideas are also interesting and I was surprised to learn how much Hume's ideas on the separation of powers in government had influenced James Madison.
Pretty bad summary of Augustine........1999-10-16
The material is mostly biographical. It is also boring. Remember the kid in the school play who tries to do an accent and can't? The person doing the voice of Augustine is like that. Heston, as usual, is stiff as a spanker's paddle.
I note the other review is about Kant not Augustine.
Great Audio Cassettes.......1998-03-17
This is a very good overview of Kant's thought that can be listened to while driving. Does not cover epistomology well.
Book Description
This is the first full-length biography in more than fifty years of Immanuel Kant, one of the giants among the pantheon of Western philosophers, and one of the most powerful and influential in contemporary philosophy. Taking account of the most recent scholarship, Manfred Kuehn allows the reader to follow the same journey that Kant himself took in emerging as a central figure in modern philosophy. Manfred Kuehn was formerly Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. A specialist on German philosophy of the period, he is the author of numerous articles and papers on Immanuel Kant.
Download Description
This is the first full-length biography in more than fifty years of Immanuel Kant, one of the giants among the pantheon of Western philosophers, and one of the most powerful and influential in contemporary philosophy. Taking account of the most recent scholarship, Manfred Kuehn allows the reader to follow the same journey that Kant himself took in emerging as a central figure in modern philosophy. Manfred Kuehn was formerly Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. A specialist on German philosophy of the period, he is the author of numerous articles and papers on Immanuel Kant.
Customer Reviews:
indispensable.......2007-05-12
Kuehn begins his comprehensive and engaging volume, adjectives not generally associated with Kant studies, with a clever Dickensian inversion: "The year 1724 was not one of the most significant years in the history of the human race, but it was not wholly insignificant either." He goes on to offer a most compelling look at the life and thought of one of the modern era's most important contributors respectfully, yet without a trace of the schmoozing so tempting in Kant scholarship. A look not only at the minutae of a man's private life, but also a convincing examination of many well-worn historical interpretations, sometimes lending credence, often challenging some of our most basic assumptions about the influences at play for Kant and his broader philosophical project.
A clear view on one of the greatest masters.......2003-07-09
Superb, biography !!! In which the writer seems to heading for a definitive biography on one of the greatest masters that ever touched a Philosophical matter. Kant has earned the reputation as a very complicated thinker. I have read a few of his works and I can do nothing else than agree in this.
After I read this book I really seemed to understand his philosophy much beter. I feel I have a good idea about what were his major concerns and what was it that he tried to solve and prove. I have a good idea now about what the Critique Of Pure Reason is, such as other works as the other 2 Critiques & Groundworks.
If you want to read the works of Kant himself, make sure you pick this one up first and learn it by heart. Its as best as any introduction can get on his work, A truly homage to a great master.
There are besides that plenty of details about his personal life. His love for Frederik The Great, plenty of stuff from his students, how they thought about him, and what kept him occupied in his free hours. And there we get a very different Kant than the one that went into history for so far.
This is modern, but it doesn't rock........2002-10-12
This book is an interesting guide to what we now know about Kant's life, and a scholarly summary of what he might have meant in his own time and place. Kant was the philosopher selected by Nietzsche for section 193 of THE GAY SCIENCE: "Kant's joke. Kant wanted to prove in a way that would dumfound the common man that the common man was right: that was the secret joke of this soul. He wrote against the scholars in favor of the popular prejudice, but for scholars and not for popularity." (THE PORTABLE NIETZSCHE, p. 96). In TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS, Nietzsche named Kant in his explanation of "How the `true world' finally became a fable:" (THE PORTABLE NIETZSCHE, pp. 485-6). "Any distinction between a `true' and an `apparent' world ~ whether in the Christian manner or in the manner of Kant (in the end, an underhanded Christian) ~ is only a suggestion of decadence, a symptom of the decline of life." (THE PORTABLE NIETZSCHE, p. 484). What set Nietzsche apart from the scholars of his own day, at least as long as he was considered sane, was his willingness to display a sly contempt for the kind of clarity which any functioning society demands, which suggests that Nietzsche had some different ideas. If anyone who wrote philosophically at the level of Kant could still be understood well enough to be called "an underhanded Christian," it is ironic that a more modern philosopher would consider Kant "an embodiment on a large scale of what is wrong with philosophy" for the opposite reason: "Suppose he had not insisted on certainty, necessity, and completeness!" (Walter Kaufmann, DISCOVERING THE MIND, VOLUME ONE, GOETHE, KANT, AND HEGEL, p. 195).
One of the things that makes philosophy interesting is the range of ideas which it offers to anyone who is trying to think of something to say about his enemies. Fichte was a contemporary of Kant, in trouble with the authorities from 1997 to 1800 when he was suspected of being an atheist because he thought a moral world order provided a more godly deity than the underhanded Christians of his day were used to. This was very close to the end of Kant's life, and Kant's circle of friends consoled themselves with ideas like: "The name `Fichte' means pine, and bad proofs were sometimes called `proofs of pine.' Furthermore, to `lead someone behind the pines' could mean to be deceptive. Some of Kant's acquaintances agreed." (Manfred Kuehn, KANT, A BIOGRAPHY, p. 391).
I was most interested in examining this book because it considers an early work, included in Kant's THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY, 1755-1770, on Emanuel Swedenborg, DREAMS OF A SPIRIT-SEER ILLUSTRATED BY DREAMS OF METAPHYSICS. The existence of the work itself, like Freud's summary ON DREAMS (1901), drawn from Freud's on INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS (1900), shows a strong affinity for the kind of thinking about Christianity which is much closer to a modern understanding than most people would expect from the contemporaries of Kant and Swedenborg. Kant might be much more modern than Swedenborg because he willingly states a conclusion, as "a matter of policy, in this as in other cases, to fit the pattern of one's plans to one's powers, and if one cannot obtain the great, to restrict oneself to the mediocre." (p. 174). Anyone who would consider this book mediocre ought to reflect on the scholarly norms that preclude this kind of writing from exhibiting the outrageous emotional tricks which are usually displayed in rock 'n' roll, movies, state lotteries, election campaigns, or exciting books. It is the scholars who live in a separate world, and Kant will always be a great example of how it can be done.
An Excellent Biography.......2002-10-06
Kuehn has taken on a handful with this project, yet the outcome is superb. This is a careful and scholarly text. Contrary to what one of the reviewers commented here, I think the book was an interesting and entertaining read. I highly recommend this biography to anyone with even the slightest interest in Kant (or his contribution to Enlightenment Philosophy). And it would make a great text for an Introduction to Kant course (just as Monk's bio on Wittgenstein is often used in intro courses).
We sometimes think of Kant as having lived a boring and dull life--that he was in fact as mundane and interesting a person as the schedule he kept (shop owners in the marketplace would often set their clocks to his daily walks). But the picture of Kant that Kuehn provides us with here is radically different. Sure, Kant lead a regular and ordered life, but Kuehn breathes accurate life into pedestrian images of Kant that we may have learned in school (or in textbooks).
Philosophical fears and stereotypes.......2002-08-28
This is the first new biography of Kant in many years, and there seem to have been good reasons for that. One, which Kuehn tactfully does not discuss, is the postwar political situation of Kant's hometown. Another, he admits, is that there is a stereotype of Kant as having lived a dull, boring life; and further, he also admits, there were earlier and quite successful attempts to cover up aspects of Kant's life that earlier biographers found distasteful. And the trouble with this biography is that in spite of all the author's efforts, these earlier assessments really turn out to be quite correct. Kant really did lead an extremely meager, restricted, spartan life even by the standards of that time and place, and this was by his own choice. Starting as a young child, his life was devoted to study, first as a student and then without a break, as a professor. His only recreation consisted in conversing and eating with friends. Koenigsburg did offer other opportunities. As Kuehn correctly points out, it was then a busy commercial city, on a popular trade route along the Baltic, and at the time a strong English connection. In addition, it was the administrative capital of eastern Prussia, second only as a government center to Berlin, and with a busy social season. It was especially noted for its musical culture - but Kant couldn't play an instrument, sing, or even enjoy listening. He couldn't dance. He wasn't interested in sports or nature. He walked daily, but only for exercise, in the same place and at the same time - in fact, the "Philosopher's Walk" remained a tourist attraction well into this century. He didn't go to church, and his near-atheism almost cost him his job. He didn't belong to the then popular Freemasons or any similar group. He lived most of his life in rented rooms, and when he did buy a house, barely kept it up (unlike his fussy bachelor friends); he didn't garden or own a pet. He seems, in fact as in stereotype, to have been nothing but a talking head.
Kuehn avoids psychoanalytic jargon, and for once this is regrettable, as it would be appropriate here. Kant was clearly an obsessive-compulsive, whose life was lived by constantly making up maxims, or rules, for himself, and which he then turned into a philosophical system. He did eat with friends, but he both amused and disgusted them by obsessing about his food, his digestion, and the - er - end products. (Freud definitely had a word for that.) Better known is his obsession about time, which Kuehn traces to his English friend Green - but it took the German philosopher to turn the personal eccentricity of the English merchant into a universal maxim. He really did get up at 5 a.m. and teach his first class at 7, during the winter prior to dawn, and the neighbors really did joke about setting their clocks by him.
He had a pathological fear of travel, and never went more than about 100 miles from Koenigsburg, although his investments in Green's firm would have allowed him to travel with the maximum style and comfort then obtainable. Not only did he never voyage by ship, but he never visited Berlin; when the Prussian government offered to triple his salary if he would switch to a larger and more central university, he refused. This had some odd effects - he taught physical geography, although he had never seen a mountain, and anthropology, although his acquaintance with non-white humans may have been equally lacking. This did not stop him from firmly stating as a scientific fact that non-whites were of different and inferior biological races.
Nor was travel all he was afraid of; to quote Kuehn, page 116, "Kant, who never married, and who-as far as we know-never had sex,..." - which did not stop him from stating that all sexual activity aside from marital procreation was morally unacceptable. Kuehn does hint once or twice that he may actually have been homosexual, but draws back before ever quite using the word.
Does it matter? Arthur Koestler once wrote that if Descartes had kept a poodle, it would have saved the human race a great deal of suffering. In the same vein, one can only think that if Kant had ever spent a vacation in Paris, it would have greatly improved both his life and his philosophy. Certainly anyone studying Kant after reading this book will have to ask rather dubiously which parts of his system really have an abstract value and which are merely rationalizations of his own neuroses.
Should you buy this book? If you are interested in - or assigned to study - Kant, philosophy, or German cultural history - the answer is yes. The more casual reader who just wants a good biography should be warned, however, that Kuehn assumes a considerable amount of background knowledge, and that it might be preferable to start with a more elementary summary.
Customer Reviews:
Approaching comprehension with great praise.......2003-01-01
It has been so long since the original German version of this biography of Kant was written by Ernst Cassirer in 1916 (and first published in 1918, due to "the delay inflicted by the war on the progress of the edition of the complete works," (p. 2) according to the Foreword by Ernst Cassirer dated August 14, 1918) that it might be considered quite proper that the recent biography of Kant by Manfred Kuehn deserves to be much more modern in its point of view. My review of Kuehn's book emphasized how modern Kant ought to be considered for someone who lived in his times. Kuehn also put a major emphasis on Kant's desire for perpetual peace, a topic which might have been considered questionable for anyone writing in German at the time when Cassirer was writing this book for use as a supplement to the study of Kant's complete works.
I should admit that I have not attempted the study of Kant's work in the manner for which this book is meant to be a guide. I might even be considered too political to be offered a position on such a faculty, so I have no expectation of ever becoming a professional philosopher, and furthermore, I might even be so comical that I would dare to consider Cassirer and Kant as representative of philosophers in the way that Merry and Pippin were typical of hobbits in the movie cycle, "The Lord of the Rings." The set of 4 DVD disks covering the first movie, "The Fellowship of the Ring," allows easy access to specific points in the movie, and scene 44, "The Breaking of the Fellowship," on the second disk, shows the two hobbits (knowing that Frodo Baggins was the only important target) acting as decoys, crying, "Hey! Hey, you! Over here!" Logically, this follows scene 40, "The Fighting Uruk-hai," in which Saruman declares his creation, the Uruk-hai, a perfect creature for war, much as Prussia is described as a highly disciplined place during Kant's life in this book. Philosophically, Kant's writings, which reflect his use of thought processes, can be selected and their relevance to "The whole moral voice of the Enlightenment, as it lived in the purest and greatest spirits," (p. 83) are here demonstrated as logically as Pippin and Merry's exclamations, "It's working!" "I know it's working! Run!" could be considered a histrionic reflection of the admiration for tactics similar to the praise for Kant's philosophy which this book exhibits.
This book also exhibits an eagerness to bring God into every discussion in a manner which has become much less popular as the experience of the godly has been tied detrimentally to the likes of Osama bin Laden in the last hundred years or so. My interest in the early part of the book was primarily in comparing the competing Cosmologies of that time. Kant's early work, UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS (March 14, 1755), which was dedicated just three months before Kant became a doctor of philosophy on the strength of his treatise, DE IGNE (ON FIRE), was not well known in his time because "The publisher had gone bankrupt while the work was in press; his entire warehouse was sealed up, and therefore this book never came onto the market." (p. 40). In attempting to think beyond the laws of motion which had been established by Newton for a Kantian cosmogony which Kant derives from such laws, "The planetary world in which the sun, acting with its powerful attraction from the center of all the orbits," (p. 47) is considered the cause of the planetary system, and particularly accounting for "the `unanimity of the direction and positions of the planetary orbits'." (p. 49) Kant also uses this explanation "in order to think of it as in proportion to the power of the Infinite Being, it must have no limits at all." (p. 47). Newton could have come to the same conclusion about the origins of planetary motion "if instead of seeking the physical bases of the system of astronomical phenomena exclusively in its present state he had turned his gaze backwards to the past of the system, if he had pushed forward from the consideration of the systematic state of the universe to its systematic becoming." (p. 49).
The big jolt in Kant's cosmology was caused by his attempt to comprehend a heavenly system of a different kind, described in Part 3 of the second chapter of this book. "The Critique of Dogmatic Metaphysics: DREAMS OF A SPIRIT-SEER," (pp. 77-92) on Kant becoming "aware of the marvelous tales surrounding the `visionary' Swedenborg, which led him to immerse himself deeper into Swedenborg's work, the ARCANA COELESTIA. We use this account here not to repeat it, but are content to make reference to it. Who will seriously believe that because he had bought the eight quarto volumes of Swedenborg's works, at a considerable outlay of trouble and expense, Kant would have decided to perform a literary analysis on the book?" (p. 79). Kant's book on Swedenborg "appeared anonymously" (p. 78) and he was determined that "I shall never become a fickle or fraudulent person, after having devoted the largest part of my life to studying how to despise those things that tend to corrupt one's honesty." [Kant to Mendelssohn, April 6, 1766] (p. 79). Swedenborg's ARCANA COELESTIA might still be considered a work in which the dreams of a religious writer were collected with more enthusiasm than anyone prior to Freud had shown for understanding his dreams, and Kant's problem stems in large part from Swedenborg's understanding of his dreams being considered an explanation of heavenly forces, or more often, of the conflicts between heavenly and hellish spirits. Cassirer is willing to venture "that the whole idea of the spiritual is due to habit and prejudice, rather than to exact scientific analysis." (p. 81). Lacking such habits, modern people can read this book for a philosophical guide to how Kant's thought went on from that point, or spend their time watching hobbits, with the 4 DVD disks that show how the "Lord of the Rings" movies were made, or make countless other choices. People who believe this book might spend a lot of time studying Kant, as the author certainly did.
What is Enlightenment?.......2000-07-20
One of the mysteries of the rise of the modern world is the sudden appearance of the grand phase of German philosophy beginning with the work of Kant, as his thought suddenly flowered late in life with his precipitous Critique of Pure Reason. Like an echo reverberating across the ages, Kant's breakthrough both recovered and surpassed the height to which philosophy had reached in Plato. This thunderclap just at the takeoff of the revolutionary passage to a new era is the prelude to an entire new universe of thinking, and joins the world of science, the Enlightenment, with a world as ancient as the Upanishads and as futuristic as Quantum Mechanics. Cassirer's philosophical biography is one of the clearest and most cogent introductions to the Kant's life and work and is a classic in its own right.
A Rewarding Read.......1999-12-14
Over the past few years, I had increasingly developed an interest in the Kantian system. I had approached several of Kant's most important works in order to gain an understanding of his thought, but I found that I often struggled to make clear sense of many of his ideas. Although I had obtained a basic knowledge of his philosophy and some lasting insights from these works, I found that Kant's method of presentation often presented some difficulties regarding a complete understanding of them.
Ernst Cassirer's book provides the student of philosophy with an excellent elucidation of Kant's system of critical thought and both the characteristics of this philosopher's personality and the currents of thought that were prevalent during and preceding his lifetime that led him to develop the philosophic views for which he is well-known. Cassirer also amalgamates Kant's theoretical, ethical, and aesthetic aims into a whole system that reflects Kant's fundamental philosophical outlook. A great deal of material containing many subtle and frequently misconceived points is presented in a very clear, though well-detailed, way. Cassirer's discussion of the Critique of Judgment, a book that has long stupified many readers, is especially thought-provoking. The impression one receives of Cassirer's deep admiration is understandable given the astonishing intellectual depth and breadth of Kant's achievements This book is highly recommended for anyone seeking a more profound understanding of Kant's life and works.
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- Kant's flip side
- Kant accepted that our spirit conjoins two worlds.
|
Kant on Swedenborg: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer and Other Writings (Swedenborg Studies, No. 13)
Immanuel Kant
Manufacturer: Swedenborg Foundation
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ASIN: 087785310X |
Book Description
Immanuel Kant's Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, on Emanuel Swedenborg, has mystified readers since its publication in 1766 during Swedenborg's lifetime. Its unusual style and content have led to two opposing interpretations. Most Kant scholars regard the work as a skeptical attack on Swedenborg's mysticism. Others, however, believe that Kant regarded Swedenborg as a serious philosopher and visionary, that Swedenborg had a powerful influence on Kant's mature critical philosophy, and that the book both reveals Kant's profound debt to Swedenborg and conceals that debt behind the mask of irony.
This unique edition includes translations of Kant's other writings on Swedenborg, as well as texts by other writers, illustrating the book's genesis and reception.
Dreams of a Spirit-Seer provides all the documents one needs to assess Kant's most mysterious work.
Customer Reviews:
Kant's flip side.......2003-02-22
This book is supposed to be the funniest thing that Kant ever wrote, and I really wanted to swim through this book before I tried to figure out what I thought was so funny, but even treading water is a challenge when the current has such a fierce undertow, and the serious "First Part, Which is Dogmatic" demands some consideration, though it ends with the famous prudence which demands "that one make the pattern of one's projects appropriate to one's powers, and if one cannot reasonably attain the great, to restrict oneself to the mediocre." (p. 40). This collection of DREAMS OF A SPIRIT-SEER and other writings from the Swedenborg Foundation Publishers, edited by Gregory R. Johnson, which puts everything that directly related to KANT ON SWEDENBORG into this book, allows a serious consideration of Johnson's view that self-defense was the essence of Kant's approach. Religious controversies had career consequences in those days, and Kant had to show he was laughing "because Swedenborg was a controversial figure. Rumors of interest in Swedenborg would have seriously jeopardized Kant's prospects for academic advancement. This is sufficient motive for him to write a book exculpating himself of the suspicion that he took Swedenborg seriously." (p. xvi). Johnson was writing a doctoral dissertation on Kant the first time he read DREAMS OF A SPIRIT-SEER in 1994, and he cites it in the notes as his COMMENTARY, (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 2001). The acknowledgments are dated January 2003 (p. xxvi) and I feel lucky that I received this book as soon as I did.
I have been thinking about this book for a long time before I wrote this review, since this is the work for which Kant wondered if he had gone too far in jest. My first surprise was that Kant himself (like Hegel, he avoids mentioning names) is not entirely clear about whom he meant to be writing until page 49: "I come now to my purpose, namely, to the writings of my hero." He called his preface "A Prospectus That Promises Very Little for the Project" (p. 3) and the final paragraph of his introduction attempted to make his readers share the situation which he found himself in. "Furthermore, a large work was purchased, and, what is worse still, was read, and such effort should not be wasted. From this originated the present treatise, which, as one flatters oneself, should leave the reader in a state of complete satisfaction, in which the principal part will not be understood, the other not believed, and the remainder laughed at." (p. 4). In general, I approve of the steps Kant took to show a more enlightened view than the journals of his day. The major contrast in Johnson's Introduction is with Johann August Ernesti, who denounced Swedenborg in 1760 as a heretic in his "New Theological Library." For attempting to find meanings in the early books of the Bible which were not obvious, Swedenborg was accused of "pervert[ing] the Sacred Scriptures by the pretense of an inner sense, is in the highest degree worthy of punishment." (p. xxiv). When someone in Wurttemberg published a book on Swedenborg, "at Ernesti's urging, the Wurttemberg government declared the book heretical, confiscated all copies, and even ordered private citizens to surrender their copies on pain of arrest." (p. xxv). When a professor of Theology at Tubingen "urged a more open-minded attitude toward Swedenborg[,] Ernesti responded with yet another scathing review, asserting that Clemm's defense of Oetinger and Swedenborg was an offense that would have been worthy of the death penalty in earlier times." (p. xxv). Kant shows how modern people could be much more philosophical about these things, and though those people are all dead, there is a nice justice in the number of people who are still reading Kant and Swedenborg, even if they hardly know anyone else who does.
The prime point in the Introduction by Johnson resides deep in personal philosophy, that professional philosophers might understand as, "that Kant's mature critical philosophy is best seen as a synthesis of Rousseauian and Swedenborgian elements (the influence of Leibniz and Hume being primarily upon Kant's elaboration of difficult technical questions once his basic vision was already in place). . . . although Kant's vision of the cosmos is more Swedenborgian than Rousseauian, it is Rousseau who provides the essentially pragmatic arguments that allow Kant to embrace the content of Swedenborg's visions but discard his enthusiasm." (p. xx).
The notes are helpful. Only a translator is likely to notice, "Here Kant embraces the idea of general as opposed to particular providence." (p. 161, n. 26). This is what makes Kant a philosopher, "the notion that God governs the universe by framing general laws. Particular providence is the notion that he governs the universe on a case-by-case basis." Swedenborg is so religious that he argues "general providence is meaningless without particular providence." There is more on this in Johnson's (as yet, unpublished) COMMENTARY. Kant [Part I, Second Chapter, Paragraph 3] was talking about connections in the immaterial world, the former connections, before getting trapped where "nothing hinders even the immaterial beings that affect one another through the mediation of matter from also standing in a special and constant association and as immaterial beings always exercising reciprocal influences on one another, so that their relationship mediated by matter is only contingent and rests upon particular divine provision, whereas the former is natural and indissoluble." (p. 16)
I would like to check another translation to see if this is even close to what anyone else would think. In 1992, David Walford and Ralf Meerbote had their translation published in Kant, THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY, 1755-1770. "Walford's translation is highly accurate and very readable. Indeed, it would be hard to justify a new translation of DREAMS at all were the Walford translation available in an inexpensive paperback edition." (p. xxiii). It soon might be, if that is what you would rather have.
Kant accepted that our spirit conjoins two worlds........2002-12-10
This work is often described as Kant's most "mysterious". The mystery lies in the fact that here in this treatise the Great Professor of Metaphysics unreservedly admits in the existance of "immaterial natures in the world", i.e. spirits and a spirit world. There is nothing mysterious about this statement, it is just that modern readers refuse to accept it. I've never understood why this should be so hard for some, since Kant's System of critical idealism is perfectly consistent with this view. Kant claimed that we could never know the true nature of the world around us, the true causes of sensations. He always held that there is a real world that we can never accurately know. This real world corresponds with a "spirit world", or if you prefer, a platonic world of Ideals lieing outside of our human perception of time and space. Kant unmistakably states that "We should ... regard the human soul as being conjoined in its present life with two worlds at the same time...." Nothing could be more unambiguous, especially considering his references to the writings of Swedenborg.
I think that this book has been largely ignored because it is just too divergent from the rational empiracism of the modern scientific mind. The scienitfic materialist conveniently ignores the fundamental questions of material "reality" that Kant couldn't ignore. Furthermore, when the Prussian government banned this work it set into motion the series of events that culminated in the profound physical and spiritual disasters of the 20th cetury- and beyond.
It may yet be proven that the ideas in this forgotten book are far more "real" than the modern materialist concensus of reality....
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- The Best Introduction to the Philosophy of Kant
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Kant: From The Great Philosophers, Volume 1
Karl Jaspers
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
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ASIN: 0156466856 |
Book Description
A masterful exploration of Kant’s intellectual development, theory of knowledge, politics, and ethics. Edited by Hannah Arendt; Index. Translated by Ralph Manheim.
Customer Reviews:
The Best Introduction to the Philosophy of Kant.......2001-01-15
The one philosopher who discourages more students of philosophy is Immanuel Kant, the hands-down winner. Yet, it is not his ideas that are difficult to understand, but, rather, getting to his ideas, which are cocooned in a maze of needlessly bad technical writing.
Thus, most would-be students of Kant seek a basic introduction to his thought, only to find that the vast majority of these are even denser than that which they seek to explain. Who wants to shell out $19.95 for an introduction to Kant that itself needs an introduction?
Well, you can relax, because there is a highly readable introduction to the great man's philosophy that sells for less than ten dollars. Written by the great 20th Century existential philosopher Karl Jaspers as part of his "Great Philosophers" series, it stands out as an easy to read, easy to understand introduction to one of the giants of philosophy. Armed in such a manner, Kant's actual writings will become less formidible, more appealing to both eye and mind.
Do not waste your time reading an academic's explanation of Kant. Read a major philosopher's introduction instead, for it not only takes a great mind to understand a great mind, but also to make the thought of that great mind accessible to all.
Customer Reviews:
Readable, Understandable Analysis of Great Minds.......2003-12-17
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Is it fair to rate such persons by other authors who analyze them? I think so. In the case of Goethe, I highly recommend reading some of his works and the conversations with Peter Eckermann. What's crucial is understanding Goethe's main thesis and outlook in comparison to his contemporary Kant and how he influenced subsequent philosophers such as Hegel, who tried to bridge Kant and Goethe, unsuccessfully and Shiller, the poet, who unsuccessfully tried the same.
On Kant: you can spend a year or more reading his verbose and heavily obscure style which one must read each sentence twice before digesting, or one can read Kaufmann's book and another great book on Kant - Karl Jaspers, Philosophy Volume 1. You really do walk away from this book with a basic understanding of Kant and how he both differs from Goethe - allot, and how he influenced philosophy as we know it. He was a Platonist, Goethe was not. Kant equated life a series of maxims all based on reason, part of a universal, while Goethe saw humanity always in developmental stages, living in uncertainty.
This goes with Hegel too. Read some amazon.com reviews on his Phenomenology of the Spirit and you can see, there are those that love to read philosophy but recommend not investing a great deal of time and effort on Hegel. Although one must read Hegel to fully know Hegel. I think Kaufmann does justice. It's nice to have at least a basic grip on both who these men were, what they taught and a limited degree on their background and minds - psychology.
Definitely worth the read.
Kaufmann's mediocre Nietzcheanism.......2001-12-29
This is quite possibly the poorest exposition of these people ever written- and the rest of the series is the same. His translations of Nietzche are excellent and beautiful but as a philosopher Kaufmann is trying to speak with the mouth of Nietzche, but a rather poor Nietzche at best. The angry style is sad for an academician unless he or she is a genius of Nietzche's calibre.
Lost in the Past.......2000-03-25
I read this book in its early years, and the subjects of the book hardly excited me, but it was the first volume of a trilogy, and I was ready to try to prove that figures in a modern America rich with electronic soundtracking of music for every form of public activity (and for more private activities than were written about in his philosophy) was a much richer form of emotional communication than any that Goethe was able to write down on a page. On the topic of sex alone, I could hum more tunes than he knew, maybe. But the funny thing was that he considered "Kant's immense influence has proved catastrophic." Among the recently departed, Isaiah Berlin is quoted on the back of this book praising Kaufmann for making people see that Hegel "was a most audacious, profound and devastating, at times wildly turbulent, thinker." I wish I could ask everybody, aren't we all? Page 288 raised the question "how I would feel if someone sent me an essay of such length in which he tried to show how Nietzsche had been 'a disaster.'" I think he would feel even worse, or possibly more joyous in another's misfortune, if he could read all the web pages that show what people, now, are saying about Martin Heidegger, who is merely accused of "Dogmatic Anthropology" in the Trilogy outline which appeared in this volume.
Book Description
Scruton assumes no previous knowledge of philosophy as he explains the background of Kant's thought, his conceptions of Transcendental Idealism and Categorical Imperative, and his original contribution to the philosophy of art.
Customer Reviews:
Only 4 stars because any short introduction doesn't give Kant his due.......2007-05-13
It's a pretty good introduction, I'd recommend reading several introductions to Kant before diving in (he's pretty dense). I think Goethe said that reading Kant was like walking into a well-lit room, I hardly think he was talking about Kant's dry, scholastic writing style. The clarity of his thought, however, is pretty intense. I do recommend this book, merely because jumping straight into Kant probably isn't going to fare well. When, and if, you do choose to read Kant, take a look at Jonathan Bennett's website (a philosopher and Kant scholar), I think he translates Kant into more readable English. Early Modern Texts or something. I agree with some of the other commentators, that this introduction is kinda hard for a first time look into Kant. A history of philosophy book might be your best bet to read first. It is pretty good for such a short introduction though. Take your time and don't do it in a day. Digest it. Good luck all.
Making Sense of Genius.......2007-03-08
Kant is clearly one of the 4 or 5 most influential thinkers of the last half-century, however, the complexity of his ideas combined with an often difficult writing style (for modern readers) makes for a difficult study. In order to get the most out of Kant (or to get through him at all, for that matter), it is essential to read and study modern introductions and commentaries first. This "very short introduction" is an excellent example. It is concise, highly readable, and a good beginning for more detailed study. However, it is still not enough to allow one to tackle Kant immediately and I suggest further introductory study.
Great intro to Kant.......2006-12-16
Immanuel Kant's life work focused on solving the mistakes of the rationalist philosophy that he had learned from men, like Gottfried Leibnitz, and the mistakes of the empiricist philosophy that he was so intrigued with through the writings of David Hume. Kant wants to move beyond the mistakes both schools of philosophy made and synthesize their truths into a new philosophical understanding of knowledge. Rationalist philosophers held the view that all knowledge came from the exercise of reason alone, unpolluted by the view of any experience held by the observer. "Reality itself is accessible to reason alone, since only reason can rise above the individual point of view and participate in the vision of ultimate necessities, which is also God's." Thus, Leibnitz argues that human understanding contained certain innate principles known to be true, which when used with our ability to reason, could explain all questions in and of the world. Rationalists were convinced that experience was not a reliable tool to gain knowledge of the world. The rationalist method was very convincing and was the dominant school of philosophy in Kant's day. The criticism of rationalist philosophy was that you had to "trust" in reason to be able to deduce answers.
On the other hand, empiricist philosophers believed that knowledge of the world was only possible through learning by experience. Hume "denies the possibility of knowledge through reason, since reason cannot operate without ideas, and ideas are acquired only through the senses." Hume and other empiricist philosophers argued that without observing proof of something, the observer could not have knowledge of it. Knowledge of the world, for Hume, is knowledge of the world through the eyes of the observer. Hume argues that reason can only provide relationships between ideas; reason cannot produce ideas on its own or provide facts. Hume was even distrustful of the writings and teachings of others being capable of providing answers. "The only experience that can confirm anything for me is my experience." Hume's skepticism even rises to the level of doubting the existence of self. Thus, Hume earns the moniker of "the Great Skeptic." Hume's skepticism is in direct contradiction to the rationalist philosopher, Rene Descartes, whose rationalist investigations led him to utter the famous words, "Cogito, ergo sum, I think, therefore I am." The criticism of empiricist philosophy is that we can be sure of so little, since one can actually prove through direct observation so little in the world. For Kant, Hume puts so much of scientific thought into question since Hume doubts the concept of causality occurring in nature. Thus, Kant says it was Hume who "awoke him from his dogmatic slumbers." Kant so desperately wants to solve the philosophical dichotomy between these two schools.
Kant believes that both schools make the same fundamental mistake in their approach to the question of epistemology. He argued that philosophers were essentially asking the wrong question, which was, how we can bring ourselves to understand the world. Kant said the real question to ask was how the world comes to be understood by us. Kant will solve this dichotomy between the two schools in his first book Critique of Pure Reason.
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.
Heroic Attempt by Scruton.......2006-04-15
This is an heroic attempt by Scruton to summarize the entire philosophy of one the most important thinkers of all time. Unfortunately, Kant was also one of the worst writers of all time and needlessly made his own great insights almost incomprehensible to the casual reader. Scruton does a wonderful job of making Kant clear.
Excellent introduction to Kant.......2006-03-15
This book offers a clear and concise introduction to one of the most difficult philosophers. This book, and others in the series, are excellent preparation for an undergraduate class. Scruton is a little conservative in his analysis of Kant's work. The reader should be aware that he is definitely of the analytic strain.
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Zane Grey's Arizona
Candace C. Kant
Manufacturer: Northland Pub
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Kant Para Principiantes
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Andrzej Klimowski
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ASIN: 9879065484 |
Book Description
This is the most complete English edition of Kant's correspondence that has ever been compiled. The letters are concerned with philosophical and scientific topics but many also treat personal, historical, and cultural matters. On one level the letters chart Kant's philosophical development. On another level they expose quirks and foibles, and reveal a good deal about Kant's friendships and philosophical battles with some of the prominent thinkers of the time: Herder, Hamann, Mendelssohn, and Fichte.
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