Announcements by Kenneth R Westphal
The vast majority of philosophers are academics earning their living primarily as teachers. Yet o... more The vast majority of philosophers are academics earning their living primarily as teachers. Yet only a tiny fraction are actively interested in philosophy of education or take notice of such journals as Teaching Philosophy. Currently philosophy is under acute pressure from the political economy of higher education and institutions to justify its continued existence as an academic discipline. Concurrently, the quantity of philosophical work published has expanded to the point where proper and effective operation of the peer review process is increasingly difficult. These trends challenge philosophers to demonstrate the value of their professional activity and in particular to show that academic discussion is not merely an end in itself. Responding to this challenge requires fresh or at least refreshed and convincing answers to the question, What are the educational responsibilities of philosophers?
SATS, 2023
The introduction provides a brief conspectus of why philosophers have such a wide range of educat... more The introduction provides a brief conspectus of why philosophers have such a wide range of educational responsibilities, too many of which are too often neglected.
SATS: Northern European Journal of Philosophy, 2019
Our thematic introduction to this special of SATS on the Crisis in Philosophy, epitomising its ex... more Our thematic introduction to this special of SATS on the Crisis in Philosophy, epitomising its external and internal sources.
A statement of the Board of Trustees of the Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea strongly supp... more A statement of the Board of Trustees of the Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea strongly supports the European Union member states, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and the EEA countries' action against Russia's belligerent attack on Ukraine, which is in violation of international law.
Kant-Studien, 2022
Graham Harrington Bird passed away peacefully on 9 July 2021. He lived a very full 90 years, leav... more Graham Harrington Bird passed away peacefully on 9 July 2021. He lived a very full 90 years, leaving behind his loving family, many friends and even more colleagues, not only amongst Kant scholars, but across the field of philosophy.
Research in Philosophy by Kenneth R Westphal
A topical listing of my books and book projects, for an overview of my research interests and res... more A topical listing of my books and book projects, for an overview of my research interests and results.
Eine thematische Liste meiner deutschen Aufsätzen zur kritischen Philosophie bei Kant und Hegel
Books by Kenneth R Westphal
Kant’s Transcendental Deduction of the Categories Critical Re-Examination, Elucidation & Corroboration Kant’s Revised Second (b) Edition (1787), German Text with New Parallel Translation, for Students, Cognitive Scientists, Philosophers & Specialists., 2021
Beneath Kant's two great options regarding how object and representation can correspond, Kant's B... more Beneath Kant's two great options regarding how object and representation can correspond, Kant's B Deduction demonstrates in detail a much more subtle and cogent third alternative. Kant's analysis and proof follows exactly the course detailed in the several §§ of the Trascendental Deduction; the Deduction proper is in §26. This translation and commentary invites readers to reconsider Kant's text, wording, issues and arguments afresh; they have been obscured by too much scholarly controversy which has missed Kant's stated aims, issues and methods.
I have translated Kant's text according to what he means by his terms, phrases, sentences etc., since words in natural languages -- including philosophical terms -- have several or many connotations and uses; which of these is or are relevant must be specified through the author's context of use.
This book examines, assesses and defends Kant’s Critical epistemology, and the rich yet neglected... more This book examines, assesses and defends Kant’s Critical epistemology, and the rich yet neglected resources it brings to bear on issues about human experience, perceptual judgment and empirical knowledge – including causal realism – which were obscured and neglected by preoccupation with so-called ‘transcendental arguments’. I aim to make Kant’s Critical epistemology intelligible and attractive to epistemologists today. I first examine prominent themes in recent epistemology and identify some important points of intersection between Kant’s Critical epistemology and contemporary, especially post-Gettier epistemology. This includes critical appraisal of several key works of analytical Kantianism by C.I. Lewis, P.F. Strawson and Wilfrid Sellars, some neglected themes in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, and John McDowell’s attempts to harness Kant’s and Hegel’s views to his diagnostic aims. One central finding I call Kant’s Thesis of Singular Cognitive Reference; this thesis aligns Kant’s epistemology with such contemporaries as J.L. Austin, Gareth Evans, David Kaplan, Keith Donnellan, Fred Dretske, John Perry, Howard Wettstein and Charles Travis – though Kant’s Critical epistemology buttresses their views about singular reference and greatly augments their views on singular reference by demonstrating the discriminatory character of causal-perceptual judgments within our actual worldly circumstances. Kant’s Thesis of Singular Cognitive Reference undergirds Newton’s fourth rule of method, and demonstrates that justificatory infallibilism is in principle irrelevant to all non-formal domains. It supports Newton’s causal realism about gravitational force, in part by exposing fundamental fallacies in Bas van Fraassen’s ‘Constructive Empiricism’.
This book develops an original interpretation of Hegel’s moral philosophy. Building on his previo... more This book develops an original interpretation of Hegel’s moral philosophy. Building on his previous study of the role of natural law in Hume’s and Kant’s accounts of justice, Westphal argues that Hegel developed and justified a robust form of civic republicanism. Westphal identifies, for the first time, the proper genre to which Hegel’s Philosophical Outlines of Justice belongs and to which it so prodigiously contributes, which he calls Natural Law Constructivism, an approach developed by Hume, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel. He brings to bear Hegel’s adoption and augmentation of Kant’s Critique of rational judgment and justification in all non-formal domains to his moral philosophy in his Outlines. Westphal argues that Hegel’s justification of the standards of political legitimacy successfully integrates Rousseau’s Independence Requirement into the role of public reason within a constitutional republic. In these regards, Hegel’s moral and political principles are progressive not only in principle, but also in practice. Hegel’s Civic Republicanism: Integrating Natural Law & Kant’s Moral Constructivism will be of interest to scholars of moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, Kant, Hegel, 18th- and 19th-century philosophy.
Grounds of Pragmatic Realism: Hegel’s Internal Critique & Transformation of Kant’s Critical Philosophy. , 2018
Hegel's Internal Critique and Reconstruction of Kant's Critical Philosophy.
Justifying Strict Objectivity without Debating Moral Realism.
Book Symposium on K.R. Westphal, H... more Justifying Strict Objectivity without Debating Moral Realism.
Book Symposium on K.R. Westphal, How Hume & Kant Reconstruct Natural Law. Filozofia i Društvo/ Philosophy and Society (Beograd) 30.2 (2019):197–320; url: http://journal.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/index.php?journal=fid. Author’s Introduction+Replies (13,000 words total); to comments by: Jovan Babić, Bojan Blagojević, Igor Cvejić, Rastko Jovanov, Miloš Marković, Olga Nikolić, Slavenko Šljukić.
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Announcements by Kenneth R Westphal
The Academia Europaea strongly supports the European Union member states, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and the EEA countries' action against Russia's belligerent attack on Ukraine, which is in violation of international law.
Research in Philosophy by Kenneth R Westphal
Books by Kenneth R Westphal
I have translated Kant's text according to what he means by his terms, phrases, sentences etc., since words in natural languages -- including philosophical terms -- have several or many connotations and uses; which of these is or are relevant must be specified through the author's context of use.
Book Symposium on K.R. Westphal, How Hume & Kant Reconstruct Natural Law. Filozofia i Društvo/ Philosophy and Society (Beograd) 30.2 (2019):197–320; url: http://journal.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/index.php?journal=fid. Author’s Introduction+Replies (13,000 words total); to comments by: Jovan Babić, Bojan Blagojević, Igor Cvejić, Rastko Jovanov, Miloš Marković, Olga Nikolić, Slavenko Šljukić.
The Academia Europaea strongly supports the European Union member states, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and the EEA countries' action against Russia's belligerent attack on Ukraine, which is in violation of international law.
I have translated Kant's text according to what he means by his terms, phrases, sentences etc., since words in natural languages -- including philosophical terms -- have several or many connotations and uses; which of these is or are relevant must be specified through the author's context of use.
Book Symposium on K.R. Westphal, How Hume & Kant Reconstruct Natural Law. Filozofia i Društvo/ Philosophy and Society (Beograd) 30.2 (2019):197–320; url: http://journal.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/index.php?journal=fid. Author’s Introduction+Replies (13,000 words total); to comments by: Jovan Babić, Bojan Blagojević, Igor Cvejić, Rastko Jovanov, Miloš Marković, Olga Nikolić, Slavenko Šljukić.
NOW PUBLISHED (May 2020); isbn: 978-3-030-26596-0.
'Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: A Study Guide' (under 'Research & Reference Materials'), and
'The Question Answered, What is Kant's "Critical" Philosophy?' (under 'Rational Justification & Mature Judgment' = this sub-section).
Thank you.
The First World War was supposed to end all wars, though soon followed WW II. Since 1945 wars continued to abound; now we confront a real prospect of a third world war. Many armed struggles and wars arise in attempts to end repressive government; still more are fomented by repressive governments, few of which acknowledge their repressive character. It is historically and culturally naïve to suppose that peace is normal, and war an aberration; war, preparations for war and threats of war belong to 'normal' human life. Our tolerance, acceptance or fostering of such repeated injustices and atrocities indicate pervasive failures to understand fundamentals of justice, and what we owe morally to ourselves and to all others, together with our responsibilities to preserve the biosphere, not merely our own store(s) of reserves. As matters both of justice and prudence we must reorient ourselves, individually and collectively, to promote justice, peace and ecological responsibilities by identifying and instituting just forms of social coöperation, domestically and internationally. All of these are our problems, whether we recognize them or continue our pervasive negligence. We urgently require cogent understanding of the social dimensions of human judgment, rational assessment, right action and public reason. This requires understanding (inter alia) how Kant's explication of rational judgment and justification is fundamentally social, how these features of rational judgment and justification are constitutive of Kant's account of individual autonomy, and how they are central to Kant's account of proper public use of reason. Reasoning publically remains precarious, not because-as often alleged-the 'Enlightenment project' has failed. It has not failed, it has been thwarted, and in our public responsibilities we have too often failed it. (23.08.2023
(This paper extends the analysis begun in my (2018), 'Modern Moral Epistemology'; ms. posted below.)
(ISBN: 978-3-631-81434-5; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b16627)
(This account is extended to the 20th C. in my (2002), 'Does Anglophone Ethics rest on a Mistake?'; ms. posted above.)
Hegel also responds to the dichotomy between the individual agent and the social whole within which agents act. Hegel argues that this dichotomy is specious because human beings are fundamentally social practitioners and because neither social practices nor individual agents have priority over the other. There are no social practices without social practitioners and there are no social practitioners without social practices.
Hegel’s response to this second dichotomy allows him to respond to the first one as well. The elaboration and specialization of natural needs and desires through exchange relations and the social division of labor transfigures the contents of those needs and desires into collectively self-given ends. The social practices producing this transfiguration and meeting these ends form the contents of implicit principles of right. These implicit principles are collectively self-given because they result from the social practices collectively developed to meet these needs.
Only acts that are executed and accepted by an agent are free acts. This strong condition requires that an agent’s intentions correspond to the actual nature and consequences of his or her act. Since the aims, the principles, and the means of action are fundamentally social, these strong constraints entail that free action is possible only within a community which makes known its structure and the role of its members within it and their contribution to it, so that its members can act on the basis of that knowledge. Hegel’s theory of the state is a theory of a communal structure that makes such explicit, free action possible.
In briefest compass, Hegel holds that laws are legitimate only insofar as they codify those practices that have been developed in order to achieve human freedom, and laws are obligatory only insofar as they are necessary for achieving human freedom. Hegel’s government is designed to codify and promulgate such laws. Hegel’s legislature is designed to make known to the citizens at large, through their corporate representatives, that laws have such a basis and how individual roles and actions fit within the community as a whole.
Having made these preparations, I recount Kant’s constructive strategy in the Critique of Pure Reason (§9), beginning with his (express) methodological constructivism (§9.1) and the four (generic) steps involved in the constructivist strategy (§9.2). One important point is Kant’s indication of the two-fold use of the Categories, in sub-personal sensory-perceptual synthesis, and also in any explicit judgments we make about whatever we perceive or experience (§9.3). I then review briefly Kant’s lead question (§9.4), his most basic inventory of our cognitive capacities (§9.5) and his main constructive epistemological (or transcendental) question (§9.6). Answering that question requires addressing five Critical sub-issues (§9.7). With Kant’s agenda thus stated and summarised, I then synopsise the structure of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (§10), focussing on his ‘Analytic of Concepts’ and ‘Analytic of Principles’. For clear conspectus, this structure and its use of Kant’s inventory of basic formal features of our cognitive capacities is tabulated (§14). I then conclude briefly, indicating the aims and scope of this reconstruction of Kant’s construction of the Critique of Pure Reason (§11). (An Appendix begins with §12, containing two diagrams of the Aristotelian Square of Logical Oppositions.)
Keynote Speakers: Charles Travis, Juliet Floyd, Avner Baz, Kenneth Westphal.
Charles's work on the nature of thought, language, logic, perception, and rationality; his respected authority on philosophers such as Frege, Wittgenstein, and Austin; and his ongoing dialogues with contemporary scholars, such as Putnam and McDowell, have had a profound influence on philosophical debates across analytic philosophy.
https://sites.google.com/view/tttmlag/home
The Aufbau Project, a century later 02.05.2024 14-16 CET Broadcast via Zoom The seminar will be held in English. A handout and a link to the online room will be provided through a mailing list.
Eine Chronik, wohl aber meisterhaft, mit sehr ausführliche Untersuchungen der Vorgeschichte der Philosophie, sowie die Philosophie in Osten, Afrik und Indien.
Contents: Notes on Philosophical Research (1), Monitoring your Progress (1), Essays (2), Format (2), Introductions (2), Formulating Analytical Essay Topics (2), Independent Essay Topic Statements (3), Examples (3), Organizational Strategies (3); The Outlining Strategy (4), The Note Card Method (5), Format (further details) (6), Composition & Revision (6); Marking (or Grading) (6), Academic Policies (7), Marking Essays, or Exam Answers (7), Abbreviations Used in Comments (7), Basic Proof Reader’s Marks (9), Essay Marking Sheet (10), Questions for Revising Draft Essays (11), Skeleton of an Argumentative Essay (12), Words to Watch when Writing Well (13), E-mail & Files sent to Instructors (14).