Lawrence Pasternack

Oklahoma State University, Philosophy, Faculty Member

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I grew up in Toronto, near York University, where I received my B.A. in Philosophy. I then attended Yale University's interdisciplinary Philosophy and Religion program where I studied under Nicholas Wolterstorff and received my M.A. in Philosophical Theology in 1992. With developing interests in German Philosophy, I moved to Boston University where I studied Kant under Henry Allison and received my Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1997. In the following year, I began as an Assistant Professor at OSU. I was tenured in 2004, and have since been promoted to Full Professor. Since July 2019, I have also served as the Director of OSU's Interdisciplinary Religious Studies Program.

Most of my work is on Kant, with publications across his Ethical Theory, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Religion. My first book, an interpretation and defense of Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, was published by Routledge in October 2013.
Address: Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States

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01:28:46

Research Overview, September 2021

Lawrence Pasternack Zoom Discussion, Research Overview with University of Tehran Philosophy Depar... more

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Papers by Lawrence Pasternack

The Wager as Decision under Ignorance: Decision-Theoretic Responses to the Many-Gods Objection

Pascal's Wager

What is Wrong with the Recent Semiological Interpretation of Kant’s Religion

Kantian Review

In this article, I challenge the semiological interpretation of Kant’s Religion, particularly as ... more In this article, I challenge the semiological interpretation of Kant’s Religion, particularly as advanced in recent years by James DiCenso and Allen Wood. As I here argue, their interpretations are neither compatible with broader aspects of Kant’s positive philosophy of religion, nor with how Kant himself describes the project of the Religion. Kant wrote the Religion in order to explore the compatibility between his theologically affirmative pure rational system of religion and Christian doctrines, particularly as understood by the Lutherans and Lutheran Pietists of his era, rather than as a treatise on how to make Christian theology compatible with contemporary secularism.

Baumgarten and Kant on Rational Theology: Deism, Theism and the Role of Analogy

Kant's <I>Lectures on Metaphysics</I>, 2019

Immediate Experience, Mystical ‘Encounters’ and the ‘Voice’ of God: Palmquist’s Critical Mysticism and Kant’s Theory of Experience

Kantian Review, 2020

In this brief commentary, I focus on Part II of Kant and Mysticism, where Stephen Palmquist explo... more In this brief commentary, I focus on Part II of Kant and Mysticism, where Stephen Palmquist explores the space for mystical experience in Kant. In particular, I focus on (a) what Palmquist calls ‘immediate experience’ or ‘encounters’; (b) what he calls the ‘supervening’ of religious experience on ordinary experience; and (c) moral conscience as the ‘voice’ of God.

A Guide to Kant’s Treatment of Grace

Con-textos Kantianos: International Journal of Philosophy, 2017

This Guide is designed to restore the theological background that informs Kant’s treatment of gra... more This Guide is designed to restore the theological background that informs Kant’s treatment of grace in Religion to its rightful place. This background is essential not only to understand the nature of Kant’s overall project in this book, namely, to determine the “association” or “union” between Christianity (as a historical faith) and rational religion, but also to dispel the impression of “internal contradictions” and “conundrums” that contemporary interpreters associate with Kant’s treatment of grace and moral regeneration. That impression, we argue, is the result of entrenched interpretative habits that can be traced back to Karl Barth’s reading of the text. Once we realize that such a reading rests on a mistake, much of the anxiety and confusion that plague current discussions on these issues can be put to rest.

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Excerpt from the Doctrine of Reason by Georg Friedrich Meier

Preparation for Natural Theology

Preface to Preparation for Natural Theology by Johann August Eberhard

Hume’s Principle and Kant’s Pure Rational System of Religion

Philosophical Arguments: Pascal's Wager

Kant on Faith: Religious Assent and the Limits to Knowledge

The Palgrave Kant Handbook, 2017

In the 1787 preface to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant writes that among the goals of his criti... more In the 1787 preface to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant writes that among the goals of his critical project is to determine the “limits to knowledge” in order to “make room for faith” (Bxxx). Although this comment has long been treated as an empty bromide, recent “affirmative” interpretations of Kant’s philosophy of religion have come to take it more seriously. This chapter explores Kant’s views on the relationship between faith and knowledge. The first half of the chapter focuses on Moral/Pure Rational Faith as it relates to the Highest Good and Practical Postulates. The second half turns to Historical/Ecclesiastical Faith, particularly as it is employed in Kant’s religious writings of the 1790s.

Kant’s “Appraisal” of Christianity: Biblical Interpretation and the Pure Rational System of Religion

Journal of the History of Philosophy, 2015

The First Preface to Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason contains various charac... more The First Preface to Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason contains various characterizations of the distinction between biblical and philosophical theology. Similar characterizations are also found in the Preface to The Conflict of the Faculties. In both, Kant warns the philosopher against trespassing into the purview of the biblical theologian. Yet, in the actual body of both texts, we find numerous occasions where Kant deviates from the rules he initially articulates. The purpose of this paper is to identify these rules, discuss their apparent violations, and consider the implications of this divergence.

Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals", 2015

Regulative principles and ‘the Wise Author of Nature’

Religious Studies, 2010

There is much more said in the Critique of Pure Reason about the relationship between God and pur... more There is much more said in the Critique of Pure Reason about the relationship between God and purposiveness than what is found in Kant's analysis of the physico-theological (design) argument. The ‘Wise Author of Nature’ is central to his analysis of regulative principles in the ‘Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic’ and also appears in the ‘Canon’, first with regards to the Highest Good and then again in relation to our theoretical use of purposiveness. This paper will begin with a brief discussion of the physico-theological argument before moving on to the Appendix and the Canon. Finally, it will consider some changes to the role of the Wise Author in the Critique of Judgement.

DiCenso James J., Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: A Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012 Pp. 275 ISBN 9781107009349 (hbk) US $99.00

Kantian Review, 2013

The Development and Scope of Kantian Belief: The Highest Good, The Practical Postulates and The Fact of Reason

Kant-Studien, 2011

Abstract This paper offers an account of the historical development of Kant's understanding o... more Abstract This paper offers an account of the historical development of Kant's understanding of belief (Glaube) from its early ties to George Friedrich Meier's Auszug aus der Vernunftlehre through various stages of refinement. It will be argued that the Critique of Pure Reason reflects an important but not final stage in Kant's understanding of belief. Its structure is further refined and its scope narrowed in later works, including the Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgment. After charting these stages, an analysis of how belief relates to the Fact of Reason will be presented.

Intrinsic Value and Sentimentalism

Southwest Philosophy Review, 2008

Can Self-Deception Explain Akrasia in Kant’s Theory of Moral Agency?

Southwest Philosophy Review, 1999

Gambling Maxims and their Universalizability

International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2003

This paper explores the moral status of various gambling maxims, particularly as they relate to t... more This paper explores the moral status of various gambling maxims, particularly as they relate to the bettor's interest in profit and the mathematical expectation of the game being played. Certain difficulties with the prevailing interpretations of the Formula of Universalizability will also be discussed, particularly in relation to games for which the bettor can have a positive expectation.

01:28:46

Research Overview, September 2021

Lawrence Pasternack Zoom Discussion, Research Overview with University of Tehran Philosophy Depar... more

11 views

The Wager as Decision under Ignorance: Decision-Theoretic Responses to the Many-Gods Objection

Pascal's Wager

What is Wrong with the Recent Semiological Interpretation of Kant’s Religion

Kantian Review

Baumgarten and Kant on Rational Theology: Deism, Theism and the Role of Analogy

Kant's <I>Lectures on Metaphysics</I>, 2019

Immediate Experience, Mystical ‘Encounters’ and the ‘Voice’ of God: Palmquist’s Critical Mysticism and Kant’s Theory of Experience

Kantian Review, 2020

A Guide to Kant’s Treatment of Grace

Con-textos Kantianos: International Journal of Philosophy, 2017

Download

Excerpt from the Doctrine of Reason by Georg Friedrich Meier

Preparation for Natural Theology

Preface to Preparation for Natural Theology by Johann August Eberhard

Hume’s Principle and Kant’s Pure Rational System of Religion

Philosophical Arguments: Pascal's Wager

Kant on Faith: Religious Assent and the Limits to Knowledge

The Palgrave Kant Handbook, 2017

Kant’s “Appraisal” of Christianity: Biblical Interpretation and the Pure Rational System of Religion

Journal of the History of Philosophy, 2015

Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals", 2015

Regulative principles and ‘the Wise Author of Nature’

Religious Studies, 2010

DiCenso James J., Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: A Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012 Pp. 275 ISBN 9781107009349 (hbk) US $99.00

Kantian Review, 2013

The Development and Scope of Kantian Belief: The Highest Good, The Practical Postulates and The Fact of Reason

Kant-Studien, 2011

Intrinsic Value and Sentimentalism

Southwest Philosophy Review, 2008

Can Self-Deception Explain Akrasia in Kant’s Theory of Moral Agency?

Southwest Philosophy Review, 1999

Gambling Maxims and their Universalizability

International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2003

Internal Realism and Twin Earth

Idealistic Studies, 2001

Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: an Interpretation and Defense

This book offers a complete and internally cohesive interpretation of Religion. In contrast to th... more This book offers a complete and internally cohesive interpretation of Religion. In contrast to the interpretations that characterize Religion as a litany of “wobbles”, fumbling between traditional Christianity and Enlightenment values, or a text that reduces religion into morality, the interpretation here offered defends the rich philosophical theology contained in each of Religion’s four parts and shows how the doctrines of the “Pure Rational System of Religion” are eminently compatible with the essential principles of Transcendental Idealism.

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415507868/

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Immanuel Kant’s Textbooks in Translation. Volume I: Georg Friedrich Meier's Auszug aus der Vernunftlehre

In addition to the first English translation of Georg Friedrich Meier's Auszug, this volume will ... more In addition to the first English translation of Georg Friedrich Meier's Auszug, this volume will include an introduction by Riccardo Pozzo and a comprehensive concordance for the Auszug, Kant's Reflexionen, Logic Lectures, and the Jäsche Logic.

A draft of the whole is complete and with the publisher. We anticipate its publication in January 2016.

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Immanuel Kant’s Textbooks in Translation. Volume II: Johann August Eberhard’s, Vorbereitung zur natürlichen Theologie zum Gebrauch akademischer Vorlesungen

This volume will contain the first English translation of Eberhard's Vorbereitung as well as a co... more

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Immanuel Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: In Focus

This book combines an invaluable historical introduction to the Groundwork, along with the comple... more This book combines an invaluable historical introduction to the Groundwork, along with the complete H.J Paton translation of the work, and a selection of six of the best contemporary interpretative articles. It is the ideal companion for all students of Kantian ethics and anyone interested in moral philosophy.

Kant's Theory of Evil: An Essay on the Dangers of Self-Love and the Aprioricity of History, by Pablo Muchnik. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009. Pp. 183 + xxix. ISBN 978-0-7391-4016-1. Hardback, $65

Kantian Review, 2010

Review of Allen Wood's Kant and Religion

Kantian Review, 2021

Review of Wood's Kant and Religion

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Chris Firestone, Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009, Pp. 194 + x, hbk, ISBN: 978-0-7546-6130-6; £65

Kantian Review, 2011

Chris Firestone describes Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason as ‘the attempt of a Chri... more Chris Firestone describes Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason as ‘the attempt of a Christian scholar of Kant to show where theology gains a foothold in Kant’s philosophy’ (p. viii). The first chapter outlines four trends in the secondary literature on Kant’s philosophy of religion: atheist, agnostic, non-realist, and deist. Firestone then turns to a fifth: a ‘theologically affirmative’ interpretation of Kant. Although such contemporary Christian philosophers as Philip Quinn and Nicholas Wolterstorff regard Kant’s philosophy of religion as deeply incompatible with Christianity, Firestone wants to show that it is ‘essentially positive in its posture towards the many claims and concerns of Christian theology’ (p. 10). In chapter 2, Firestone addresses the question of how, if the subject matter of theology is supersensible, we can even conceptualize it. He aptly frames this question via the Strawsonian principle of significance and begins his response by presenting the outlines of Henry Allison’s methodological interpretation. Firestone then moves on to a discussion of Kant’s distinction between an idea and an Ideal, but overreaches with this distinction, implying that the latter ‘resides in the boundaries of human reason’ and is an object of ‘transcendental theology’ (p. 31). His point here is not specific to the ens realissimum, but is rather more generically applied to what Kant means by an Ideal. Firestone then suggests that when Kant distinguishes between the idea of humanity and our Ideal of humanity, he is presenting a ‘divine–human synthesis’, that is, Christ (p. 30). But the Critique of Pure Reason does not suggest anything of the sort. First of all, I can just as well illustrate the idea/Ideal distinction by way of my idea of a cat and my Ideal cat, without apotheosizing the latter. Secondly, Kant’s explicit example of the Ideal of humanity is not Christ, but the Stoic wise man (A569/B597). The chapter then turns to a debate that took place in the Scottish Journal of Theology during the 1980s. This debate, Firestone eventually points out, arises from the contributors’ failure to differentiate between book reviews

Christopher Insole, Kant and the Creation of Freedom: A Theological Problem Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 Pp. xiv + 264 ISBN 9780199677603 (hbk) £65.00

Kantian Review, 2015

1 ZeF, 8: 366. I use the following abbreviations for Kant’s works: ZeF = Zum Ewigen Frieden; MdS ... more 1 ZeF, 8: 366. I use the following abbreviations for Kant’s works: ZeF = Zum Ewigen Frieden; MdS = Die Metaphysik der Sitten; RGV = Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft. The numbers refer to volume and page in the Prussian Academy edition. Translations are from Kant (1996, 2001). 2 I am grateful to Yoon Choi, Kate Moran, Pablo Muchnik and Mike Nance for very helpful comments on a draft of this review.

Joachim Aufderheide and Ralf M. Bader (eds), The Highest Good in Aristotle and Kant Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015 Pp. 256 ISBN 9780198714019 (hbk) £45.00

Kantian Review, 2016

Stephen R. Palmquist, Comprehensive Commentary on Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason Malden, MA, Oxford and Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015 Pp. xxix + 604 ISBN 9781118619209 (hbk) $168.40

Kantian Review, 2016

Christopher J. Insole, The Intolerable God: Kant’s Theological Journey Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge UK: Eerdmans, 2016 Pp. 186 ISBN 9780802873057 (pbk) $30.00

Kantian Review

Review of: Christopher J. Insole, The Intolerable God: Kant’s Theological Journey

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DiCenso James J., Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: A Commentary.

Kantian Review, Oct 2013

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Manuscript Referees for the Journal of Ethics, Volume 5: October 2000–OCTOBER 2001

The Journal of Ethics, 2001

The Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Ethics wishes to express collegial gratitude to the followi... more The Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Ethics wishes to express collegial gratitude to the following philosophers who, in addition to various Editorial Board members, have provided incisive referee's reports in service to the journal: ... David Aiken Christopher Boorse Peta Bowden George Brenkert Thomas Brickhouse Charlotte Brown Sarah Buss Thomas Christiano Randolph Clarke GA Cohen David Copp Roger Crisp Randall Curren Lawrence Davis Jane Duran Douglas Ehring Laura Ekstrom Jay L. Garfield Ann Garry Robert B. Gibbs Jeffrey Gordon K. Gyekye Mitchell ...

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Reply to Allen Wood

Link to Critique (June 2015), Symposium on Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: ... more

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Reply to Christopher Insole

by Christopher Insole and Lawrence Pasternack

Link to Critique (June 2015), Symposium on Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: ... more

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Rational Faith and the Pantheism Controversy: Kant's "Orientation" Essay and the Evolution of his Moral Argument

Religious Assent and the Question of Theology: Making Room for Historical Faith

Kant and the Question of Theology

In the 1787 Preface to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant writes that among the goals of his Criti... more In the 1787 Preface to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant writes that among the goals of his Critical Project is to determine the “limits to knowledge” in order to “make room for faith” (Bxxx). Although this comment has long been treated as an empty bromide, recent “affirmative” interpretations of Kant’s philosophy of religion have come to take it more seriously. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the Moral/Pure Rational Faith that dominates Kant’s discussions of the topic and how Historical/Ecclesiastical Faith is employed in his religious writings of the 1790s. The relationship between these modes of faith have central relevance to the “Question of Theology,” for nearly all traditional religious doctrines fall within the latter rather than the former mode of faith.

“Kant's Religion and Perpetual Peace: Radical Evil, Divine Aid and the Antinomy Between Politics and Morals” in Christianity and Global Law: An Introduction, Rafael Domingo and John Witte, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

The Highest Good in Kant’s Philosophy. Ed. by Thomas Höwing. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. 294 p. ISBN 978-3-11-036900-7

Kant’s doctrine of the highest good has long stood as among the most controversial aspects of his... more Kant’s doctrine of the highest good has long stood as among the most controversial aspects of his practical philosophy. To some, it is merely a residual notion from his pre-Critical ethics, an item of “nostalgia” towards ancient and medieval thought,1 or an “albatross” that is incompatible with his mature ethical theory and best ignored.2 To others, it is a crucial component of his mature ethical theory,3 or the foundation of his philosophy of religion.4 Many of Kant’s contemporaries, including Schleiermacher, Fichte, and Reinhold commented on Kant’s treatment of the highest good, and we may trace the modern era of scholarly debate on it to the works of John Silber, Lewis White Beck, and roughly two decades later, to John Rawls, who advanced the so-called “secular” interpretation of the highest good in his lectures on the history of moral philosophy.5 This position was then popularized primarily through Andrews

Kant’s Religion and Perpetual Peace

Christianity and Global Law

The Lawfulness of the Will and Timeless Agency

Kant Studien, 2003

... (e) There is no such thing as causality which is not law governed. (f) Will is law governed.7... more

Kant's Philosophy of Religion

Allen W. Wood, Kant and Religion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, Pp. 270, ISBN 9781108422345 (hbk) $89.99

Kantian Review, 2021

Allen Wood’s powerful new work, Kant and Religion, is informed by more than fifty years of engage... more Allen Wood’s powerful new work, Kant and Religion, is informed by more than fifty years of engagement with the Kantian corpus. In tone, it is often polemical, challenging a multitude of recent works on Kant’s philosophy of religion, as well as critical of whatWood calls the ‘toxic delusions’ (p. xvii) and ‘political exploitation of Christianity’ (p. xix), in both Kant’s time and our own. Wood’s own leanings, as he admits, are secular, and thus we find in his approach to Kant’s philosophy of religion one that promotes atheism or agnosticism, and rejects ‘literal’ explorations of a Kantian philosophical theology in favour of a reading that treats Christian doctrines, as James DiCenso so pithily put it in his  commentary on the Religion, as symbols for our moral ideals in an ‘imaginatively enhanced or pictorial form’ (DiCenso : ). As such,Wood similarly rejects the view that Kant sought to engage with Christianity in such away that some of its doctrines would be found to acco...

The Ethical Community in Kant’s Pure Rational System of Religion: Comments on Rossi’s The Ethical Commonwealth in History

Philosophia

This commentary on Rossi’s The Ethical Commonwealth in History will address three points of inter... more This commentary on Rossi’s The Ethical Commonwealth in History will address three points of interpretation related to Kant’s conception of the ethical community/commonwealth (ethischen gemeinen Wesen). First, I will raise a number of concerns related to Rossi’s use of Kant’s concept of the highest good. Second, I will examine the relevance of the overall project of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason to his discussion of the ethical community, a matter that Rossi does not take up. Third, I will challenge the optimism that Rossi assigns to Perpetual Peace in light of its closing “antinomy between politics and morals.”

The Many Gods Objection to Pascal’s Wager

Philo, 2012

Predication and Modality in Kant’s Critique of the Ontological Argument

Kant Yearbook

There is perhaps no more famous objection to the Ontological Argument (OA) than Kant’s contention... more There is perhaps no more famous objection to the Ontological Argument (OA) than Kant’s contention that existence is not a predicate (E~P). However, this is not his only objection against the Ontological Argument. It is rather part of a more comprehensive attack on the OA, one that contains at least four distinct arguments, only one of which involves (E~P). It is the purpose of this paper to explore Kant’s case for (E~P), consider three contemporary strategies used to reinforce it, assess their merits, and then finally briefly present Kant’s three further arguments.

Lawrence Pasternack

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