International Workshop
Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics: Aprioristic and Non-Aprioristic?
University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval,
Building: MSA, Room 3.120
Nov 26 - Nov 27, 2018
This workshop is organised by Kristina Engelhard (TU Dortmund) and Dietmar Heidemann (University of Luxembourg). It is co-funded and co-organised by the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Luxembourg and the DFG-funded research group "Inductive Metaphysics" (FOR 2495).
Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics: Aprioristic and Non-Aprioristic?
University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval,
Building: MSA, Room 3.120
Nov 26 - Nov 27, 2018
This workshop is organised by Kristina Engelhard (TU Dortmund) and Dietmar Heidemann (University of Luxembourg). It is co-funded and co-organised by the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Luxembourg and the DFG-funded research group "Inductive Metaphysics" (FOR 2495).
Description
According to widespread understanding of Kant’s critical doctrine, in metaphysics knowledge or cognition respectively is acquired independently of experience. There are in fact passages in Kant’s work that explicitly say that this even is an analytic feature of metaphysics in general. The critique of metaphysics in the Critique or Pure Reason aims at this specific concept. On the contrary – and probably because of Kant’s ground-breaking critique of metaphysics and follow up positivistic challenges –, according to many contemporary metaphysicians, this discipline should be pursued on empirical grounds, i.e. it should make use of experiential data and of inductive methods that are successfully used in the empirical sciences, like abductive inference or inference to the best explanation.
The aim of this workshop is to elaborate a more differentiated picture of Kant’s account of metaphysics. We are interested in questions like the following: What are Kant’s pre-critical and critical concepts of metaphysics? How do they relate to traditional metaphysics? Which methodology does Kant ascribe to metaphysics? Which sources of knowledge can metaphysics make use of according to Kant? What concepts of metaphysics can be extracted from Kant’s own metaphysics in practice, i.e., what sources of knowledge and what methods does he use in his works? Are there non-aprioristic elements in Kant’s pre-critical and/or critical writings on metaphysics? Are there relevant differences between metaphysics in Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy?
According to widespread understanding of Kant’s critical doctrine, in metaphysics knowledge or cognition respectively is acquired independently of experience. There are in fact passages in Kant’s work that explicitly say that this even is an analytic feature of metaphysics in general. The critique of metaphysics in the Critique or Pure Reason aims at this specific concept. On the contrary – and probably because of Kant’s ground-breaking critique of metaphysics and follow up positivistic challenges –, according to many contemporary metaphysicians, this discipline should be pursued on empirical grounds, i.e. it should make use of experiential data and of inductive methods that are successfully used in the empirical sciences, like abductive inference or inference to the best explanation.
The aim of this workshop is to elaborate a more differentiated picture of Kant’s account of metaphysics. We are interested in questions like the following: What are Kant’s pre-critical and critical concepts of metaphysics? How do they relate to traditional metaphysics? Which methodology does Kant ascribe to metaphysics? Which sources of knowledge can metaphysics make use of according to Kant? What concepts of metaphysics can be extracted from Kant’s own metaphysics in practice, i.e., what sources of knowledge and what methods does he use in his works? Are there non-aprioristic elements in Kant’s pre-critical and/or critical writings on metaphysics? Are there relevant differences between metaphysics in Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy?
Speakers
- Sabrina Bauer (Heidelberg)
- John Callanan (London)
- Andrew Chignell (Princeton)
- Kristina Engelhard (Dortmund)
- Brigitte Falkenburg (Dortmund)
- Anton Friedrich Koch (Heidelberg)
- Bernd Ludwig (Göttingen)
- Ansgar Seide (Münster)
- Marcus Willaschek (Frankfurt/M.)
Program
Monday, Nov 26
13:00 - 13:30
13:30 - 14:30 14:30 - 15:00 15:00 - 16:00 16:00 - 16:30 16:30 - 17:30 17:30 - 18:30 |
Welcome
Brigitte Falkenburg: "Kant's Pre-Critical Metaphysics and the Analogy to Newtonian Science" coffee break Bernd Ludwig: "Drei Arten der Analysis – und die Struktur der Kritischen Philosophie (1781-85)" coffee break Kristina Engelhard: "Non-aprioristic elements in Kant’s critical practice of metaphysics?" Marcus Willaschek: "Kant on the A priori Sources of Metaphysics" |
Tuesday, Nov 27
10:00 - 11:00
11:00 - 11:30 11:30 - 12:30 12:30 - 14:00 14:00 - 15:00 15:00 - 15:30 15:30 - 16:30 16:30 - 17:30 |
John Callanan: "The Boundary of Pure Reason"
coffee break Ansgar Seide: "The Relation Between Empirical and A priori Elements in Kant's Special Metaphysics of Nature" lunch Andrew Chignell: "Kant's Liberal Method in Metaphysics" coffee break Anton Friedrich Koch: "Das transzendental Notwendige ist metaphysisch unmöglich" Sabrina Bauer: "Metaphysica scientia prima cognitionis humanae principia continens est? – Kants Kritik des 'Schulbegriffs' der Metaphysik" |
Registration
Everybody is welcome, but please send a short email to Katalin Turai ([email protected]) to let us know you are coming.
Everybody is welcome, but please send a short email to Katalin Turai ([email protected]) to let us know you are coming.