Includes a chapter on visual perception.

When I began working on my dissertation on Kant’s aesthetic theory in 1971, I was able to read virtually all of the extant literature on the Critique of Judgment in English, German, andFrench going back to Hermann Cohen’s Kants Begr¨undung der A¨ sthetik of 1889, while also reading most of what I wanted to read of eighteenth-century British and German aesthetics before Kant—not because I had paid my dues to Evelyn Wood, but just because there was not all that much (...) to read.1 I pity the graduate student who sets out to write a dissertation on the third Critique now: since Donald Crawford, Francis Coleman, Jens Kulenkampff, Eva Schaper, and I published books on Kant’s aesthetics between 1974 and 1979 there has been a continuing flood of articles (this journal receives more submissions on Kant’s aesthetics annually than on any other historical topic) and books, a flood that has only accelerated since 2000. Confining myself only to monographs and anthologies on Kant’s aesthetics or the third Critique as a whole (but not those devoted exclusively to teleology) in English, German, and French on my shelves, and no doubt missing some, at least in German and French, I find twenty-eight monographs and anthologies published in the period between 1980 and 1999 and another twenty-seven just since 2000. (Indeed, two more have arrived on my desk since this article was written.)3 Someone setting out to work on the third Critique now has at least as many books from the last decade alone to read as I had in 1971 from the eight preceding decades. The present review will make only a small dent in this pile: I will discuss just five monographs and one introduction to the third Critique, all published in English in 2006 and 2007. (shrink)

Epistemic Analysis, as I conceive of it, is concerned with the analysis of knowledge. The precincts of my concern have, however, been determined by the ...

Quite remarkably, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling uses the notion of “drive” in analysing important cognitive achievements: An important instance of this attitude can be found in his characterizing Kant as a philosopher who operates in the basis of instincts. His key argument in adopting “drives” as key to the cognitive faculties of humans derives from the conviction that cognitive endeavours need to be open and directed towards grasping reality not in individual items, but as a totality. He arrives, in employing (...) these terms, at an understanding of science, and of cognition in general, as an open, future-directed, and dynamic process. This chapter presents an overview of Schelling’s usage of “drive”-related terms, discusses his rather detailed description of the mechanics of drives within the structure of human faculties, and draws some conclusions as to Schelling’s understanding of “science” and the dynamics of science. (shrink)

Science and the History of the Sciences. Conceptual Innovations Through Historicizing Science in the Eighteenth Century. The historical reconstruction of science is linked to philosophical discussions of the eighteenth century in many ways. The historiography of philosophy and the historiography of science share the conceptual problem to assemble the multitude of scientific and philosophical practices under general concepts. The historical analysis of scientific progress offers a clue by problematizing definitions of “science” and “sciences” as well as the system of sciences (...) as a whole. By analyzing these conceptual problems and the typology of historical enterprises of the eighteenth century, this paper will discuss the close interrelations which existed between philosophical and historical discourses of eighteenth‐century reflection on science. (shrink)

Ernst Haeckel, vor 100 Jahren am 9. August 1919 in Jena verstorben und im Garten seines Hauses beigesetzt, hat als Wissenschaftler und Person so polarisierend gewirkt wie kaum eine andere Figur des ausgehenden 19. und des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Es ist unmöglich, sich der Figur Haeckel zu bemächtigen, ohne sofort inkompatibel auftretende Beschreibungen zu gebrauchen: In seiner zoologischen Forschung war er mit größter Hingabe mit der mikroskopischen Erforschung kleinster Meereslebewesen befasst. Dies betraf insbesondere einzellige Radiolarien, von denen er hunderte neuer (...) Arten erstmals beschrieb und klassifizierte. (shrink)

„Weltanschauung“ ist ein Schlüsselbegriff philosophischer Diskurse der Zeit um 1900, der weit über den Bereich der Philosophie hinausreicht und beansprucht, umfassende kulturelle Phänomene beschreiben und analysieren zu können. Simmel verwendet insbesondere den eng verwandten Begriff der „Lebensanschauung“, und behandelt unter diesem Begriff immer wieder die für ihn zentralen Bezugsfiguren Kant und Goethe. Simmels eigene Perspektive auf diese Begriffe wird deutlich, wenn er die Einheitsfunktion einer Welt- bzw. Lebensanschauung verbindet mit einer spannungsvollen Komplexität der hiermit bezeichneten kulturell-philosophischen Produkte und Haltungen. Insbesondere (...) bieten ihm diese Begriffe die Möglichkeit, ein nicht-hierarchisierendes Nebeneinanderstehen unterschiedlicher Positionen und Bedeutungselemente methodologisch zu unterbauen und hiermit seinen Wahrheitsbegriff, angesichts relativistischer Herausforderungen, präziser zu fassen. (shrink)

Paul Weiss systematically maps creativity in its many manifestations—creative ventures in the arts, in mathematics and the sciences, in moral development, in social movements, and in government.

Book jacket/back: 'Being and Other Realities, ' by our greatest living metaphysician, pushes Paul Weiss's philosophy to new subtlety. It moves on two fronts. On one, it further refines the categorial scheme Weiss has been developing over 50 years. On the other, it is a shining example of radical questioning and exploration. This is an important book, especially for philosophers like myself, who believe being is not another reality. --Robert C. Neville, Boston University, Author of Normative Cultures and The (...) Truth of Broken Symbols. (shrink)

:The “new institutionalist revolution” in social sciences has led to a repositioning of social norms to the forefront of the pre-analytic vision in institutional theory and to the consolidation of the contextual analysis approach. That has significant epistemological, methodological, and political philosophy implications. This essay follows the logic of these developments showing: why they inherently lead to the feasibility problem, the key of applied theory, toward which both contemporary philosophy and institutional analysis converge from different venues; how feasibility is a (...) nexus of empirical, counterfactual, normative, and contextual elements, that is, something more complex than a mere matching between empirical reality and institutional design; what are the governance implications of all of the above, with an emphasis on an alternative approach and in which the public choice process is seen mainly as endogenized, socialized, and institutionalized, as opposed to formalized, intellectualized, and externalized. (shrink)

This article is a revised version of a lecture delivered at the Colloque ‘Histoire des Mentalités, Histoire des résistances, ou les Prisons de longue durée, Aix-La Baume, 20–21–22 septembre 1980.

L'auteur veut montrer que la création ou créativité (poiêsis) fait partie de l'essence même du sujet : lequel peut se définir tout entier comme un générateur de création, un être créateur (zôon poiêtikon) qui, de par ses attributs ontologiques mêmes, recrée le monde avec lequel il est en contact et le peuple de ses propres productions. Mais, dans le même temps, il manifeste une tendance constante à s'oublier lui-même derrière ses créations et à doter celles-ci d'une réalité objective, hypostasiée : (...) d'où l'évocation métaphorique proposée du myosotis, cette fleur qu'on appelle couramment « ne m'oubliez pas ». The author wants to show that creation or creativeness (poiêsis) is part of the very intrinsic nature of the subject: which can be wholly defined as a generator of creation, a creative being (zôon poiêtikon) who by his very ontological attributes recreates the world he is in contact with, and fills it with his own productions. But, in the same time, he manifests a constant tendency to forget himself behind his creations and endow them with a substantial objective reality: hence the metaphorical evocation suggested by the myosotis, this flower commonly called « forget me not ». (shrink)

Descartes a occupé le centre de la scène intellectuelle en Angleterre bien que son influence ait été due à des circonstances accidentelles et à de vigoureuses critiques plutôt qu’à des disciples consciencieux. Son rationalisme offrait la certitude en religion et une interprétation de la science. Mélangé à l’expéri- mentalisme anglais, il a créé une ambiguïté dans la méthode scientifique et il a conduit à des controverses sur la nature de la connaissance. Son mécanisme a inspiré une étude critique et il (...) a influencé les théories anglaises de l’espace et du temps. Quand sa science a été employée à la défense de la religion, elle a signifié le développement d’interprétations nouvelles sur Dieu, et elle a conduit aux controverses du déisme. (shrink)

For half a century, Ernest Fortin's scholarship has charmed and educated theologians and philosophers with its intellectual search for the best way to live. Written by friends, colleagues, and students of Fortin, this book pays tribute to a remarkable thinker in a series of essays that bear eloquent testimony to Fortin's influence and his legacy. A formidable commentator on Catholic philosophical and political thought, Ernest Fortin inspired others with his restless inquiries beyond the boundaries of conventional scholarship. With essays on (...) subjects ranging across philosophy, political science, literature, and theology Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach reflects the astonishing depth and breadth of Fortin's contribution to contemporary thought. (shrink)