Kant
Dr Meade McCloughan
Module description
Kant’s philosophy is guided by four questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope? What is the human being? This module looks at Kant’s answers to these questions, taking in his metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of history and political philosophy.
Aims
The aims of this course are to:
- introduce students to the key ideas and texts of Immanuel Kant;
- encourage students both to appreciate and to think critically about Kant’s ideas;
- enable students to engage with the breadth and systematicity of Kant’s philosophy;
- encourage students to engage in close critical reading of historical philosophical texts;
- provide students with a basis for understanding subsequent developments in European philosophy.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students should:
have become familiar with the main elements of Kant’s thought;
have developed informed and considered views as to the strengths and weaknesses of Kant’s philosophical positions;
have developed skills in reading and evaluating historical philosophical texts;
have completed and been assessed on their course work.
Teaching Methods
The teaching methods used will include lectures, class discussion, and occasional small group work. A studypack, available electronically, will contain the main passages from Kant’s writings to be discussed in the classes as well as recommendations for further reading. Materials will also be available via ‘Blackboard’.
Week-by-week breakdown
- Kant’s ‘Copernican revolution’ (Critique of Pure Reason I)
- Space, time and transcendental idealism. (Critique of Pure Reason II)
- Concepts and the understanding; phenomena and noumena. (Critique of Pure Reason III)
- The critique of metaphysics; transcendental idealism. (Critique of Pure Reason IV)
- Morality (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)
- Freedom (Critique of Practical Reason)
- Religion (Religion within the Boundaries of Pure Reason)
- Aesthetics (Critique of Judgment)
- Progress (‘Idea for a Universal History’)
- Politics (Perpetual Peace)
- Kant and the right to lie
Bibliography
- Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant) trans. Guyer and Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
- Kant, Immanuel, Practical Philosophy (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), ed. Gregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
- Kant, Immanuel, Critique of the Power of Judgment (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant) trans. Guyer and Matthews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
- Scruton, Roger, Kant: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
- Gardner, Sebastian, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason (London: Routledge, 1999).
- Buroker, Jill Vance, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- Guyer, Paul, Kant (London: Routledge, 2006).
- Guyer, Paul (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Kant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
- Guyer, Paul (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
A fuller bibliography, with recommendations relating to particular topics, will be included in the study pack for this course.
Coursework Titles for the Session 2009-2010
Write an essay of 1,500-2000 words in answer to ONE of the following:
- Is ‘Copernican Revolution’ a good description of Kant’s philosophical project?
- ‘Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.’ Discuss.
- How should Kant's doctrine of transcendental idealism be understood?
- Can Kant consistently hold that things in themselves are wholly unknowable, and that we can know them to be non-spatial and non-temporal?
- ‘The Categorical Imperative doesn’t give me any real idea of what I ought morally to do, and so is of no use as a guide.’ Discuss.
- Critically discuss Kant’s account of human freedom.
- Does Kant think that God exists?
- Explain and assess Kant’s claim that a judgement of something’s beauty is made ‘without concepts’.
- According to Kant, what connections are there between the aesthetic and the moral?
- Why does Kant think that humanity progresses through history? What does such progress consist in?
- Why does Kant think it is wrong to lie?
The short exercises will consist of short extracts from Kant’s texts with questions, to be completed between meetings, taking no more than 15-20 minutes. These will handed out in Weeks 4, 6 and 8, to be handed in by students the following week and then returned to students the week after that.