This week we’ll discuss Kant’s categorialism. Our focus will primarily be on the his derivation of the categories, and the role they play in his metaphysics.
Readings
- Kant: Excerpt from the Inaugural Dissertation
- Section 2, pp. 384-90
- Optional: Section 3
- Kant: Excerpt from the Critique of Pure Reason
- Transcendental Logic & Analytic (the Clue), B74-116 (Guyer & Wood, 201-18)
- Analytic ch. 2, §13 & Transition, B116-29 (Guyer & Wood, 219-26)
- Notes: Metaphysics, Categories, and the Scope of Comprehension (PDF)
- For grads:
- Longuenesse, “Kant on A Priori Concepts”
- Allison, “The Intellectual Conditions of Human Cognition”
Questions
- What are the “forms of judgment”?
- What are the “categories”?
- How many forms of judgment and categories are there?
- Why does Kant think that the forms of judgment provide a “clue” to the categories?
- How does Kant derive the categories?
- What is “synthesis”?
- What is the relation between the categories and comprehension by reason?