Kantian Humility : Our Ignorance of Things in Themselves

ISBN-13: 9780198236535 / Angielski / Twarda / 1998 / 248 str.

Rae Langton

Opis

Rae Langton offers a new interpretation and defense of Kant's doctrine of things in themselves. Kant distinguishes things in themselves from phenomena, and in so doing he makes a metaphysical distinction between intrinsic and relational properties of substances. Langton argues that his claim that we have no knowledge of things in themselves is not idealism, but epistemic humility: we have no knowledge of the intrinsic properties of substances. This interpretation vindicates Kant's scientific realism, and shows his primary/secondary quality distinction to be superior even to modern-day competitors. And it answers the famous charge that Kant's tale of things in themselves is one that makes itself untellable.

Recenzje

Clever and highly readable book ... the mastery that Langton displays is impressive ... presents a powerful case for thinking of Kant as disposed to deny us access to things in themselves by a pre-critical vision of the world of substances, whose inner nature is concealed because we are condemned to encounter them only through their interactions with us. Langton's book is a significant contribution to the recent literature on Kant's idealism, and will be widely discussed — and doubtless widely disagreed with as well.

O autorze

Rae Langton is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh