state university of new york press kant on causation on the fivefold routes to the principle of causation dec 2003

[...]... of the often confusing way Kant expresses his task in the opening four paragraphs of the Schematism Chapter 1 Of course it should also be clear that the Second Analogy cannot stand alone as Kant s resolution of his general disagreement with Hume The scope of Kant s criticisms of Hume go way beyond Hume’s views on causation Of course Kant s criticisms of Hume’s position on the status of the causal principle. .. this new treatment of concepts: the problem of the Relationships 11 application of concepts to intuitions I use the word sketches here partly to highlight the limited success of the Schematism Chapter with regard to this second task We cannot regard Kant s solution to the problem of the application of concepts to intuitions as being truly successful, because Kant does not provide us with all of the. .. the completion of his theory of causation. 5 We do, however, need to begin with this first part, so it is time to turn our attention to the Second Analogy The Second Analogy contains Kant s attempt to prove the principle of causation It should not be surprising that there is disagreement concerning 5 For more on this point see the section “Principles of Understanding and Principles of Reason” in chapter... clarification So the nature of Kant s causal principle, the nature of his proof for this principle, and the status of his intended proof are three of the main topics I examine in this book When we think about the nature of Kant s causal principle in the Second Analogy, there are two main things to be clear about The first is that the Second Analogy is not a self-contained section of the Critique of Pure Reason... well as the second half of chapter 5 xiv INTRODUCTION the success of Kant s attempted proof—that is, whether or not it truly amounts to a successful proof of the causal principle After all, evaluations of Kant s proof have run the gamut from its being considered the crown jewel of his critical philosophy to its being considered “one of the most spectacular examples of the non-sequitur which are to be... see the subsection “A Problem with Kant s Account of the Schematism” below p 10ff 10 KANT ON CAUSATION theory of concepts, this criticism is easily deflected For regardless of what we think about the legitimacy of Kant s distinction between categories and principles, given Kant s theory of concepts, the Schematism is needed in order to make the application of concepts to intuitions possible A second... Analogy’s context within the Critique of Pure Reason, will be one of the main subjects of chapter 1 The second thing we need to be clear about with regard to the nature of the causal principle concerns a distinction Kant develops in the “Appendix to the transcendental dialectic” in the first Critique and in the Critique of Judgment This is the distinction Kant draws between constitutive principles of understanding... and the transcendental proofs for the Principles of Understanding? One straightforward way to think of the difference between them is the level of abstraction The principles are the concrete and the categories are the abstract As Kant puts it just before he introduces the table of principles, The table of categories gives us the entirely natural instructions for the table of principles, because these... if the explanation of the motions of comets were not the same as the explanation of the motions of planets or more generally the explanation of the motions of one type of celestial object were different than the explanation of any other type of celestial object If these principles are not constitutive, then what do they do? Kant tells us that these as synthetic a priori principles have objective but... course, Kant writes about causation in works other than the Critique of Pure Reason as well This is significant, because it is important not to regard the Second Analogy as the be-all and end-all with regard to Kant s views on causation Although in this book I will focus mainly on the Second Analogy, the completion of Kant s theory of causation will require us on a number of occasions to investigate important . Kant on Causation SUNY series in Philosophy George R. Lucas Jr., editor Kant on Causation On the Fivefold Routes to the Principle of Causation Steven M. Bayne State University of New York Press Published. Guide(s) to the Discovery of the Route to the Principle of Causation 153 The house, the ship, and irreversibility 154 viiContents The nature of the principle of the Second Analogy 157 Synthetic. regard to Kant s views on causation. Although in this book I will focus mainly on the Second Analogy, the comple- tion of Kant s theory of causation will require us on a number of occasions to investigate