3. Self-Consciousness: The Practical Foundation of Theoretical Reason

2012 ◽  
pp. 54-74
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Reason

Kant on Judging and the Will

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Vance Buroker
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Critical Philosophy ◽  
Voluntary Activity ◽  
The Will ◽  
Direct Use

Kant’s Critical philosophy depends on the distinction between theoretical and practical reason, which he borrowed from Aristotle. But unlike Aristotle Kant claims that theoretical reason is subordinate to practical reason. This raises the possibility that theoretical judging could be a voluntary activity. This chapter investigates Kant’s view of the relation between theoretical judgments and the will. Based on Andrew Chignell’s recent work, it is argued that Kant recognizes the legitimate direct use of the will only in judgments he labels Belief (Glaube). With respect to Knowledge, his position is identical to Descartes’s position on clear and distinct perception. An analysis of Kant’s voluntarism regarding the activities of theoretical reason provides a model for subordinating theoretical reason to practical reason.

Comments on Maddieson's ‘Revision of the IPA: Linguo-labials as a test case’

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Level I ◽  
Letter Shape

The IPA alphabet is, first and foremost, a device for use in the making of impressionistic records of spoken language events. There is no alternative device in widespread use. It is neither full nor systematic as a device for this purpose, but can be used remarkably effectively if supplemented with ad hoc extensions and adaptations. Such adaptations need to be explicit if used in published material, but they need not be standard. They do need, though, to be sensible. Although the IPA letter-shapes are not systematic, the articulatory classification that underlies them is. Within this classification it would be perverse to relate a ‘linguo-labial’ to, say, the category ‘velar’, and so a representation based on the letter-shape ‘k’ would be undesirable. Given these limits, though, I can see no theoretical reason why ‘linguo-labials’ should not be written in a number of ways. [P‥] etc. is one way. It is not a particularily good one, in my view, as [‥] is a diacritic that distinguishes a PASSIVE articulator, and this passive articulator is nowhere involved in ‘linguo-labials’. But I would happily accept [P‥]. It would be desirable for a degree of uniformity to apply in PUBLISHED material, but this is a matter more for editors and for publishers than for front-line linguists. At the PHONETIC level, I can't see that it matters whether we use [P‥] or, say, [‡] in published material: and other suggestions will no doubt be forthcoming, PRACTICAL considerations are paramount here, some solutions being easier to print, type and read than others.

Geometry and Kinematics of Cylindrical Waterbomb Tessellation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rinki Imada ◽  
Tomohiro Tachi
Keyword(s):  
Dynamical System ◽  
Recurrence Relation ◽  
Discrete Dynamical System ◽  
Kinematic Model ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Finite Solution ◽  
Geometry And Kinematics ◽  
Folded Surfaces

Abstract Folded surfaces of origami tessellations have attracted much attention because they sometimes exhibit non-trivial behaviors. It is known that cylindrical folded surfaces of waterbomb tessellation called waterbomb tube can transform into wave-like surfaces, which is a unique phenomenon not observed on other tessellations. However, the theoretical reason why wave-like surfaces arise has been unclear. In this paper, we provide a kinematic model of waterbomb tube by parameterizing the geometry of a module of waterbomb tessellation and derive a recurrence relation between the modules. Through the visualization of the configurations of waterbomb tubes under the proposed kinematic model, we classify solutions into three classes: cylinder solution, wave-like solution, and finite solution. Furthermore, we give proof of the existence of a wave-like solution around one of the cylinder solutions by applying the knowledge of the discrete dynamical system to the recurrence relation.

Johnson, Samuel (1709–84)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Porter
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Academic Philosopher

Famous as a man of letters and lexicographer, Johnson was no formal academic philosopher – indeed he was suspicious of abstractions. His works perfectly embody the darker side of the eighteenth-century mind, with its distrust of theoretical reason and system-mongering, and a profound sensitivity to the imperfections of a human existence in which there was more to be endured than to be enjoyed.

scholarly journals Homoseksualiteit: Die kerk, die tradisie en die Bybel – homofobie en sarkofobie en die evangelie

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dialectical Perspective ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Tradition

Homosexuality: Church, tradition, and the Bible – homophobia, sarcophobia, and the gospelThe article demonstrates a trend in the current debate on the church’s attitude towards homosexuality, namely that exegetical results supersede authentic faith experiences of gays. It shows that this trend causes an untenable tension between the dialectical notions sola fidei and sola Scriptura. Such an unacceptable tension contributes to the social psychological phenomena of homophobia and sarcophobia. The article investigates this empirical approach (theoretical reason) to homo-sexuality from the dialectical perspective of a theological approach (practical reason). The latter includes an investigation of the epistemological processes behind exegetes’ diverse use of Scripture. The article aims to show that homophobia in society and church, and the sarcophobia of homosexuals can be challenged and healed if the church holds on to the dialectic between sola fidei and sola Scriptura and the dialectic between pastoral concerns and the engagement with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

scholarly journals Three interpretations of the Anthropocene

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 133-153
Author(s):  
Darrel Moellendorf
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Short Introduction

After a short introduction into the recent discourse on the Anthropocene, I will discuss three different interpretations of the Anthropocene: the Anthropocene as promethean, as destruction and as inegalitarian. These interpretations cannot simply be settled by the facts since they concern the direction in which things might develop. Therefore, I will argue, they are not mere predictions based on theoretical reason. Because of the very fact that they are bound up with fundamental human interests and human moral concerns, they involve prospection based on practical reason and prospection is itself deeply associated with hope. The final part of my paper aims to show that we are justified to hold hope in the epoch of the Anthropocene.

scholarly journals The Power and Limits of Reason: Al-Razı on the Possibility of General and Particular Metaphysical Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-155
Author(s):  
Eşref Altaş ◽  
Ayaz Asadov
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
The World ◽  
Uncertain Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Reasoning ◽  
Theoretical Evidence

This article examines al-Rāzī’s views on the possibility of metaphysical knowledge. Firstly, after outlining his classification of the metaphysical knowable into essence and existence as well as undetailed (ijmālī) and detailed (tafṣīlī), the article analyzes al-Rāzī’s acceptance of the possibility of general knowledge of metaphysics under a few headings by delving into some major themes. These include the claims that the category of existence is broader than the world of the sensible, that theoretical reasoning leads to metaphysical knowledge, and lastly that the theoretical evidence provides necessary knowledge about the existence of a creator. Al-Rāzī has also been demonstrated in al-Matālib to have inherited the arguments rejecting metaphysical knowledge, which he had attributed in his earlier works to a group with the name muhandisiyyūn, by restricting them to the issue of God’s essence being knowable. For al-Rāzī, theoretical reasoning could provide knowledge about the existence of a particular metaphysical being but not about its quiddity. The article further underlines the metaphysical and epistemic theses for the position on the unknowability of God’s essence and discusses its semantic interpretation. The debate on the potential of theoretical reason to provide uncertain knowledge of detailed metaphysics in the form of the best possible explanations (the metaphysics of the best explanation, or al-awlawiyya), however, is left to another article.

On the So-Called Common Books of the Eudemian and the Nicomachean Ethics

Phronesis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-116
Author(s):  
Dorothea Frede
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
The Common ◽  
Eudemian Ethics ◽  
Aristotle's Ethics

AbstractIn recent decades the view that the disputed central books of Aristotle’s ethics are an integral part of the Eudemian rather than of the Nicomachean Ethics has gained ground for both historical and systematic reasons. This article contests that view, arguing not only that the Nicomachean Ethics represented Aristotle’s central text throughout antiquity, but that the discussion in the common books of such crucial concepts as justice, practical and theoretical reason, self-control and lack of self-control, are more compatible with the undisputed books of the Nicomachean Ethics than with those of the Eudemian Ethics.

Practical reason and ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onora O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Ethical Judgment ◽  
Direct Methods ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Theoretical Reason ◽  
Plausible Account ◽  
Instrumental Reasoning ◽  
Working Out

Practical reason is reasoning which is used to guide action, and is contrasted with theoretical reason, which is used to guide thinking. Sometimes ‘practical reason’ refers to any way of working out what to do; more usually it refers to proper or authoritative, hence reasoned, ways of working out what to do. On many accounts practical reasoning is solely instrumental: it identifies ways of reaching certain results or ends, but has nothing to say about which ends should be pursued or which types of action are good or bad, obligatory or forbidden. Instrumental reasoning is important not only for ethics and politics, but for all activities, for example, in working out how to travel to a given destination. Other accounts of practical reason insist that it is more than instrumental reasoning: it is concerned not only with working out how to achieve given ends, but with identifying the ethically important ends of human activity, or the ethically important norms or principles for human lives, and provides the basis for all ethical judgment. No account of objective ethical values can be established without showing how we can come to know them, that is, without showing that some form of ethical cognitivism is true. However, ethical cognitivism is not easy to establish. Either we must show that some sort of intuition or perception provides direct access to a realm of values; or we must show that practical reasoning provides less direct methods by which objective ethical claims can be established. So anybody who thinks that there are directly objective values, but doubts whether we can intuit them directly, must view a plausible account of practical reason as fundamental to philosophical ethics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document