The Dynamics of Reason: Essays on the Structure of Kant's Philosophy

This volume constitutes a novel technique for characterizing and coming to an understanding of Kant's transcendental philosophy. It also allows the application of the results to a considerable body of post-Kantian 20th-century philosophy, including the writings of Wittgenstein, Husserl, Heidegger and others. At the core of the book's interpretation lies the contention that Kantian transcendentalism is best understood dynamically. Whereas conventional interpretation has tended to see the various components of Kantian theory, such as the "thing-in-itself", the "transcendental object", and "appearance", as fixed entities whose relation to the world of experience is described by philosophy, this book seeks to show that they are stages in the dynamic "realization" of what is, in fact, the same thing. The author therefore seeks to penetrate and prove a systematic presentation of the deeper layers of Kant's philosophical method, with the reduction-realization process as the key to an understanding of even the darkest sections of Kant's work. In addition the book focuses on the relevance of the structure of scientific theory formation for our understanding of Kant's transcendental structure; the discussion teaching considerable lessons concerning the nature of a "transcendental argument", its variety and varying degrees of strength.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The general strategy of the transcendental approach: transcendental ontology and scientific methodology; reduction-realization - an analysis of Kant's transcendental structure; the dynamical version of Kant's transcendental method; realism and realization in a Kantian light; reductive realism and the problem of affection in Kant; a key to the problem of affection. Part 2 The dimension of theoretical reason: the relation between "understanding" and "reason" in the architectonic of Kant's philosophy; modes of transcendental arguments - Kant's "reason" and the philosophy of science. Part 3 The place of causality in the Kantian system: the Kantian "dynamic of reason" and the place of causality in Kant's system; the conception of lawlikeness in Kant's philosophy of science. Part 4 Kant's system and the philosophy of science; Kant's "special metaphysics" and the metaphysical foundations of natural science. Part 5 The ethical and religious dimensions of Kant's philosophy: science and God - the topology of the Kantian world; morality, God and religion in the philosophy of Kant.