•  27
    Kant's Critical philosophy is notorious for its terminological ambiguity and apparent inconsistency. The interpretive confusion that often results is at least a contributing factor to the conclusion of many commentators, such as Strawson, that large chunks of Kant's System (e.g., his 'transcendental idealism') are 'unintelligible' and 'incoherent'. [1] Yet I believe, with Kant [Kt1: Axxi], that if his works are approached with 'the patience and impartiality of a judge' (and perhaps even with 'th…Read more
  •  15
    Kant, Buddhism and the Moral Metaphysics Medicine
    with Antonio Palomo-Lamarca
    Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religion 7 79-97. 2002.
    This paper examines Kant's moral theory and compares it with certain key aspects of oriental (especially Buddhist) moral philosophy. In both cases, we focus on the suggestion that there may be a connection between a person's physical health and moral state. Special attention is paid to the nature of pain, illness, and personal happiness and to their mutual interrelationships.
  •  11
    Toward a Christian Philosophy of Work
    Philosophia Christi 11 (2): 397-419. 2009.
    Hannah Arendt distinguishes between labor (life-sustaining activity), work (creative activity), and action (activity directed toward maintaining human relationships). This paper extends Arendt’s framework to three corresponding forms of inactivity: incorporating leisure, play, and rest into a balanced, sixfold framework provides a robust, philosophical theology of work as divine-human cooperation. The philosopher’s life of leisure suggests a synthesis of Adam Smith’s and Karl Marx’s contrasting …Read more
  •  304
    Philosophers’ Views on the Use of Non-Essay Assessment Methods
    Teaching Philosophy 21 (4): 373-391. 1998.
    This paper presents and discusses the results of an email survey which asked participants to share their views on the efficacy of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, or matching questions as evaluation methods in philosophy courses. First, the structure of the survey and its contents are explained. Next, responses are broken down along the lines of student responses and teacher responses. In both cases, there was significant disagreement among respondents, though there were notable patterns emer…Read more
  •  441
    The surprising comment Wittgenstein makes at the end of his Tractatus suggests that, even though the analysis of words is the proper method of doing philosophy, philosophy’s ultimate aim may be to experience silence. Whereas Wittgenstein never explains what he meant by his cryptic conclusion, Kant provides numerous clues as to how the same position can be understood in a more complete and systematic way. Distinguishing between the meanings of “silence,” “noise” and “sound” provides a helpful way…Read more
  •  11
    What does it mean to have a "Christian Higher Education"? Does it mean "getting a degree from a college which calls itself 'Christian'"? I think not. For many gradu­ates of so called "Christian colleges" come away with an education which, in many re­spects, is less authentically Christian than the education they would get at some secular institutions!
  •  668
    Kant’s Moral Panentheism
    Philosophia 36 (1): 17-28. 2008.
    Although Kant is often interpreted as an Enlightenment Deist, Kant scholars are increasingly recognizing aspects of his philosophy that are more amenable to theism. If Kant regarded himself as a theist, what kind of theist was he? The theological approach that best fits Kant’s model of God is panentheism, whereby God is viewed as a living being pervading the entire natural world, present ‘in’ every part of nature, yet going beyond the physical world. The purpose of Kant’s restrictions on our kno…Read more
  •  53
    Kant’s Religion postulates the idea of an ethical community as a necessary requirement for humanity to become good. Few interpreters acknowledge Kant’s claims that realizing this idea requires building a “church” characterized by unity, integrity, freedom, and unchangeability, and that this new form of community is a non-coercive version of theocracy. Traditional theocracy replaces the political state of nature with an ethical state of nature ; non-coercive theocracy transcends this distinction,…Read more
  •  72
    Parapsychology, Philosophy and the Mind: A Festschrift in Honour of John Beloff’s 80th Birthday, ed. Fiona Steinkamp (McFarland Press, 2002).
  •  518
    Kant's cosmogony re-evaluated
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 18 (3): 255-269. 1987.
    This article is primarily a reply to criticisms leveled against Kant by Stanley Jaki in the Introduction to his translation of Kant's Allgemeine Naturgeschichte.
  •  677
    This essay is a systematic exposition and partial defense of Kant's philosophy of prayer. "Does Kant even HAVE a philosophy of prayer?" you may ask.
  •  31
    A purely rational belief is ... the signpost or compass by which the specu­la­tive thinker can orient himself in his rational excursions in the field of super­sensuous objects. But to the man of ordinary but (morally) sound reason, it can show the way for both the theore­ti­cal and the practical standpoint, in a manner entirely suitable to the end to which he is destined. This rational belief must also be made the basis of every other be­lief—indeed of every revela­tion. [Kt20:142]
  •  43
    "This paper examines Kant's moral theory and compares it with certain key aspects of oriental (especially Buddhist) moral philosophy. In both cases, we focus on the suggestion that there may be a connection between a person's physical health and moral state. Special attention is paid to the nature of pain, illness, and personal happiness and to their mutual interrelationships. A frequently ignored feature of Kant's approach to morality is his preoccupation with health, and his attempt to interp…Read more
  •  52
    Immediate (non-Reflective) experience must be distinguished from mediate experience (empirical knowledge). Kant's epistemology is based on the "a priori"--"a posteriori" and analytic-Synthetic distinctions. Four classes of knowledge arise out of combining these two distinctions; each corresponds to a 'reflective perspective'--A way of reflecting upon immediate experience. Reflection based on transcendental, Logical, Empirical or practical perspectives gives rise, Respectively, To knowledge which…Read more
  •  112
    The following Glossary lists Kant's most important technical terms, toÂgether with a simple definition of each. (The terms 'judicial', 'perspective' and 'standpoint' are the only ones Kant himself does not use as technical terms.) It was originally written as a study aide to help make the intricate web of Kant's termiÂnology comprehensible to students who had little or no faÂmilÂiarÂiÂty with Kant's writings. Where relevant, the opposite term is given in curved brackets at the end of the definit…Read more
  •  14
    I am as it were mentally paralyzed even though physically I am reasonably well. I see before me the unpaid bill of my uncompleted philosophy, even while I am aware that philosophy, both as regards its means and its ends, is capable of completion. It is a pain like that of Tantalus though not a hopeless pain. The project on which I am now working concerns the "Transition from the metaphysical foundations of natural science to physics." It must be completed, or else a gap will remain in the critic…Read more
  •  9
    Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?" .... And he answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" [Matthew 15:1 3]
  •  36
    Immanuel Kant: A Christian Philosopher?
    Faith and Philosophy 6 (1): 65-75. 1989.
    I begin with a few general suggestions about what it means to be a Christian. I then summarize the new interpretation of Kant as proposing a ‘System of Perspectives,’ which I have set out in greater detail elsewhere. After discussing the important notions of ‘criticism,’ ‘perspective’ and ‘system’ as they operate in Kant’s thought, the bulk of the essay is devoted to an assessment of the theological implications of Kant’s System, I conclude that, contrary to popular opinion, particularly among s…Read more
  •  8856
    How'Chinese'Was Kant?
    The Philosopher 84 (1): 3-9. 1996.
  •  31
    Analysis and Synthesis in the Geometry of Logic
    Indian Philosophical Quarterly 19 (1): 1. 1992.
    The words "analysis" and "synthesis" are among the most widely used and misused terms in the history of philosophy. They were originally used in geometrical reasoning during the age of Euclid to describe two opposing, but complementary, methods of arguing (roughly equivalent to deduction and induction). Since then philosophers have used them not only in this way, but also to refer to distinctions of various sorts between types of judgment or classes of propositions. To some they are regarded as …Read more
  •  701
    A revised version of this article became Chapter V in my 1993 book, Kant's System of Perspectives.
  •  12
    Double trouble (review)
    The Philosophers' Magazine 15 58-58. 2001.
  •  713
    After sketching the historical development of “emergence” and noting several recent problems relating to “emergent properties”, this essay proposes that properties may be either “emergent” or “mergent” and either “intrinsic” or “extrinsic”. These two distinctions define four basic types of change: stagnation, permanence, flux, and evolution. To illustrate how emergence can operate in a purely logical system, the Geometry of Logic is introduced. This new method of analyzing conceptual systems inv…Read more