Maria Jesus Vazquez Lobeiras

Kant’s diagnosis regarding the difficulties of metaphysics in proceeding along the secure path of science is well-known. While Kant’s original criterion for determining the scientific nature of knowledge is the synthetic a priori judgment, there is another important criterion he shares with his predecessors such as Wolff and Meier: it concerns the systematic character of knowledge. The Lectures on metaphysics reveal that the discussion surrounding the systematicity of knowledge leads Kant to the discovery of transcendental illusion: a type of error that is rooted in the very nature of reason and thus takes on the curious form of an a priori error. In this context, Kant’s demand for a clear delineation between the different sciences is also very relevant, as it leads him to identify the specificity of metaphysics as a form of a priori knowledge.

The concept of autonomy plays a significant role in Bioethics as well as in Biolaw, the Kantian conception of autonomy being an unavoidable element in the debate. Some of the most relevant contributions in this discussion stem from Onora O’Neill’s work. Prof. O’Neill promotes an anti-individualist interpretation of autonomy and, in order to increase its ethical efficiency, suggests reconsidering the meaning of autonomy as closely linked to trust. This chapter tries to show how intertwined information, autonomy and trust are at a time when medical technologies and care need to be interpreted and disclosed in order to be properly understood.

Tomando como guía el problema de la experiencia, en el presente trabajo se ofrece un estudio de la evolución del pensamiento de Kant en el período comprendido entre la Dissertatio de 1770 y la Critica de la razón pura (1781-1787). Los datos obtenidos permiten reconstruir las etapas evolutivas del giro copernicano que aquí hemos denominado 'giro de la sensibilidad' (1770) y 'giro del entendimiento' (1772-1781). El análisis proporciona recursos para la interpretación del idealismo trascendental como antología de la experiencia y para apreciar algunas de las aportaciones que convierten a Kant en la cima de la modernidad, sobre todo en relación con la constitución de la razón finita.