•  45
    Kant on Cognition and Knowledge
    In Andrew Stephenson & Anil Gomes (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Kant, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.
    I discuss the difference and the connections between Kant’s notions of cognition (Erkenntnis) and knowledge (Wissen). Unlike knowledge, cognition is a representational state which need not have the propositional structure of a judgments. Even cognitions that have such a structure need not coincide with knowledge, because they might rather have the doxastic status of opinion or faith, or they might be false (whereas knowledge is a certain recognition of truth). I argue that while Kant distinguish…Read more
  •  68
    Grounding Empirical in Transcendental Reality
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. forthcoming.
    This essay is a contribution to a symposium on Anja Jauernig's excellent book, The World According to Kant. I discuss Jauernig's account of how Kant conceives the empirical reality of appearances.
  •  1
    Some major figures of early (1977-1984) Post-Punk, such as Joy Divison’s Ian Curtis or The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, were strongly influenced by existentialist themes they encountered in the writings of philosophers such as Camus or Nietzsche. Central among these themes is the modern struggle with nihilism. Nietzsche (at times) felt hopeful that some of us still possess the strength to see our modern disorientation as a creative opportunity and to (eventually) overcome the threat of nihilism: in thi…Read more
  •  32
    Kant on Mind-Dependence: Possible or Actual Experience?
    Kantian Review 28 (2): 239-258. 2023.
    In Kant’s idealism, all spatiotemporal objects depend on the human mind in a certain way. A central issue here is whether the existence of spatiotemporal things requires that these things are, at least at some point, objects of some actual experience or of a merely possible experience. In this essay, I argue (on textual and philosophical grounds) for the latter view: spatiotemporal things exist (or spatiotemporal events occur) if they are objects of a (suitably qualified) possible experience.
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  •  64
    I consider an epistemological, methodological dispute between Nietzsche and Kant about the possibility of rational self-critique: an activity where the intellect reflects on its cognitive powers, demarcates the proper use and limitations of these powers, and thereby achieves a systematically complete insight into what we can and cannot know. Kant affirms whereas Nietzsche denies that we can successfully conduct such a self-directed rational enquiry. By reconstructing the central argumentative mo…Read more
  •  65
    Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency
    Oxford University Press. 2023.
    In "Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency", I aim to give a comprehensive interpretation and a qualified defense of Kant’s doctrine of freedom as a systematic conception of rational agency. Although my book follows Kant in focusing on the idea of free will as a condition of moral agency, it denies that moral freedom of will is the only relevant (transcendental) type of freedom. Human beings also exercise absolute freedom of thought (intellectual autonomy) in their theoretical cognition. Moreover,…Read more
  •  110
    A priori intuition and transcendental necessity in Kant's idealism
    European Journal of Philosophy 29 (4): 827-845. 2020.
    I examine how Kant argues for the transcendental ideality of space. I defend a reading on which Kant accepts the ideality of space because it explains our (actual) knowledge that mathematical judgments are necessarily true. I argue that this reading is preferable over the alternative suggestion that Kant can infer the ideality of space directly from the fact that we have an a priori intuition of space. Moreover, I argue that the reading I propose does not commit Kant to incoherent modal views. I…Read more
  •  3
    Post-Punk and the Struggle for Authenticity
    In Joshua Heter & Richard Greene (eds.), Punk Rock and Philosophy: Research and Destroy, Carus Books. pp. 87-96. 2022.
    The aim to develop authentic forms of artistic lifestyle and self-expression played a formative role in the foundational period of post-punk in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The struggle for authenticity during that period was complicated by the artists’ growing awareness of the capitalist economy’s ability to coopt and assimilate the ideal of an authentic counter-culture, that is, to utilize this ideal for exclusively profit-oriented signing, marketing, and production strategies. In this essa…Read more
  •  442
    I argue that Kant acknowledges two models of spontaneous self-determination that rational beings are capable of. The first model involves absolute unconditional necessity and excludes any form of contingency. The second model involves (albeit not as a matter of definition) a form of contingency which entails alternative possibilities for determining oneself. The first model would be exhibited by a divine being; the second model is exhibited by human beings. Human beings do, however, partake in t…Read more
  •  34
    Kant on the Sources of Metaphysics: The Dialectic of Pure Reason by Marcus Willaschek (review)
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 58 (1): 181-182. 2020.
    This book is about the Transcendental Dialectic in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Unlike most other treatments of this subject matter, it does not focus on Kant's criticisms of metaphysical arguments. Rather, it considers Kant's account of why "metaphysical speculation about the unconditioned"—for instance, about objects like God or the entire world—"arises naturally and inevitably out of the very structure of human reason".Willaschek posits "a three-part template underlying" Kant's account of …Read more
  •  118
    Kant on Cognizing Oneself as a Spontaneous Cognizer
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 50 (3): 395-412. 2020.
    I examine a range of issues concerning Kant's conception of cognitive spontaneity. I consider whether we can cognize or know ourselves as spontaneous cognizers, and why Kant seems to regard the notion of cognitive spontaneity as less problematic than the idea of moral spontaneity. As an organizing theme of my discussion, I use an apparent tension between the A-edition and the B-edition of the first Critique. Against common interpretations, I argue that in the B-edition Kant does not revoke his c…Read more
  •  85
    Kafka on the Loss of Purpose and the Illusion of Freedom
    Polish Journal of Aesthetics 53 (2/2019: The Philosopher Franz K): 69-60. 2019.
    I argue that Kafka's writings express the idea that our sense of freedom is deceptive. It is deceptive because we cannot discern any proper purpose or destination that would allow us to make truly meaningful choices. Kafka's thought here relates to the existentialist view of Kierkegaard, but it radicalizes that view by depriving it of its teleological dimension.
  •  249
    I examine the extent to which God is inscrutable to human reason in Kant's critical philosophy. I argue that Kant's view here is much more radical than the rationalist commonplace that we cannot grasp how divine perfection is compatible with the existence of (apparent) imperfections. In Kant's considered view, we are absolutely incapable of accurately representing God's nature in any minimally determinate way: when we try to go beyond the empty idea of a mere 'something', we inevitably distort t…Read more
  •  4
    Struggle and Victory in Kafka's "Das Schloß"
    The Modern Language Review 101 (4): 1035-1043. 2006.
    This essay is an attempt to interpret the behaviour of K. in Kafka's novel "Das Schloß". The focus is on three episodes that stand, respectively, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the novel. In all of these episodes, the concepts of 'struggle' and 'victory' play a crucial role. By paying attention to the usage of these concepts, the passages under investigation can be shown to be interrelated in a significant way. Making these connections explicit allows one to draw some far-reaching …Read more
  •  86
    The Metaphysical Deduction and the Shadow of Humean Skepticism
    Kant Studien 109 (3): 367-394. 2018.
    I examine the division of labor between the Metaphysical Deduction (MD) and the Transcendental Deduction (TD). Against a common reading, I argue that the MD is insufficient to prove the a priori origin of the categories. For both Kant and his main opponent, namely Hume, the question of whether the categories have an a priori origin in the pure understanding is inseparable from the question of whether they have objective validity. Since the MD does not establish the objective validity of the cate…Read more
  •  47
    Kant’s Standpoint Distinction
    Kantian Review 23 (2): 229-255. 2018.
    I examine what Kant means when he appeals to different "standpoints". I argue that Kant seeks to contrast an empirical, anthropocentric standpoint with a normative, more than human standpoint. Against common interpretations, I argue that the normative standpoint is not confined to practical reason, since theoretical reason is concerned with what ought to be as well. Finally, I defend the coherence of Kant’s distinction against important objections.
  •  375
    Kants subjektivistische Begründung von Moral und Freiheit im Naturrecht Feyerabend
    In Haakonssen Knud, Grunert Frank & Diethelm Crystal (eds.), Natural Law 1625-1850, Brill. pp. 150-171. 2021.
    “Naturrecht Feyerabend” is a collection of student notes taken on a lecture that Kant gave around the time he was working on the Groundwork. I show that these notes portray Kant as proposing a defense of morality and freedom whose “subjectivism” is unparalleled by anything that we find in his major published works. Kant here traces both the normativity of the moral principle that we must treat humanity as an end in itself and the legitimacy of regarding ourselves as free agents to the subjective…Read more
  •  181
    In the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant declares that virtue “can and must be taught.” This claim raises two problems. First, it is in tension with Kant’s emphasis on the absolute moral responsibility that each individual agent owes to her transcendental freedom. Second, it raises the question of how the empirical events that constitute moral education can have an impact on atemporal moral choices. Concerning the second issue, I argue that Kant has a coherent framework for representing how empirical …Read more
  •  49
    Kant's Critique of Instrumental Reason
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 99 (3): 489-516. 2018.
    Many commentators hold that in addition to the categorical imperative of morality, Kant also posits an objective law of non-moral practical rationality, 'the' Hypothetical Imperative. On this view, the appeal to the Hypothetical Imperative increases the dialectical options that Kantians have vis-a-vis Humean skepticism about the authority of reason, and it allows for a systematic explanation of the possibility of non-moral weakness of will. I argue that despite its appeal, this interpretation ca…Read more
  •  100
    Kant on Determinism and the Categorical Imperative
    Ethics 125 (2): 331-356. 2015.
    I provide a sympathetic reconstruction of Kant’s motivation for endorsing incompatibilism about human freedom. On my interpretation, Kant holds that if all the determining grounds of our actions were subject to natural necessity, we would never be free to respect or defy laws of practical reason, and for Kant such freedom is a condition for the possibility that our actions are governed by categorical imperatives. I argue that his view rests on a gripping construal of the rational imperfection th…Read more