•  8856
    How'Chinese'Was Kant?
    The Philosopher 84 (1): 3-9. 1996.
  •  5450
    Kant’s Religious Argument for the Existence of God
    Faith and Philosophy 26 (1): 3-22. 2009.
    After reviewing Kant’s well-known criticisms of the traditional proofs of God’s existence and his preferred moral argument, this paper presents a detailedanalysis of a densely-packed theistic argument in Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Humanity’s ultimate moral destiny can be fulfilled only through organized religion, for only by participating in a religious community (or “church”) can we overcome the evil in human nature. Yet we cannot conceive how such a community can even be founde…Read more
  •  4356
    The Kantian Grounding of Einstein’s Worldview
    Polish Journal of Philosophy 4 (1): 45-64. 2010.
    Recent perspectival interpretations of Kant suggest a way of relating his epistemology to empirical science that makes it plausible to regard Einstein’stheory of relativity as having a Kantian grounding. This first of two articles exploring this topic focuses on how the foregoing hypothesis accounts for variousresonances between Kant’s philosophy and Einstein’s science. The great attention young Einstein paid to Kant in his early intellectual development demonstrates the plausibility of this hyp…Read more
  •  3031
    Could Kant’s Jesus Be God?
    International Philosophical Quarterly 52 (4): 421-437. 2012.
    Although Kant had a high regard for Jesus as a moral teacher, interpreters typically assume that his philosophy disallows belief in Jesus as God. Those who regard Kant as a moral reductionist are especially likely to offer a negative construal of the densely-argued subsection of his 1793 Religion that relates directly to this issue. The recent “affirmative” trend in Kant-scholarship provides the basis for an alternative reading. First, theologians must regard Jesus as human so that belief in Jes…Read more
  •  1533
    This is the second in a two part series of articles that attempt to clarify the nature and enduring relevance of Kant's concept of a priori knowledge. (For Part I, see below.) In this article I focus mainly on Saul Kripke's critique of Kant, in Naming and Necessity. I argue that Kripke draws attention to a genuine defect in Kant's epistemological framework, but that he used definitions of certain key terms that were quite different from Kant's definitions. When Kripke's definitions are replaced …Read more
  •  934
    In Part One of Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason, Kant repeatedly refers to a “proof” that human nature has a necessary and universal “evil propensity,” but he provides only obscure hints at its location. Interpreters have failed to identify such an argument in Part One. After examining relevant passages, summarizing recent attempts to reconstruct the argument, and explaining why these do not meet Kant's stated needs, I argue that the elusive proof must have a transcendental form (called…Read more
  •  805
    A Daoist Model For A Kantian Church
    Comparative Philosophy 4 (2): 67-89. 2013.
    Although significant differences undoubtedly exist between Daoism and Kant’s philosophy, the two systems also have some noteworthy similarities. After calling attention to a few such parallels and sketching the outlines of Kant’s philosophy of religion, this article focuses on an often-neglected feature of the latter: the four guiding principles of what Kant calls an “invisible church”. Numerous passages from Lao Zi’s classic text, Dao-De-Jing, seem to uphold these same principles, thus suggesti…Read more
  •  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
  •  701
    A revised version of this article became Chapter V in my 1993 book, Kant's System of Perspectives.
  •  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.
  •  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
  •  640
    This is the original English version of a paper that has been published only in Chinese translation. (For the published, Chinese version, see "透視悖論說謊者的幽默指南", in page 37-44 on 拒絕再Hea──真理與意義的追尋) The paper was originally written as a lecture given at the University of Macau in April 2010. The paper argues that humor is essentially a form of paradoxical deception.
  •  632
    Architectonic reasoning and interpretation in Kant and the yijing
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38 (4): 569-583. 2011.
    This is a thoroughly revised version of a paper that I originally presented at the "Kant in Asia" international conference on "The Unity of Human Personhood, held in Hong Kong in May of 2009. After explaining what Kant means by his "architectonic" form of reasoning, I argue that the Yijing (the Chinese "Book of Changes") exhibits the same type of reasoning. I contrast two uses of architectonic reasoning: divining the truth vs. divination. The article concludes with an illustration of how the Yi…Read more
  •  614
    Three Perspectives on Abraham’s Defense Against Kant’s Charge of Immoral Conduct
    with Philip McPherson Rudisill
    Journal of Religion 89 (4). 2009.
    Throughout history no mere mortal has been more revered and esteemed by so many diverse people than Abraham, great patriarch of the three enduring monotheistic religions. Yet Judaism, Christianity and Islam all agree that this man attempted to kill his own, innocent son, an act so dastardly that it would normally be judged both immoral and illegal in any civil society. Surprisingly, the scriptures of these three religious faiths praise Abraham for this very act, justifying it in very different …Read more
  •  570
    Kant’s pre-1770 philosophy responded to the mind-body problem by applying a theory of “physical influx”. His encounter with Swedenborg’s mysticism, however, left him disillusioned with any dualist solution to Descartes’ problem. One of the major goals of the Critical philosophy was to provide a completely new solution to the mind-body problem. Kant’s new solution is “perspectival” in the sense that all Critical theories are perspectival: it acknowledges a deep truth in both of the controversy’s …Read more
  •  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.
  •  506
    This article is mainly a critique of Philip Kitcher's book, The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge. Four weaknesses in Kitcher's objection to Kant arise out of Kitcher's failure to recognize the perspectival nature of Kant's position. A proper understanding of Kant's theory of mathematics requires awareness of the perspectival nuances implicit in Kant's theory of pure intuition.
  •  468
    In the second edition Preface of Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason Kant responds to an anonymous review of the first edition. We present the first English translation of this obscure book review. Following our translation, we summarize the reviewer's main points and evaluate the adequacy of Kant's replies to five criticisms, including two replies that Kant provides in footnotes added in the second edition. A key issue is the reviewer's claim that Religion adopts an implied standpoint, de…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
  •  413
    Immanuel Kant’s theory of justifiable resistance to authority is complex and, at times, appears to conflict with his own practice, if not with itself. He distinguishes between the role of authority in “public” and “private” contexts. In private—e.g., when a person is under contract to do a specific job or accepts a social contract with one’s government—resistance is forbidden; external behavior must be governed by policy or law. In contexts involving the public use of reason, on the other hand—e…Read more
  •  401
    透視悖論--說謊者的幽默指南
    In 拒絕再 Hea ── 真理與意義的追尋, 次文化 [subculture Limited]. pp. 37-44. 2013.
    A Chinese translation of an essay entitled "Paradox in Perspective: A Liar’s Guide to Humor".
  •  394
    Introduction: Levels of perspectives in Kant and chinese philosophy
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38 (4): 505-508. 2011.
    This short essay introduces a set of articles I compiled for a special issue of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy in 2011. Most of the essays are revised versions of papers originally presented at the "Kant in Asia" international conference on "The Unity of Human Personhood", held in Hong Kong in May of 2009, and subsequently published in the collection entitled Cultivating Personhood: Kant and Asian Philosophy (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2010). After introducing the papers in the special issue,…Read more
  •  394
    To Tell the Truth on Kant and Christianity
    Faith and Philosophy 29 (3): 340-346. 2012.
    After reviewing the history of the “affirmative” approach to interpreting Kant’s Religion, I offer four responses to the symposium papers in the previous issue of Faith and Philosophy. First, incorrectly identifying Kant’s two “experiments” leads to misunderstandings of his affirmation of Christianity. Second, Kant’s Critical Religion expounds a thoroughgoing interpretation of these experiments, and was not primarily an attempt to confirm the architectonic introduced in Kant’s System of Perspect…Read more
  •  374
    The Kingdom of God Is at Hand!
    History of Philosophy Quarterly 11 (4): 421-437. 1994.
    Could Kant have possibly been the author of this quote? Believe it or not, he did write that! What did he mean?
  •  337
    Kant's "Appropriation" of Lampe's God
    Harvard Theological Review 85 (1): 85-108. 1992.
    It would be difficult to find a philosopher who has suffered more injustices at the hands of his commentators (friends and foes alike) than Immanuel Kant. This is particularly true when it comes to the many anecdotes that commentators are, for some reason, quite fond of reciting about Kant. The problem is that such tales are often used surreptitiously to twist Kant's own explicit claims about what he was attempting to accomplish, so that when his writings are read with these stories in mind, mis…Read more
  •  315
    Aside from bioethics, the main theme of Ronald Green's lifework has been an exploration of the relation between religion and morality, with special emphasis on the philosophies of Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard. This essay summarizes and assesses his work on this theme by examining, in turn, four of his relevant books. Religious Reason (1978) introduced a new method of comparative religion based on Kant's model of a rational religion. Religion and Moral Reason (1988) expanded on this projec…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
  •  277
    Kant's Theocentric Metaphysics
    In Viorel Coltescu (ed.), Analele Universitatii Din Timisoara 4, West University of Timisoara. pp. 55-70. 1992.
    A revised version of this paper became chapter I of Kant's Critical Religion.
  •  267
    Few commentators (if any) would question Schrader's poignant obser­vation that 'the doctrine of the thing in itself presents the single greatest stumbling block in the Kantian philosophy' [S5:49]. Understanding what Kant meant by the doctrine i.e., the role it plays both in his overall System and in his transcendental idealism can help prevent it from being discarded 'as a per­versity' [49], inasmuch as it can be interpreted in such a way that it makes quite good sense [see VI.2]. Yet even the m…Read more