PHI 393-01 - Advanced Studies: Kant’s System

4 credits (Fall)

In this seminar we will carefully piece together Immanuel Kant’s multi-dimensional philosophical system in an effort to examine his answers to three pressing questions: “What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope?” We begin with the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/7), which marks his “critical turn” and aims to establish the boundaries of human knowledge. As we move on to his practical/moral philosophy, aesthetics, anthropology and political philosophy we will consider the tensions between and among the various elements of his system that eventually incite German Idealists (such as Fichte, Schelling and Hegel) to provide more “complete” systems. Of particular interest to us will be the ways his conceptions of human nature and moral and political freedom accommodate racial and gender inequality. In addition to Kant’s first Critique, primary readings will be drawn from the Critique of Practical Reason, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of the Power of Judgment, Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, the Metaphysics of Morals, “Perpetual Peace,” and “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim,” among others. Critical engagement with secondary literature will also be central to the work for this course.

Prerequisite: PHI 233.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Dobe