KANT AND LEIBNIZ ON NEGATIVE MAGNITUDES

The essay entitled An Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy has often (although not always) been interpreted as the sudden eruption of Humeinspired doubts in the middle of Kant’s otherwise rationalist projects, and as heralding the view of metaphysics later expressed in Dreams of a Spirit-seer.1 For this reason nearly all the attention given to this work is focused on Kant’s final and quite brief General Remark, which constitutes less than one-tenth of the essay. The real heart of the text, however, lies elsewhere, and once this becomes clear it also becomes evident that Hume is really irrelevant to the entire issue. Indeed, what strikes many readers as reminiscent of Hume in the General Remark is nearly a paraphrase of a few passages from Crusius’s famous Dissertatio philosophica de usu et limitibus principii rationis determinantis (1743), and the general tendency of the whole is not essentially different from what is seen in Kant’s earlier New Elucidation. The truth of the matter – or so I will argue in this paper – is that in this essay Kant actually approaches closer to the original ideas of Leibniz than at any other moment in his career, even closer than did Wolff or his followers. Moreover, I argue that in doing so Kant raises precisely the kinds of difficulties with the Wolffian position on the principle of sufficient reason that, I suspect, Leibniz himself would have raised

Alexander Baumgarten on the Principle of Sufficicent Reason

This paper defends the Principle of Sufficient Reason, taking Baumgarten as its guide. The primary aim is not to vindicate the principle, but rather to explore the kinds of resources Baumgarten originally thought sufficient to justify the PSR against its early opponents. The paper also considers Baumgarten’s possible responses to Kant’s pre-Critical objections to the proof of the PSR. The paper finds that Baumgarten possesses reasonable responses to all these objections. While the paper notes that in the absence of a response to Kant’s Critical discussion of the PSR (which is omitted here due to limitations of space), this result does not vindicate the principle, it shows how this discussion provides a deeper understanding of what, according to Baumgarten, the PSR really assumes and intends, and prepares the way for a more responsible discussion of Kant’s critical objections to Baumgarten’s supposed proof.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Hispanic Experience of the Child Welfare System

As the Hispanic population grows in the United States and the child welfare system, it is necessary to examine how experiences of Hispanic families differ from those of White/Caucasian families and to assess whether Hispanic families’ needs are properly addressed. This literature review will examine research on the outcomes and experiences of Hispanic families in the child welfare system and how case characteristics interact with the experiences of Hispanic families. This article will then explore theories for Hispanic families’ different experiences and conclude by recommending future directions and solutions for improving the experiences of Hispanic families in the child welfare system