Die dritte Antinomie und die Unterscheidung von Dingen an sich und Erscheinungen bei Kant

The distinction of things in themselves and appearances is an integral part of Kant’s transcendental idealism, yet it has often been met with rather significant hostility. Moreover, what surely has not contributed to the popularity of this Kantian doctrine is that there are, or at least there appear to be, two distinct models, detectable in Kant’s texts, to account for this distinction. Most commonly, these two models are called the “two aspect view” on the one hand and the “two world view” on the other, but it is possible that these labels themselves invite misunderstandings and obscure rather than clarify what Kant had in mind with his distinction. In this paper, I shall first briefly discuss how these two models could be described and labelled in a more suitable manner, namely as the “one composite entity view” and the “two separate objects view”. Subsequently, I will enquire which of the models is pertinent for Kant’s solution to the 3rd antinomy. I will try to show that although the two models appear to be incompatible, it is at least plausible to read Kant as using both of them in this crucial text of his oeuvre. Moreover, Kant’s strategy in solving the freedom problem on the basis of an indirectly realist account of the divine intellect provides the clue to understanding how these seemingly incompatible models can co-exist without forcing Kant into maintaining contradictory claims

Home of the Owl? Kantian Reflections on Philosophy at University

The focus of this paper is on Kant and on a text which has often been drawn upon when talking about the present situation of philosophy at university, namely his 'The Conflict of the Faculties' of 1798. Kant’s claims, though not applicable to the contemporary situation directly, can indeed be worked out in a way which can assign a distinct and clearly identifiable role for university-based philosophy. I need to emphasize, though, that I am not suggesting that this is the only way Kant’s thoughts in this respect can be adapted to and utilized for such an account. Quite the contrary, Kant’s text offers a manifold of highly important options here. In my article I will seek to establish the following claims: a) Kant, in his later years, which therefore amounts to something like his “mature” position, subscribed to a conception of a public use of reason which mainly referred to the Faculties of Philosophy at universities. b) Kant’s dismissal of philosophy according to the school conception of it must not be taken as a dismissal of academic philosophy altogether. Philosophy practiced at university by professionals is vital for Kant to build philosophy as a fully worked out discipline and to answer questions revolving around the issue of the compatibility of the theoretical standpoint and Kant’s own moral theory. c) Neither a) nor b) can be immediately applied to the contemporary situation we find ourselves in. Combining elements of a) and b), however, a possible route for the actualization of Kant’s ideas may open up. At least one of the functions for which university-based philosophy is uniquely qualified is the assessment of the implications of progress in the natural sciences for the conception of a moral standpoint in general, and as such for a core element of our self-understanding as rational beings

\u3cem\u3eDer Flug der Taube: \u3c/em\u3eStephan Hermlin\u27s Attempts to Adjust to the Cultural-Political Demands in the GDR in the Early Fifties

Stephan Hermlin was born in Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt) on March 13, 1915. Antifascist resistance is at the root of all his creative efforts. At the age of 16 he became a member of the Communist Youth Party (KJV). From 1933 until 1936 he went undercover in Berlin, joining the illegal fight against National-Socialism. In 1937 he participated in the Spanish Civil War, and in 1939 he made contact with the French Resistance. With the help of the Maquis, an underground group in southern France that became the nucleus of the Resistance, he escaped from the German occupation forces to Switzerland, where he stayed in internment camps until the end of the war. Hermlin returned to Germany in 1945, first to Frankfurt am Main, where he worked in radio broadcasting. His first volume of poetry, Zwölf Balladen von den Großen Städten, had appeared before the end of the war in Switzerland. Since that time he has become one of the most prolific writers of East Germany, which he made his home in 1947. His contributions to the literary scene after the war include poetry, translations, short stories, essays, as well as his work as editor. This study focuses on one aspect of his poetry. It tries to analyze the book Der Flug der Taube (1952) within its historical context and as a phase in Hermlin\u27s development as a lyrical poet

'Nothing but representations' - A Suárezian Way out of the Mind?

This paper is concerned with some aspects of Kant’s transcendental idealism, in particular the claim that objects of experience are nothing but representations in us, and its connection to the distinction of things in themselves and appearances. This claim has prompted phenomenalist readings which have rightly been rejected almost unanimously. Instead it has been suggested to account for Kant’s distinction in terms of mind-dependent or subject-relativized properties and properties which are not mind-dependent or subject-relativized. Along this line, the “nothing but representation”-claim is then sometimes understood in terms of the secondary-quality analogy, which Kant endorses in the Prolegomena, but rejects in the first Critique. As an alternative, I attempt to interpret Kant along the lines of Suárez’s formal/objective distinction and Scotus’s modal explication of being

Axel Schulze: Der Kramladen. Parodien

Halle/Leipzig: Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1979. 142 p., 6,50 M

Jurij Brězan: Herkunft und Standort. Aussagen

Bautzen: Domowina, 1981. 96 p., 10,80 M

Two works on Stephan Hermlin

Maritta Rost and Rosemarie Geist, eds. Stephan Hermlin Bibliographie. Leipzig: Reclam, 1985. 280 p. Hubert Witt. Stephan Hermlin. Texte, Materialien, Bilder. Leipzig: Reclam, 1985. 327 p

"Kant und die Scholastik heute". Vorüberlegungen zu einer Neueinschätzung

First, I will discuss several reasons as to why there is still almost a reluctance to reading Kant’s philosophy in the context of the scholastic tradition. The focus will be on (i) the label “revolutionary” often attached to Kant’s thought thereby suggesting a radical break with the past, especially with regard to philosophers often perceived as conservative, and (ii) the issue of confessional ramifications (not unrelated to the first point) will also be touched upon, albeit briefly. Then, two examples will be investigated with regard to which a recourse to this context provides important clues to the philosophical points at issue. These are Kant’s claims that on the one hand, existence is not a real predicate, and on the other, that appearances are nothing but representations

Walter Petri: Ein Telegramm aus Sanssouci

Berlin and Weimar: Aufbau, 1980. 132 p., 4,50 M

Volker Braun: Texte in zeitlicher Folge. Band 9

Halle: Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1992. 218 p