Brief Notice on T. H. Lewin’s Visit to the Arakan Hills in 1865-1866, edited by Michael W. Charney

This notice was originally published as “Diary of a Hill-Trip on the Borders of Arracan. By Lieutenant T. H. Lewis” in 1867. Edited by Michael W. Charney for the SOAS Bulletin of burma Research

Psychologischer Skeptizismus. Nietzsches Kritik am Deutschen Idealismus

Eine Untersuchung zu Nietzsches Kritik am Deutschen Idealismus im Rahmen seiner allgemeinen Idealismuskritik und seiner Lehre vom Willen zur Macht

2016-2017 Master Class and Mini-Recital - Michael Lewin (Piano)

https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_masterclasses/1162/thumbnail.jp

Artist in Residence

Program listing performers and works performe

The Universe of Science. The Architectonic Ideas of Science, Sciences and Their Parts in Kant

I argue that Kant has developed a broad systematic account of the architectonic functionality of pure reason that can be used and advanced in contemporary contexts. Reason, in the narrow sense, is responsible for the picture of a well-ordered universe of science consisting of architectonic ideas of science, sciences and parts of sciences. In the first section (I), I show what Kant means by the architectonic ideas by explaining and interrelating the concepts of (a) the faculty of reason, (b) ideas (as principles), (c) method, and (d) sciences of reason. Thereafter (II), I think through his holistic understanding of science and scientific progress and suggest differentiating between four levels of use of architectonic ideas, drawing on the metaphor of a well-structured universe as imagined by Kant in his work on the Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens. I also claim that each possible idea of reason can be (apart from its primary function) additionally regarded as a fourth-level architectonic concept when explicitly conceived as an object of (e. g. philosophical) studies, i. e. from a mere methodological perspective. In the final section (III), I unveil the potential of Kant’s theory by pointing out how this architectonic methodological function of pure reason is tacitly used in Karl-Otto Apel’s contemporary philosophical research programme. You can get the official version of the paper and the whole issue (open access) by clicking on the attached link

2016-2017 Master Class and Mini-Recital - Michael Lewin (Piano)

https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_masterclasses/1007/thumbnail.jp

Der Stachel der Selbsttätigkeit und das Ausschöpfen der Freiheit. Zur Vollständigkeit der fünf Weltansichten beim späten Fichte

In the later Fichte the reflection splits the world into a fivefoldness of its possible view. To get through all the a priori arranged levels from sensuality to the Doctrine of Science means to use up all the possibilities of the views of the world. I will examine whether Fichte can offer us a direct proof of completeness of the standpoints or at least show indirectly that there must be exactly five of them. Which answer would he give us if we argued that history, skepticism and nonentity could complement the array? Keywords Fivefoldness-worldviews-completeness-proof-history-skepticism Die Reflexion spaltet nach Fichte die Welt in eine Fünffachheit ihrer möglichen Ansicht. Das Durchlaufen der a priori geordneten Stufen von der Sinnlichkeit bis zur Wissenschaftslehre stellt zugleich ein Ausschöpfen der Möglichkeiten dar, sich zur Welt zu verhalten. Ich werde prüfen, ob Fichte uns einen direkten Beweis der Vollständigkeit der Standpunkte geben oder zumindest indirekt dafür argumentieren kann, dass es genau fünf sein müssen. Was würde er uns antworten, wenn wir behaupteten, die Geschichte, der Skeptizismus und die Nullität könnten die Reihe ergänzen? Schlüsselbegriffe Fünffachheit-Weltansichten-Vollständigkeit-Beweis-Geschichte-Skeptizismu

Transcendental Philosophy as a Scientific Research Programme

Transcendental philosophy was not born like Athena out of Zeus’s head, mature and in full armour from the very beginning. That is why in both prefaces to the Critique of Pure Reason (1781 and 1787) Kant introduces the concept of transcendental philosophy as an “idea.” The idea understood architectonically develops slowly and only gradually acquires a definite form. As witnessed by the works of Kant himself and of his predecessors and followers, the idea of transcendental philosophy has undergone a series of changes and adjustments compared to the initial plan. In this context, my goal is not simply exegesis and historical investigation of transcendental philosophy, but also to look at it from a systematic and methodological perspective. I examine the concept of transcendental philosophy from the viewpoint of programmatic metaphilosophy. The first part discusses programmatics as a distinct subsection of metaphilosophy. I argue that Kant’s architectonic methodology and the methodology of Lakatos can be used to understand the inception, development and degradation of philosophical systems. In the second part I look at the project of transcendental philosophy and the stages of its development from the standpoint of architectonics. The third part shows that Lakatos’s methodology can provide a detailed insight into the elements of transcendental philosophy, a clear idea of its logic and identify the component parts that can be improved and developed. In spite of the different levels of detailing and epistemological prerequisites, the methodologies of Kant and Lakatos can be combined to achieve a metaphilosophically informed and progressive understanding of philosophical projects. Keywords: transcendental philosophy, Kant, programmatics, architectonics, metaphilosophy, ideas of reason, Lakatos, research programme