Callanan, John J. (Author)
British Journal for the History of Philosophy
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Pages: 565-588
It is well known that at the heart of Kant’s Critical philosophy is the claim that the mind possesses an essentially spontaneous power or capacity (Vermögen). It is also sometimes maintained that Kant’s appeals to this spontaneous power are intimately tied to his recognition of there being a fundamental and irreducible normative dimension to judgement. However, I attempt to complicate this picture by way of appeal to some less appreciated influences upon the development of Kant’s epistemology. A different conception of the role of spontaneity in judgement has clear precedents, I claim, in the works of Cudworth and Rousseau. There the imagined role for the active power of the mind is not to identify criteria that might serve as norms for epistemically responsible judgement. Rather the spontaneous power of the mind is cited as the source of representational contents that secure the truth conditions of our everyday claims to empirical knowledge.
...MoreArticle Federico Boccaccini; Anna Marmodoro (2017) Powers, Abilities and Skills in Early Modern Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy (pp. 435-442).
Article Federico Boccaccini; Anna Marmodoro (2017) Powers, Abilities and Skills in Early Modern Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy (pp. 435-442).
Similar Citations
Article
Sarah Hutton;
(2017)
Salving the Phenomena of Mind: Energy, Hegemonikon, and Sympathy in Cudworth
(/isis/citation/CBB731645284/)
Article
Federico Boccaccini;
Anna Marmodoro;
(2017)
Powers, Abilities and Skills in Early Modern Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB647362818/)
Book
Waxman, Wayne;
(2014)
Kant's Anatomy of the Intelligent Mind
(/isis/citation/CBB001421736/)
Book
Avramides, Anita;
(2001)
Other Minds
(/isis/citation/CBB000102009/)
Book
Nolan, Lawrence;
(2011)
Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing Debate
(/isis/citation/CBB001035171/)
Chapter
Thompson, Helen;
(2012)
The “Fair Savage”: Empiricism and Essence in Sarah Fielding's The History of Ophelia
(/isis/citation/CBB001200745/)
Article
Douglas Hedley;
(2017)
Gods and Giants: Cudworth’s Platonic Metaphysics and His Ancient Theology
(/isis/citation/CBB571151709/)
Book
Greenberg, Robert;
(2001)
Kant's Theory of a priori Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB000101728/)
Article
Ben-Chaim, Michael;
(2000)
Locke's ideology of “common sense”
(/isis/citation/CBB000111464/)
Book
Alexandrescu, Vlad;
(2009)
Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest of the Unity of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB001021823/)
Article
Leduc, Christian;
(2014)
The Epistemological Functions of Symbolization in Leibniz's Universal Characteristic
(/isis/citation/CBB001201188/)
Chapter
Joachim Schummer;
(2020)
The Operational Definition of the Elements: A Philosophical Reappraisal
(/isis/citation/CBB928776970/)
Article
Tobias Rosefeldt;
(2021)
Kant on the epistemic role of the imagination
(/isis/citation/CBB840115611/)
Article
Marcus Willaschek;
Eric Watkins;
(2020)
Kant on cognition and knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB232801261/)
Article
Franzel, Sean;
(2014)
A “Popular,” “Private” Lecturer? Kant's Theory and Practice of University Instruction
(/isis/citation/CBB001201785/)
Chapter
Farzad Mahootian;
(2020)
Kant, Cassirer, and the Idea of Chemical Element
(/isis/citation/CBB657452257/)
Book
Kramnick, Jonathan Brody;
(2010)
Actions and Objects from Hobbes to Richardson
(/isis/citation/CBB001250460/)
Book
K. Meredith Ziebart;
(2013)
Nicolaus Cusanus on Faith and the Intellect: A Case Study in 15th-Century Fides-Ratio Controversy
(/isis/citation/CBB651329209/)
Book
Carmela Morabito;
(2020)
Il motore della mente. Il movimento nella storia delle scienze cognitive
(/isis/citation/CBB028669021/)
Book
Seigel, Jerrold E.;
(2005)
The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000930043/)
Be the first to comment!