G. Anthony Bruno (University of Toronto)
Post-Kantian Responses to the Transcendental Story
Immanuel Kant exerts a profound influence on post-Kantians from German idealists to contemporary analytic philosophers. The part of Kant's philosophy that meets with most resistance is the root of his transcendental story, namely, the in itself and our transcendental cognition of it. Although we cannot know the in itself, Kant says, we must think it. This requisite transcendental cognition of the in itself is a peculiar sort of non-epistemic awareness. I argue that two post-Kantians in particular -- J.G. Fichte and John McDowell -- fail to appreciate the attractiveness of non-epistemic thought because of their rejection of Kant's transcendental story.
Commentator: Aaron Bunch (Washington State University)
Timothy Brownlee (Xavier University)
Conscience and Religion in Hegel's Mature Political Thought
In recent years, commentators have devoted increasing attention to Hegel's conception of conscience. Prominent interpreters like Frederick Neuhouser have even argued that many points of contact can be found between Hegel's conceptions of conscience and moral subjectivity and historical and contemporary liberalism. I offer an interpretation of an under-examined 1830 addition to theEnzyklopädie concerning the relation between religion and the state which proves particularly resistant to the kind of liberal interpretation of conscience which Neuhouser provides. I assess the significance of the argument that Hegel provides for the "inseparability" of ethical and religious conscience in relation to recent interpretation, and offer some suggestions for how these issues might be addressed.
Commentator: Marcos Bisticas-Cocoves (Morgan State University)
Waheed Hussain (University of Pennsylvania)
Hegel's Theory of Political Representation
One of the most interesting features of the system of government that Hegel describes in the Philosophy of Right is the way that it brings the voice of the people into government. Hegel favors a corporatist system of representation in which legislators are elected by corporate bodies, such as townships, universities, and labor organizations. Many liberals object to this system on the grounds that it treats individuals unfairly. I formulate an account of Hegel's rationale for corporatist representation and defend this aspect of his regime against the charge that it treats individuals unfairly.
Commentator: David Duquette (Saint Norbert College)
Chair: J. M. Fritzman (Lewis & Clark College)
Lara Ostaric (Saint Michael's College)
Schelling's Account of Creative Production in His Commentary on the Timaeus (1794)
Schelling's Commentary on the Timaeus (1794) is most commonly regarded as a preliminary step to his later work in the philosophy of nature. I show that this standard approach ignores the relevance of the central concept of the "Demiurge" and the constant preoccupation of the early Schelling with the conception of creative agency. I emphasize the importance of Kant's conception of subjectivity that emerges in his discussion of genius in the thirdCritique as the paradigm example of the creative subjectivity in Schelling'sCommentary.
Commentator: Gerard Kuperus (University of San Francisco)
Dean Moyar (Johns Hopkins University)Freedom from Libet's Impossible Demand: The Compatibilism of Dennett and Hegel
I show that the distinction between agent-relative and agent-neutral reasons provides an excellent tool for sorting out the different levels of normativity in Hegel's ethics. I defend two interpretive claims. First, Hegel thinks that all of the agent's reasons for action proper to Ethical Life are agent-relative. Second, the beliefs that endorse the institutions of Ethical Life are distinct from the agent's reasons for action.
Commentator: Jeffrey Kinlaw (McMurry University)
Chair: Aaron Bunch (Washington State University)
Updated on 25 May 2013