Abstract for the Kant in Asia
International Conference
at Hong Kong Baptist
University
20-23 May 2009
Lee Seung-kee,
“Logical Determination and Self-determination in Kant's
Critical Philosophy”
The
notion of “self-determination” has a predominantly moral and political meaning
in Kant’s thought (KrV A 534/B
562). He famously said “the motto
of the enlightenment” is: “Have courage to use your own reason!” But if self-determination (autonomy and
freedom) through the exercise of reason is to be realized, reason must be able
to determine the forms of willing which make morality possible. To show how such determination is
possible, Kant employs the concept of determination that is taken, not from
moral or political philosophy, but from formal logic. I explain how Kant specifies and
validates the forms of human activity (of judging) that make morality possible
through the use of the determinate-indeterminate distinction. I thus show that “determination” in the
logical sense is necessary for self-determination in Kant’s philosophy.