PAPER ON THE
PHILOSOPHY OF KANT
Lecturer: Dr. Stephen Palmquist
Dates: 11 January - 14 June; no lectures on 1 Feb., 5 April, and 3 May Time: Thursdays, 5:45-7:30pm Place: Room 28, 9th floor, Shun Tak Centre, West Tower Prerequisite: Modern Philosophy Paper Size limit: 30 persons Course description: The lectures will offer an in-depth examination of the Critical System of philosophy constructed by Immanuel Kant. The first part of the course will be devoted to the first Critique, beginning with a look at how Kant's ideas developed in the two decades leading up to its publication, but focusing mainly on a systematic exposition of the detailed arguments in the Critique itself. The second part of the course will be devoted to the other aspects of the System which arise out of the first Critique: Kant's moral/prac-tical, aesthetic/teleological, and religious/mystical systems will each be given approximately equal emphasis. Required reading: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781,1787), tr. N. Kemp Smith (London: Macmillan, 1929). Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788), tr. L.W. Beck (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1959). Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment (1790), tr. J.C. Meredith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952). (Other readings will be photocopied and handed out in class.) NOTE: Students should bring to class the book and/or photocopied readings which relate to the topic of each lecture. Lecturer's Office The lecturer's office at Hong Kong Baptist College is Room C410 in the Christian Education Centre. His phone numbers there are 337 9296 and 337 9275. Feel free to contact him there during normal working hours if you have any questions. Tentative lecture schedule: 11-1 Introduction to Kant's early works: "Critical Dreams" and theological orientation 18-1 First Critique, Preface and Introduction: The System 25-1 First Critique, Aesthetic: Pure intuitions and sensations 1-2 Lunar New Year (no lecture) 8-2 First Critique, Analytic: Categories and concepts 15-2 First Critique, Analytic: Principles and judgments 22-2 First Critique, Dialectic: Rational psychology 1-3 First Critique, Dialectic: Rational cosmology 8-3 First Critique, Dialectic: Rational theology 15-3 Second Critique, Analytic I & II: Freedom and happiness 22-3 Second Critique, Analytic II & III: Duty and virtue 29-3 Second Critique, Dialectic: Practical postulates 5-4 Ching Ming Festival (no lecture) 12-4 Third Critique, Book I: Aesthetic judgment 19-4 Third Critique, Book II: Teleological judgment 26-4 Third Critique, Appendix: Physico-theology 3-5 Lecturer attends conference (no lecture): to be confirmed 10-5 Essays on politics and history 17-5 Religion, Book I: The radical evil in human nature 24-5 Religion, Book II: The struggle between good and evil 31-5 Religion, Book III: The victory of the good principle 7-6 Religion, Book IV: True and false religious service 14-6 Conclusion: Kant's Critical Mysticism