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