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This volume provides a highly needed, comprehensive analysis of Kant's views on proofs for God's existence and explains the radical turns of Kant's accounts. In the "Theory of Heavens" (1755), Kant intended to harmonize the Newtonian laws of motion with a physicotheological argument for the existence of God. But only a few years later, in the "Ground of Proof" essay (1763), Kant defended an ontological ('possibility' or 'modal') argument on the basis of its logical exactitude. Nevertheless he continued to praise the physicotheological argument. In the first "Critique" (1781/7), Kant replaced the traditional constitutive proofs with regulative theoretical and practical arguments. He continued to defend a moral argument in the second "Critique" (1788). But in the third "Critique" (1790), Kant reintroduced a physicotheological besides an ethicotheological argument in order to unify the critical system of philosophy. Kant developed further moral arguments in the "Theodicy" essay (1791) and the "Religion" (1793/4), and still continued to discuss proofs for God's existence in the "OP" (1796–1804). This volume speaks to Kant specialists in the fields of philosophy and theology, but can be used also as an introduction for non-academic readers.
A new 2024 translation of "The Only Possible Evidence for a Demonstration of God's Existence" from the original German manuscript first published in 1763. The original German title is "Der einzig mögliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseins Gottes". This new edition contains an afterword by the translator, a timeline of Kant's life and works, and a helpful index of Kant's key concepts and intellectual rivals. This translation is designed for readability, rendering Kant's enigmatic German into the simplest equivalent possible, and removing the academic footnotes to make this critically important historical text as accessible as possible to the modern reader. In the first part of the document, Kant embarks on a meticulous examination of metaphysical necessity, a concept central to the arguments for the existence of a Supreme Being. Here the distinction between what is absolutely necessary and what is contingent is explored in depth. This exploration is crucial because it lays the groundwork for arguing for the existence of a being whose existence is seen as necessary rather than contingent. The second part examines the specific attributes traditionally ascribed to a divine being, such as omnipotence, omniscience, and moral perfection. Kant critically analyses these attributes, discussing their coherence and the implications they have for the concept of a supreme being. This analysis is crucial to understanding the nature of the being whose existence the treatise seeks to demonstrate. In the third section, the treatise examines the logical structure that underlies the argument for God's existence. This involves a dissection of ontological and cosmological arguments, assessing their validity and soundness within the realm of philosophical reasoning.
Hegel's analysis of his culture identifies nihilistic tendencies in modernity i.e., the death of God and end of philosophy. Philosophy and religion have both become hollowed out to such an extent that traditional disputes between faith and reason become impossible because neither any longer possesses any content about which there could be any dispute; this is nihilism. Hegel responds to this situation with a renewal of the ontological argument (Logic) and ontotheology, which takes the form of philosophical trinitarianism. Hegel on the Proofs and Personhood of God examines Hegel's recasting of the theological proofs as the elevation of spirit to God and defense of their content against the criticisms of Kant and Jacobi. It also considers the issue of divine personhood in the Logic and Philosophy of Religion. This issue reflects Hegel's antiformalism that seeks to win back determinate content for truth (Logic) and the concept of God. While the personhood of God was the issue that divided the Hegelian school into left-wing and right-wing factions, both sides fail as interpretations. The center Hegelian view is both virtually unknown, and the most faithful to Hegel's project. What ties the two parts of the book together--Hegel's philosophical trinitarianism or identity as unity in and through difference (Logic) and his theological trinitarianism, or incarnation, trinity, reconciliation, and community (Philosophy of Religion)--is Hegel's Logic of the Concept. Hegel's metaphysical view of personhood is identified with the singularity (Einzelheit) of the concept. This includes as its speculative nucleus the concept of the true infinite: the unity in difference of infinite/finite, thought and being, divine-human unity (incarnation and trinity), God as spirit in his community.
The search for God is dictated not from without but from a profound sense of one's own moral being and worthiness to be happy. The core of Immanuel Kant's argument remains relevant to the experience of ordinary men and women. He wished to strengthen, not undermine, belief in God and in the spiritual nature of humankind. This 1763 essay is imporrtant in understanding the development of Kant's thought. It exposed the flaw in the Cartesian argument that the existence of a perfect being could be deduced from an idea or concept of such. Similarly, Kant saw the problem inherent in the Leibnizian view of a philosophical system modeled on mathematics: a philosopher who, like a mathematician, began with an arbitrary definition remained trapped in a circle of words. In The One Possible Basis for a Demonstration of the Existence of God, Kant diverged from the familiar forms of ontological argument. The result was a brilliant approach to divine being that anticipated his mature Critique of Pure Reason. With this Bison Book edition, The One Possible Basis appears in paperback for the first time. Gordon Treash's English translation, the only modern one, faces pages containing the original German. Treash, who is a professor of philosophy at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, edited, with Paul A. Bogaard, Metaphysics as Foundation: Essays in Honor of Ivor Leclerc. Also available as a Bison Book is Kant's last major essay, The Conflict of the Faculties (1992).
This volume provides a highly needed, comprehensive analysis of Kant's views on proofs for God's existence and explains the radical turns of Kant's accounts. In the "Theory of Heavens" (1755), Kant intended to harmonize the Newtonian laws of motion with a physicotheological argument for the existence of God. But only a few years later, in the "Ground of Proof" essay (1763), Kant defended an ontological ('possibility' or 'modal') argument on the basis of its logical exactitude. Nevertheless he continued to praise the physicotheological argument. In the first "Critique" (1781/7), Kant replaced the traditional constitutive proofs with regulative theoretical and practical arguments. He continued to defend a moral argument in the second "Critique" (1788). But in the third "Critique" (1790), Kant reintroduced a physicotheological besides an ethicotheological argument in order to unify the critical system of philosophy. Kant developed further moral arguments in the "Theodicy" essay (1791) and the "Religion" (1793/4), and still continued to discuss proofs for God's existence in the "OP" (1796-1804). This volume speaks to Kant specialists in the fields of philosophy and theology, but can be used also as an introduction for non-academic readers.
This book offers a systematic examination of the place of religion within Kant's major writings. Kant is often thought to be highly reductionistic with regard to religion - as though religion simply provides the unsophisticated with colourful representations of moral lessons that reason alone could grasp. James DiCenso's rich and innovative discussion shows how Kant's theory of religion in fact emerges directly from his epistemology, ethics and political theory, and how it serves his larger political and ethical projects of restructuring institutions and modifying political attitudes towards greater autonomy. It also illustrates the continuing relevance of Kant's ideas for addressing issues of religion and politics that remain pressing in the contemporary world, such as just laws, transparency in the public sphere and other ethical and political concerns. The book will be valuable for a wide range of readers who are interested in Kant's thought.
Peter Byrne presents a detailed study of the role of the concept of God in Kant's Critical Philosophy. After a preliminary survey of the major interpretative disputes over the understanding of Kant on God, Byrne explores his critique of philosophical proofs of God’s existence. Examining Kant’s account of religious language, Byrne highlights both the realist and anti-realist elements contained within it. The notion of the highest good is then explored, with its constituent elements - happiness and virtue, in pursuit of an assessment of how far Kant establishes that we must posit God. The precise role God plays in ethics according to Kant is then examined, along with the definition of religion as the recognition of duties as divine commands. Byrne also plots Kant’s critical re-working of the concept of grace. The book closes with a survey of the relation between the Critical Philosophy and Christianity on the one hand and deism on the other.
Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason is a key element of the system of philosophy which Kant introduced with his Critique of Pure Reason, and a work of major importance in the history of Western religious thought. It represents a great philosopher's attempt to spell out the form and content of a type of religion that would be grounded in moral reason and would meet the needs of ethical life. It includes sharply critical and boldly constructive discussions on topics not often treated by philosophers, including such traditional theological concepts as original sin and the salvation or 'justification' of a sinner, and the idea of the proper role of a church. This volume presents it and three short essays that illuminate it in new translations by Allen Wood and George di Giovanni, with an introduction by Robert Merrihew Adams that locates it in its historical and philosophical context.
The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy comprises over fifty specially commissioned essays by experts on the philosophy of this period. Starting in the late eighth century, with the renewal of learning some centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, a sequence of chapters takes the reader through developments in many and varied fields, including logic and language, natural philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and theology. Close attention is paid to the context of medieval philosophy, with discussions of the rise of the universities and developments in the cultural and linguistic spheres. A striking feature is the continuous coverage of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian material. There are useful biographies of the philosophers, and a comprehensive bibliography. The volumes illuminate a rich and remarkable period in the history of philosophy and will be the authoritative source on medieval philosophy for the next generation of scholars and students alike.