Learning Outcomes:
Having completed this module students should be able to articulate the central claims, arguments, and counter-arguments in Kant's groundbreaking Critique of Pure Reason. Students will also be able to identify some of the leading characteristics of that period of thought known as the Enlightenment. The module will help students to understand and think creatively about central notions in epistemology and metaphysics, to gain facility with such concepts as empiricism, transcendental arguments, causal inference, our knowledge of space and time, substance and identity, the unity of consciousness, and sceptical questions arising from problems of perception and objectivity. One central learning outcome will be further developing one's ability to structure interpretive and argumentative written work clearly and forcefully. Students will gain practice in thinking hard about complex concepts and argument forms both in their historical context and in their continuing importance today.
Indicative Module Content:
In this course we will examine key concepts in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant as found in his landmark book, The Critique of Pure Reason. Topics will include scepticism & the nature of knowledge & belief; transcendental idealism & empirical realism; consciousness & the nature of the self; perception, identity, & causality; freedom, morality, & religion. We will relate Kant's view to key thinkers who preceded him and we will attempt to examine how Kant's views stand up today given subsequent changes in science and mathematics.
For background and introductory analyses, the lecturer's book is available online via UCD Library, or you can email me to receive a pdf of the book (jim.oshea@ucd.ie): James R. O'Shea, _Kant's Critique of Pure Reason [CPR]: An Introduction_, Routledge 2012. This book combined with an abridgement of Kant's CPR to be provided will constitute the bulk of the reading for this module (plus some further secondary articles for background arguments).