PHGA 7106: Kant I (Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason)

Dr. Michael Baur, Collins Hall 128

Phone: (718) 817-3295, E-mail: mbaur@fordham.edu

Fall 2005, Tuesdays 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., Collins Conference Room

Course Description

The aim of this course is to achieve an appreciation of, and some facility with, the problems and mode of philosophizing that dictate the arguments of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.  Accordingly, the course is organized along thematic lines that, while corresponding to specific passages and sections of the Critique, provide a route through the text as a whole.  After an initial introduction to the structure and context of the work as a whole, the course will focus primarily on the positive doctrines of Kant’s critical or transcendental philosophy as presented in the Critique of Pure Reason.

Course Requirements

Each student is expected to read in advance those passages that form the basis of the respective class meetings.  Each student is also required to submit a term paper (approximately 5,000 words in length), due on the last day of class, December 13, 2005.

Course Text

Copies of the new Cambridge translation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (by Guyer and Wood) have been ordered and should be available at the University book store; however, you should feel free to use an older translation (e.g., the Kemp Smith translation), if you wish.

Course Schedule

Sept. 6             Course Introduction: aim, structure, and arguments of the CPR

Sept. 13           Kant’s “Introduction” (B1-30; Guyer/Wood, pp. 136-152) and two “Prefaces”

to the CPR (Ai-xxii, Bvii-xliv; Guyer/Wood, pp. 91-124)

Sept. 20           Space and Time in the Transcendental Aesthetic (B33-73; Guyer/Wood,

pp. 172-192)

Sept. 27           The Metaphysical Deduction (B91-116: Guyer/Wood, pp. 204-218)

October 4        The Transcendental Deduction up to and including section 19 (B116-143;

Guyer/Wood, pp. 219-252)

October 11      The Transcendental Deduction from section 20 to the end (B143-169;

Guyer/Wood, pp. 252-266)

October 18      The Schematism (B176-187; Guyer/Wood, pp. 271-277)

October 25      The Axioms of Intuition: the principle of extensive magnitude (B187-207;

Guyer/Wood, pp. 278-289)

November 1    The Anticipations of Perception: the principle of intensive magnitude (B207-218;

Guyer/Wood, pp. 290-295)

November 8    No Kant Class, on account of the Fordham Natural Law Colloquium

November 15  The Analogies of Experience: the substantial, causal, and mutual relations among

intensive and extensive magnitudes (B218-265; Guyer/Wood, 295-321) and the Refutation of Idealism (B274-279; Guyer/Wood, pp. 326-329)

November 22  The Paralogisms of Pure Reason (B396-432; Guyer/Wood, pp. 409-458)

November 29  The Antinomy of Pure Reason (B432-489; Guyer/Wood, pp. 459-495)

December 6     The Antinomy of Pure Reason (B490-B595; Guyer/Wood, pp. 496-550)

December 13   The Ideal of Pure Reason (B595-670; Guyer/Wood, pp. 551-589). Term paper due