Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:51:27.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Regulative Employment of Reason

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2009

Michelle Grier
Affiliation:
University of San Diego
Get access

Summary

I have suggested from the outset that any interpretation of Kant's “negative” or critical handling of metaphysics in the Dialectic must be balanced by an understanding of the positive account of the illusory principles and ideas of reason. As we have seen, Kant's account of metaphysical error includes a distinction between the unavoidable or inevitable illusions and the fallacies (or the dialectical application of the categories) that are contained in the metaphysical arguments. In the Discipline, Kant refers to the sphere of pure reason as an “entire system” of such “illusions [Blendwerken] and fallacies [Täuschungen] intimately bound together and united under a common principle” (A711/B739–A712/B740). This common principle is, I believe, the illusory P2, the principle that “if the conditioned is given, the absolutely unconditioned is also given.” I have suggested that Kant takes it to ground not only the illusory hypostatization of the ideas but also the transcendental misemployment of the understanding. This reading not only allows us to avoid the charges of inconsistency levied against Kant's “inevitability thesis,” but it also secures a “place” for Kant's upcoming account of the positive function of the ideas and principles (and, indeed the illusion) of reason. In connection with the latter, Kant argues that even though the metaphysical conclusions are dialectical and erroneous, the ideas that motivate them have and retain some indispensably necessary role. In this chapter, I discuss this “positive account.”

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×