two Kant: transcendental idealism

1. How does Kant justify the distinction between appearances and things-in-themselves?

2. How does Kant determine the categories that he claims structure all of our experience?

3. How does the experience of moral obligation establish our freedom, according to Kant?

4. How does Kant determine our particular moral obligations?

5. Why does Kant consider religious faith to be rational?

three Sceptical challenges and the development of transcendental idealism

1. Why does Jacobi regard Kant as a subjective idealist, despite Kant's strenuous denial that this is his position?

2. What is Jacobi's argument for the claim that only a leap of faith can overcome subjective idealism and establish belief in the external world?

3. Why does Reinhold consider Kant's transcendental idealism to be in need of a better foundation?

4. How does Schulze's criticism of transcendental idealism differ from that of Jacobi?

5. Do the objections of Jacobi and Schulze seriously threaten transcendental idealism? If so, could critical philosophy be modified to withstand their attacks?

four Fichte: towards a scientific and systematic idealism

1. What does Fichte mean by “dogmatism” and “idealism”, and why does he regard “dogmatism” as an untenable philosophical position?

2. Why does Fichte reject Reinhold's “principle of consciousness” as a foundation for philosophy? How is Fichte's own first principle different from Reinhold's?

3. How does Fichte use the method of thesis-antithesis-synthesis to advance the development of his system?

4. How does Fichte arrive at his conception of freedom, and in which respects is it different from Kant’s?

5. What is the relationship between politics and morality, according to Fichte? How does his understanding of this relationship differ from that of Kant?