Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:03:44.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nicholas Stang’s Kant’s Modal Metaphysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2018

Kris McDaniel*
Affiliation:
Syracuse University

Abstract

In this critical review, I focus on two things. First, I respond to Stang’s interpretation of Descartes, according to which Descartes’ endorsement of his ontological argument commits him to possibilism, the doctrine that there are, or at least could be, non-existent individuals. My response consists in presenting a version of Descartes’ argument the acceptance of which does not require the acceptance of possibilism. The second thing I focus on is Stang’s claim that Kant distinguishes several kinds of real possibility. I raise worries about Stang’s formulations of various doctrines of real possibility, and I preliminarily explore how real essence and ground are connected with the various kinds of real necessity Stang’s Kant recognizes.

Type
Author Meets Critics
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2018 

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.)

References

Brown, Deborah (2011) ‘Descartes on True and False Ideas’. In Janet Broughton and John Carriero (eds), A Companion to Descartes (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing), pp. 196215.Google Scholar
Cunning, David (2014) ‘Descartes’ Modal Metaphysics’. In Edward N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 edn). URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/descartes–modal.Google Scholar
McDaniel, Kris (2017) The Fragmentation of Being. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar