Practical Freedom : "One from" or "One of" the Natural Causes?
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概要
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The first section of the chapter "The canon of pure reason" in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is entitled : "On the ultimate end of the pure use of our reason". In the last paragraph of this section Kant wrote : "Wir erkennen also die praktische Freiheit durch Erfahrung, als eine von den Naturursachen, namlich eine Kausalitat der Vernunft in Bestimmung des Willens". Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood translate the passage into English as follows : "We thus cognize practical freedom through experience, as one of the natural causes, namely a causality of reason in the determination of the will". However, since Kant used an unhappy expression "eine von den Naturursachen", it is inevitable that a controversy arises about its interpretation. Namely the phrase can also be translated as "(the) one from the natural causes". Whether one cognizes practical freedom as "one of the natural causes" or as "the one from the natural causes" -that makes all the difference. In this paper I study that phrase in respect of the probability of its interpretation. First, I make some grammatical examinations. Then I probe Kant's argument in that section in order to understand the exact meaning of the phrase in its context. Although I find that each interpretation grammatically has both good points and bad points, I conclude from the contextual analysis that we should choose the interpretation "the one from the natural causes" as being justifiable. Then I argue that this interpretation raises no questions in regard to the understanding of Kant's concept of freedom, because "practical freedom as the one from the natural causes" falls in line with the development of Kant's philosophical thinking, if we only approve the provisional character of practical freedom. In contrast to this, if we should choose the interpretation "practical freedom as one of the natural causes", some serious problems would arise in regard to the understanding of Kant's concept of freedom. At the end of my argument, I also mention those problems which seem to me not to be resolved. Thus I make in conclusion a suggestion that researchers, who ground their argument about Kant's philosophical thinking, especially his concept of freedom, on that interpretation, should find it worth reviewing.
- 鈴鹿国際大学の論文
- 2007-03-20
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関連論文
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