Socrates Meets Kant: The Father of Philosophy Meets His Most Influential Modern Child

by Peter Kreeft

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 2009

Overview

In this volume, Peter Kreeft explains how Immanuel Kant was both a philosopher about how we know things (epistemology) and a philosopher of right and wrong (ethics). Kant’s philosophy of knowing truly was a “Copernican revolution in philosophy,” and his ethics were intended to lay a rational foundation for morality. If he had written only on either topic, he would still be among the most important and influential of the modern philosophers. The combination of the two, though, makes for a formidable thinker, one it would take a figure such as the father of philosophy, the relentless Socrates, to confront. The conversation between the two great minds lays out the key issues. Kreeft’s Socrates reflects what the historical philosopher would likely have made of Kant’s ideas, while also recognizing the genius of Kant. The result is a helpful, highly readable, even amusing dialogue that makes the thought of these two giants easily accessible.

In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Explains Immanuel Kant as a philosopher of epistemology and ethics
• Presents a ficitional dialogue between Socrates and Kant
• Reflects what the historical philosopher would likely have made of Kant’s ideas

Contents

• Introducing Kant Himself
• Kant’s Place in the History of Philosophy
• Haunted by Hume
• The Fundamental Question of The Critique of Pure Reason
• Kant’s Big Idea: His “Copernican Revolution” in Philosophy
• Is Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” Self-Contradictory?
• The Sexual Analogy for Knowledge and the Ambiguity of “Phenomena”
• The “Antinomies of Pure Reason”
• God
• The Single, Simple Purpose and Point of the Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals
• The Starting Point: A Good Will
• What Make a Good Will Good? Duty versus Inclination
• The Call for Purity of Motive
• The First Formulation of the Categorical Imperative: The “Golden Rule”
• The Second Formulation of the Categorical Imperative: Personalism
• The Third Formulation of the Categorical Imperative: The Autonomy of the Will
• Free Will
• Kant’s Philosophy of Religion and Politics

Top Highlights

“kant: Thinking universal principles is like observing the motion of the sun. When we think universal principles like causality, it seems that this comes from without, from nature; it seems that we see it, we reflect it, we mirror an objective logos, a rational order in nature. But this is not so. It appears that way, but it is not really that way. Really, all the order comes from us. In the act of knowing, the subject of knowing determines, forms, shapes, or structures the object of knowing, not vice versa, as everyone had thought. That is my ‘Copernican revolution’.” (Page 52)

“Yes. They simply assumed that the human mind could know being, could know reality as it really is, could know ‘things-in-themselves’, as I called them. But in modern philosophy we are more critical: we demand that that assumption be proved, not assumed, or at least that it be justified by being clearly explained—it must be explained how we can attain this high goal of a certain knowledge of objective reality.” (Page 35)

“Copernican revolution in philosophy’. The idea is essentially this: that being—the being we know—conforms to our knowledge rather than our knowledge conforming to being; that in knowing, the known object conforms to the knowing subject rather than vice versa; that all the form, or intelligible content, of our knowledge comes from us rather than from the world.” (Page 29)

“his epistemology is truly the ‘Copernican revolution in philosophy’,” (Page 11)

“No universal and necessary law can be proved by observation because what we observe with the senses is always the particular and the contingent.” (Page 47)

Product Details

• Title: Socrates Meets Kant: The Father of Philosophy Meets His Most Influential Modern Child
• Author: Peter Kreeft
• Series: Socrates Meets …
• Publisher: Ignatius
• Print Publication Date: 2009
• Logos Release Date: 2013
• Pages: 236
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804; Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 › Kritik der reinen Vernunft; Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 › Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten; Socrates
• ISBNs: 9781681494388, 1681494388
• Resource ID: LLS:SCRTSMTSKNT
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:50:45Z

About Peter Kreeft

Peter John Kreeft, Ph.D., (born 1937) is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King’s College, and author of numerous books as well as a popular writer on philosophy, Christian theology, and specifically Roman Catholic apologetics. He also formulated together with Ronald K. Tacelli, SJ, “Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God.”