Week 1 – Rationally Determinable Conditions & Kant’s Agent

action agency causality metaphysics rationality substance

This week we’ll go over the basic structure and themes of the course and then sketch Kant’s view of agency. We start with a question: some conditions that an agent may be in are rationally determinable. Others are not. How should we understand this difference? More generally, how should we understand the notion of rationality, and relatedly, of engaging in rational activity? We’ll look at Ram Neta’s setup of this issue, before turning to Kant’s.

We’ll spend the rest of the meeting looking at some of Kant’s basic metaphysical commitments regarding agency, specifically his conception of causation and the way in which he construes an agent as a substance with causal powers to effect change in itself or other beings.

Readings

  • Neta, Rationally Determinable Conditions
    • We won’t discuss Neta’s positive view in much detail, but the opening pages are useful in setting up the issues we’ll be discussing.
  • (Optional) Malmgren, On Fundamental Responsibility
    • Likewise, we won’t look to closely at this point at Malmgren’s positive view, but her conception of “fundamental responsibility” is also useful for getting at issues central to the course.
  • Kant’s Critical project
    • CPR: Preface & Introduction (Second edition)
      • If you need an overview (or refresher) of Kant’s project, this is one of his more useful statements.
    • CPJ: First Introduction, §3
      • What’s of interest to us here is Kant’s conception of the connection between the Critical philosophy and the capacities of the rational mind.
    • (Optional) CPR: Second Analogy
      • There’s much more here than we can discuss in seminar, but directly relevant to his theory of causation.
  • Kant on Action & Agent
    • McLear, “Substance, Capacity, & Act”
      • This is my attempt to get clear on the some of the basic elements of Kant’s conception of an agent, and of activity. We’ll discuss issues relevant to §§1-2 in particular.
    • (Optional) Watkins, Kant on Action
      • A helpful discussion of how Kant’s conception of action fits in with his overall theory of substantial causality.
    • (Optional) Stang, Guide to Ground in the Lectures on Metaphysics
      • A helpful discussion of Kant’s conception of “ground” (Grund), which is a central notion in his epistemology and metaphysics.