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God, Totality and Possibility in Kant's Only Possible Argument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2014

Peter Yong
Peter Yong*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego Email: p1yong@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

There has been a groundswell of interest in the account of modality that Kant sets forth in his pre-Critical Only Possible Argument. Andrew Chignell's reconstruction of Kant's theistic argument in terms of what he calls ‘real harmony’ has a prima facie advantage in that it appears to be able to block the plurality objection (namely, that even if every modal fact presupposes some ground, this does not entail that all modal facts share the same ground). I argue that it is both textually and philosophically problematic to interpret Kant's argument in terms of real harmony. Then, I set forth an alternative response to the plurality objection which does not require the adoption of the problematic notion of real harmony. Instead, I argue that the objection can be overcome by observing that the argument seeks to ground modal facts as a totality and that, according to Kant, such relations can be accounted for only by their schematization in a single intellect.

Keywords

modalitylogical possibilitymetaphysical possibilityabsolute possibilitylogical contentGodrelationsOnly Possible ArgumentNova DilucidatioLeibniz
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 27 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Kantian Review 2014 

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