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The Possibility Proof is Not What Remains from Kant's Beweisgrund

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2020

Michael Oberst
Michael Oberst*
Affiliation:
Humboldt University of Berlin
*
Email: mioberst@gmx.de
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Abstract

The so-called ‘possibility proof’ in Kant's pre-Critical Beweisgrund has been widely discussed in the literature, and it is a common view that he never really abandoned it. As I shall argue, this reading is mistaken. I aim to show that the natural illusion in the Critique of Pure Reason, which is usually taken to be the possibility proof turned into a transcendental illusion, has both a different conclusion and a different argument than the possibility proof. Rather, what remains from Beweisgrund is what I will call the ‘proof a posteriori’, which the Critique turns into a transcendental illusion that is of regulative use for reason.

Keywords

rational theologytranscendental idealregulative use of reason
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 219 - 242
Copyright
© Kantian Review, 2020

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