Abstract
This paper explores Kant’s account of propositional content and its implications for the relationship between his notions of knowledge (Wissen) and cognition (Erkenntnis). While previous commentators commonly read Kant as holding a Fregean theory of propositional content, in this paper I argue that Kant’s theory of propositional content aligns more closely with Peter Hanks’ recent account. According to my reading, Kant holds that individual acts of judging are both ontologically and explanatorily prior to propositions or Kantian judgments (Urteil). Furthermore, on my reading, acts of judging for Kant are acts of assertively predicating a property of an object rather than merely acts of neutral predication. This reading challenges the lately popular view that Kant’s notions of knowledge and cognition are not only distinct but also disjunct. I instead suggest that we should regard Kantian knowledge that requires cognitions as its grounds as a species of Kantian cognitions.
I would like to thank Jacob Joyce, Sally Sedgwick, and two anonymous referees of the Kant Yearbook for their very helpful comments on previous drafts of this essay.
Bibliography
All translations are quoted from The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant (1996) and the quotation rules followed are those established by the Akademie Ausgabe. Kant, Immanuel (1900 ff): Gesammelte Schriften. Hrsg.: Bd. 1 – 22 Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd. 23 Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, ab Bd. 24 Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Berlin.
Buroker, Jill Vance (2017): Kant on Judging and the Will, in: A. Gomes and A. Stephenson (eds.), Kant and the Philosophy of Mind, Oxford, pp. 189 – 203.10.1093/oso/9780198724957.003.0011Search in Google Scholar
Chignell, Andrew (2007a): Kant’s Concepts of Justification, in: Noûs 41, pp. 33 – 63.10.1111/j.1468-0068.2007.00637.xSearch in Google Scholar
Chignell, Andrew (2007b): Belief in Kant, in: Philosophical Review 116, pp. 323 – 360.10.1215/00318108-2007-001Search in Google Scholar
Chignell, Andrew (2014): Modal Motivations for Noumenal Ignorance: Knowledge, Cognition, and Coherence, in: Kant-Studien 105, pp. 573 – 597.10.1515/kant-2014-0027Search in Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob (1948): Sense and Reference, in: Philosophical Review 57, pp. 209 – 230.10.2307/2181485Search in Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob (1956): The Thought: A Logical Inquiry, in: Mind 65, pp. 289 – 311.10.1093/mind/65.1.289Search in Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob (1979): Posthumous Writings, London.Search in Google Scholar
Geach, Peter (1965): Assertion, in: Philosophical Review 74, pp. 449 – 465.10.2307/2183123Search in Google Scholar
Grüne, Stefanie (2009): Blinde Anschauung, Frankfurt am Main.10.5771/9783465136347Search in Google Scholar
Hanks, Peter (2007): The Content–Force Distinction, in: Philosophical Studies 134, pp. 141 – 164.10.1007/s11098-007-9080-5Search in Google Scholar
Hanks, Peter (2015): Propositional Content, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199684892.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Hanks, Peter (2019): On Cancellation, in: Synthese 196, pp. 1385 – 1402.10.1007/s11229-016-1260-4Search in Google Scholar
Höwing, Thomas (2016): Kant on Opinion, Belief, and Knowledge, in: The Highest Good in Kant’s Philosophy, Berlin, pp. 201 – 222.10.1515/9783110369007-014Search in Google Scholar
Jacobi, F. H. J. (1787): David Hume über den Glauben, Breslau.Search in Google Scholar
Kitcher, Patricia (1990): Kant’s Transcendental Psychology, Oxford.10.1093/oso/9780195059670.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Moltmann, Friederike, Textor, Mark (ed.) (2017): Act-Based Conceptions of Propositional Content: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Pasternack, Lawrence (2011): The Development and Scope of Kantian Belief: The Highest Good, The Practical Postulates and The Fact of Reason, in: Kant-Studien 102, pp. 290 – 315.10.1515/kant.2011.022Search in Google Scholar
Recanati, François (2019): Force Cancellation, in: Synthese 196, pp. 1403 – 1424.10.1007/s11229-016-1223-9Search in Google Scholar
Schafer (2023), Kant’s Conception of Cognition and Our Knowledge of Things in Themselves, in: K. Schafer and N. Stang (eds), The Sensible and Intelligible Worlds. Oxford, pp. 337 – 359.10.1093/oso/9780199688265.003.0011Search in Google Scholar
Soames, Scott (2010): What is Meaning?, Princeton.10.1515/9781400833948Search in Google Scholar
Stevenson, Leslie (2003): Opinion, Belief or Faith, and Knowledge, in: Kantian Review 7, pp. 72 – 101.10.1017/S1369415400001746Search in Google Scholar
Tolley, Clinton (2020): Kant on the Place of Cognition in the Progression of Our Representation, in: Synthese 197, pp. 3215 – 3244.10.1007/s11229-017-1625-3Search in Google Scholar
Willaschek, Marcus & Watkins, Eric (2020): Kant on Cognition and Knowledge, in: Synthese 197, pp. 3195 – 3213.10.1007/s11229-017-1624-4Search in Google Scholar
Watkins, Eric & Willaschek, Marcus (2017): Kant’s Account of Cognition, in: Journal of the History of Philosophy 55, pp. 83 – 112.10.1353/hph.2017.0003Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston