Belief in Kant

Philosophical Review 116 (3):323-360 (2007)
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Abstract

Most work in Kant’s epistemology focuses on what happens “upstream” from experience, prior to the formation of conscious propositional attitudes. By contrast, this essay focuses on what happens "downstream": the formation of assent (Fuerwahrhalten) in its various modes. The mode of assent that Kant calls "Belief" (Glaube) is the main topic: not only moral Belief but also "pragmatic" and "doctrinal" Belief as well. I argue that Kant’s discussion shows that we should reject standard accounts of the extent to which theoretical reason can provide justified assent about things-in-themselves, in favor of one that is much more liberal. Interpretive benefits are not the only results of the discussion, however. I also hope it will become clear along the way that there is such a thing as Kantian Belief, and that we often have quite a lot of it.

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Andrew Chignell
Princeton University

Citations of this work

The legend of the justified true belief analysis.Julien Dutant - 2015 - Philosophical Perspectives 29 (1):95-145.
The ethics of belief.Andrew Chignell - 2016 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Kant on Perceptual Content.Colin McLear - 2016 - Mind 125 (497):95-144.
On the Transcendental Freedom of the Intellect.Colin McLear - 2020 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 7:35-104.

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References found in this work

Epistemic partiality in friendship.Sarah Stroud - 2006 - Ethics 116 (3):498-524.
Friendship and Belief.Simon Keller - 2004 - Philosophical Papers 33 (3):329-351.
7 Reason and the practice of science.Thomas E. Wartenberg - 1992 - In Paul Guyer (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Kant. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3--228.

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