[Seminar] Reading Kant through Philosophy of Language

Datets: March 9 – May 25, 2024 (Sat) 14:00-16:00, 12 weeks
Location: Jidda, Seoul
- Jidda is a private institution for citizens, modeled after Collège de France.
Instructor: Subin Nam
Participants: 18 individuals, including graduate students and citizens interested in philosophy

1. Seminar Description

“there are two kinds of philosophers—those who are interested in the history of philosophy and those who are interested in philosophy.” This remark, usually attributed to Quine, underscores the opposition between continental philosophy and analytic philosophy, or between historical and contemporary philosophy. But can we truly solve philosophical problems without understanding their historical context? Are the questions that occupied philosophers of the past disconnected from today’s concerns?

This seminar examines Kant’s Critique of the Pure Reason, a rare text referenced by both continental and analytic traditions. What aspect of this 1781 classic bridges these seemingly opposing schools of thoughts? The key lies in the epistemological question central to the Critique: How is synthetic a priori judgment possible? This question can be reinterpreted through the lens of philosophy of language as: How is objective meaning possible?

We will explore the Critique of Pure Reason as addressing a central issue in modern philosophy—the semantic problem: How can language refers to the world? Drawing on interpretations by analytic philosophy, we will revisit Kant’s question and criticall evaluate early analytic philosopher’s critiques of his answers. Through this, the seminar seeks to uncover constructive intersections between early modern and contemporary philosophy, as well as between continental and analytic traditions.

2. Targeted Audience

Anyone who would like to read the Critique of the Pure Reason at least once in a lifetime
Students and Researchers who are interested in Kant’s philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language
Students and Researchers who are pondering upon the contemporary significance of early modern philosophy

3. Structure of The Seminar

Following Kant and the Foundation of Analytic Philosophy by Robert Hanna, interpret the content of the Critique of Pure Reason. And examine the critique to Kant by early analytic philosophers.
This is not a reading seminar which read the whole text of the Critique of Pure Reason line by line.
The instructor will share the summary material before every classes. Presentation by the instructor and discussion with the audience will constitute the seminar.

4. Text

Primary Text
- Robert Hanna, Kant and the Foundation of Analytic Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2001)
- Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Pure Reason [임마누엘 칸트, 『순수이성비판』 1권, 백종현 옮김(아카넷, 2006)]
Secondary Text
- Look up in the weekly plan below.

5. Schedule of Meetings and Topics

Section 1. Cognition and Meaning

Week 1. Basic Concepts and the Framework of Critique of the Pure Reason / From Transcendental Philosophy to Philosophy of Language

Text: B-Introduction of the First Critique; Introduction of Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy
Explore the foundational distinctions in Kant’s philosophy, such as those between sensibility and understanding, appearances and things in themselves, analytic and synthetic judgment, and a priori and a posteriori. Familiarize yourself with the technical terms necessary for the discussions ahead. Introduce the overarching project and the main theses of Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy.

Week 2. Kant’s Cognitive Semantics / The Structure of Mind in Kant’s Philosophy

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 1.0. – 1.3.
Analyze how the central questions of the First Critique—How can mental representations refer to objects? How can these representations achieve synthetic a priori judgments?—can be reinterpreted through the lens of cognitive semantics.

Week 3. Intuition and Concept / Moore’s Critique on Kant’s theory of judgment

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 1.4.-1.6.; G. E. Moore, “The Nature of Judgement”(1899)
Examine the distinctive characteristics of intuition and concepts as two types of mental representations, and analyze how they combine to produce judgments. Review G. E. Moore’s critique, which challenges Kant by asserting that judgment should not be reduced to the mental states of individual subjects.

Week 4. The Logical Syntax of the Mind / What is Objective Validity?

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 2.0.-2.2.
Investigate the conditions under which cognitive meaning arises, focusing on the interplay between form and content in producing objective validity.

Week 5. Phenomena and Noumena

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 2.3.-2.5.
Examine the system of transcendental idealism, focusing on the distinction between appearances and things in themselves, which serves as the foundation for Kant’s account of objective validity.

Section 2. Analyticity and Syntheticity

Week 6. Kant and Frege on Analyticity

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 3.0.-3.3.; Gottlob Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic (1884).
Examine Kant’s definition of analyticity and his response to the criticism that his definition is psychologistic. Compare Kant’s approach to Frege’s definition of analyticity and his attack on psychologism in the late 19th century.

Week 7. Analyticity of Carnap and Quine

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 3.4.-3.6.; Rudolf Carnap, Meaning and Necessity (1947); W. V. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”(1951).
Explore logical empiricist Carnap’s notion of analyticity and discuss Quine’s critique, which argues that analyticity cannot be clearly defined within logical empiricism.

Week 8. Syntheticity of Frege and Kant

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 4.0.-4.2.; Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic.
Compare Kant’s and Frege’s arguments that a proposition is synthetic iff its meaning and truth value depend on intuition. Examine how their theory bridge semantics and epistemology.

Week 9. Kant’s Intuition and Frege’s Intuitionism

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 4.3.-4.5.; Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic.
Examine how Kant’s intuition differs from concepts and its cognitive role. Discuss Frege’s theory of intuition, noting its similarities with Kant and its necessity in Frege’s semantics.

Section 3. Apriority

Week 10. Experienceable Worlds / Apriority and Necessity

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 5.0.-5.2.
Explore the semantic and modal properties of Kant’s synthetic a priori propositions.

Week 11. a priori Analyticity and a priori Syntheticity / Is the Synthetic a priori Judgment Really Impossible?

Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy 5.3.-5.6.
Examine Kant’s argument on the synthetic apriority of geometry. Discuss the critiques by Russell, Helmholtz, and Reichenbach in the context of non-Euclidean geometry.

Week 12. Synthesizing Kant and Analytic Philosophy

Conclusion of Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy
Discuss Hanna’s theses, arguments, and counter-critiques of early analytic philosophers. Explore how contemporary philosophy can engage in meaningful dialogue with early modern philosophy.