L.W. Beck - Böcker

The Third International Kant Congress met at the University of Rochester from March 30 through April 4, 1970. Over two hundred students of Kant's philosophy from Europe, Africa, and North and South America attended. The Congress was organized by a Committee consisting of Gottfried Martin of the University of Bonn and myself as co-chairmen, and the following members: Professors Ingeborg Heidemann (Bonn), Gerhard Funke (Mainz), Edmond Ortigues (Rennes), Stephan Korner (Bristol), W. H. Walsh (Edinburgh), George A. Schrader, Jr. (Yale), and John R. Silber (University of Texas). Generous financial support for the Congress was provided by Mr. Kilian J. Schmitt of Rochester. One hundred and eight papers were presented in six plenary and twenty- two concurrent sessions. Chairmen of programs, in addition to members of the Committee, were: Professors John E. Atwell, Douglas P. Dryer, A. R. C. Duncan, Stanley G. French, Klaus Hartmann, Robert L. Hol- mes, Peter Jones, George L. Kline, Peter Krausser, Robert G. Miller, John D. McFarland, Fritz-Joachim von Rintelen, Charles M. Sherover, Ernst Konrad Specht, Dietrich Schulz, Giorgio Tonelli, Robert Tredwell, Kurt Weinberg, James B.Wilbur, and Arnulf Zweig.

The Third International Kant Congress met in Rochester, New York, March 30 to April 4, 1970. The Proceedings, published by D. Reidel Publishing Company in 1972, contained 76 complete papers and 30 ab­ stracts in three languages. Since this large volume covered many phases of Kant's philosophy from a wide variety of standpoints, it is unlikely that the entire contents of it will be of interest to anyone philosopher. I have therefore selected from that volume the 20 papers that seem to me to be most likely to be of interest to English-speaking philosophers who are, to use a fairly vague description, in the 'analytical tradition'. The topics treated here are those which are most relevant to current philosoph­ ical debate in the theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science. The division of papers under the seven principal topics, however, is in some respects a little arbitrary. I hope this little volume, published 250 years after Kant's birth, will show philosophers who are not already convinced that Kant is one of the most contemporary of the great philosophers of the past. I believe that the efforts of the authors of the papers will show that there can be genuine Kantian contributions towards the solution of problems that have fre­ quently been handled in opposition to, or obliviousness of, the eighteenth­ century philosopher who did more than anyone else to formulate the problems which still worry philosophers in the analytic tradition.