Marcus Willaschek – författare

»Konststycket att förklara grunddragen i Kants tänkande har Kant-experten Marcus Willaschek lyckats med. ... en enastående välskriven, klart genomtänkt och synnerligen lyckad bok.» /PHILOSOPHIE MAGAZIN

»Den panoramabild som erbjuds av Kants omfattande och tematiskt vittförgrenade verk är en lysande prestation som även de som inte är helt obekanta med Kants verk kommer att ha nytta av.» /FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) är en av den moderna epokens allra mest betydande filosofer. I sina tre berömda Kritiker (av det rena förnuftet, av det praktiska förnuftet och av omdömeskraften) undersökte han grundvalarna för, i tur och ordning, kunskap (det sanna), moral (det rätta) och estetik (det sköna). Han banade väg för idéerna om mänsklig värdighet och mänskliga rättigheter, om rättsstat och en global rättsordning, och han reflekterade över ondska och gudstro. Ytterst handlar hans filosofi om vad det innebär att vara människa, om hennes ”bestämmelse”.I denna bok skildrar Marcus Willaschek Kants tankerevolution. Han går tematiskt snarare än kronologiskt tillväga och börjar med politik och historia, följt av moral, rätt, religion, natur, kunskap och metafysik. Willaschek ger också en bild av Kant som en människa i sin tid: som ung man en elegant och uppskattad sällskapsmänniska, på äldre dar medelpunkten för en stor vänkrets i födelsestaden Königsberg som han aldrig lämnade, men där han föreläste om de mest avlägsna delar av världen och både hyllade och fördömde den franska revolutionen."Kant. En revolution i tänkandet" är ett försök att göra filosofen levande för moderna läsare utan större förkunskaper i filosof. Willascheks strävan är, som han själv säger, ”att stimulera läsaren att själv reflektera filosofiskt – i linje med Kants motto att man inte kan lära ut eller lära sig filosofi, utan bara att filosofera”.Marcus Willaschek är en internationellt ledande Kant-kännare och professor i filosofi vid Goethe-universitetet i Frankfurt am Main.

Does perception provide us with direct and unmediated access to the world around us? The so-called 'argument from illusion ' has traditionally been supposed to show otherwise: from the subject's point of view, perceptual illusions are often indistinguishable from veridical perceptions; hence, perceptual experience, as such, cannot provide us with knowledge of the world, but only with knowledge of how things appear to us. Disjunctive accounts of perceptual experience, first proposed by John McDowell and Paul Snowdon in the early 1980s and at the centre of current debates in the philosophy of perception, have been proposed to block this argument. According to the traditional view, a case of perception and a subjectively indistinguishable illusion or hallucination can exemplify what is fundamentally the same kind of mental state even though they differ in how they relate to the non-mental environment. In contrast, according to the disjunctive account, the concept of perceptual experience should be seen as essentially disjunctive, encompassing (at least) two distinct kinds of mental states, namely genuinely world-involving perceptions and mere appearances. This book presents seven recent essays on disjunctivism first published in two special issues of Philosophical Explorations: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Mind and Action.

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year“An expert and engaging new introduction to the philosopher.” —Adam Kirsch, New YorkerA foremost Kant expert takes us on a lively tour through the revolutionary ideas of the founder of modern philosophy.Immanuel Kant is undoubtedly the most important philosopher of the modern era. His Critique of Pure Reason, “categorical imperative,” and conception of perpetual peace in the global order decisively influenced both intellectual history and twentieth-century politics, shaping everything from the German Constitution to the United Nations Charter.Renowned philosopher Marcus Willaschek explains why, three centuries after Kant’s birth, his reflections on democracy, beauty, nature, morality, and the limits of human knowledge remain so profoundly relevant. Weaving biographical and historical context together with exposition of key ideas, Willaschek emphasizes three central features of Kant’s theory and method. First, Kant combines seemingly incompatible positions to show how their insights can be reconciled. Second, he demonstrates that it is not only human thinking that must adjust to the realities of the world; the world must also be fitted to the structures of our thinking. Finally, he overcomes the traditional opposition between thought and action by putting theory at the service of practice.In Kant: A Revolution in Thinking, even readers having no prior acquaintance with Kant’s ideas or with philosophy generally will find an adroit introduction to the Prussian polymath’s oeuvre, beginning with his political arguments, expanding to his moral theory, and finally moving to his more abstract considerations of natural science, epistemology, and metaphysics. Along the way, Kant himself emerges from beneath his famed works, revealing a magnetic personality, a clever ironist, and a man deeply engaged with his contemporary world.

Does perception provide us with direct and unmediated access to the world around us? The so-called 'argument from illusion ' has traditionally been supposed to show otherwise: from the subject's point of view, perceptual illusions are often indistinguishable from veridical perceptions; hence, perceptual experience, as such, cannot provide us with knowledge of the world, but only with knowledge of how things appear to us. Disjunctive accounts of perceptual experience, first proposed by John McDowell and Paul Snowdon in the early 1980s and at the centre of current debates in the philosophy of perception, have been proposed to block this argument. According to the traditional view, a case of perception and a subjectively indistinguishable illusion or hallucination can exemplify what is fundamentally the same kind of mental state even though they differ in how they relate to the non-mental environment. In contrast, according to the disjunctive account, the concept of perceptual experience should be seen as essentially disjunctive, encompassing (at least) two distinct kinds of mental states, namely genuinely world-involving perceptions and mere appearances. This book presents seven recent essays on disjunctivism first published in two special issues of Philosophical Explorations: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Mind and Action.

In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant famously criticizes traditional metaphysics and its proofs of immortality, free will and God's existence. What is often overlooked is that Kant also explains why rational beings must ask metaphysical questions about 'unconditioned' objects such as souls, uncaused causes or God, and why answers to these questions will appear rationally compelling to them. In this book, Marcus Willaschek reconstructs and defends Kant's account of the rational sources of metaphysics. After carefully explaining Kant's conceptions of reason and metaphysics, he offers detailed interpretations of the relevant passages from the Critique of Pure Reason (in particular, the 'Transcendental Dialectic') in which Kant explains why reason seeks 'the unconditioned'. Willaschek offers a novel interpretation of the Transcendental Dialectic, pointing up its 'positive' side, while at the same time it uncovers a highly original account of metaphysical thinking that will be relevant to contemporary philosophical debates.

In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant famously criticizes traditional metaphysics and its proofs of immortality, free will and God's existence. What is often overlooked is that Kant also explains why rational beings must ask metaphysical questions about 'unconditioned' objects such as souls, uncaused causes or God, and why answers to these questions will appear rationally compelling to them. In this book, Marcus Willaschek reconstructs and defends Kant's account of the rational sources of metaphysics. After carefully explaining Kant's conceptions of reason and metaphysics, he offers detailed interpretations of the relevant passages from the Critique of Pure Reason (in particular, the 'Transcendental Dialectic') in which Kant explains why reason seeks 'the unconditioned'. Willaschek offers a novel interpretation of the Transcendental Dialectic, pointing up its 'positive' side, while at the same time it uncovers a highly original account of metaphysical thinking that will be relevant to contemporary philosophical debates.