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The Principle of Reason's Self-Preservation in Kant's Essay on the Pantheism Controversy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2021

FARSHID BAGHAI Open the ORCID record for FARSHID BAGHAI [Opens in a new window]
FARSHID BAGHAI*
Affiliation:
VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY farshid.baghai@villanova.edu
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Abstract

In his 1786 essay on the pantheism controversy, ‘What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking?’, Kant implies that ‘the maxim of reason's self-preservation [Selbsterhaltung]’ is reason's first principle for orienting itself in thinking supersensible objects. But Kant does not clearly explain what the maxim or principle of reason's self-preservation is and how it fits into his larger project of critical philosophy. Nor does the secondary literature. This article reconstructs Kant's discussion of the principle of reason's self-preservation in ‘What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking?’ It suggests that this principle is best understood as the discipline of pure reason. The principle of reason's self-preservation performs the same methodological function that Kant assigns to the discipline of pure reason. This principle establishes the rule of law in reason and subjects reason to its own laws. In so doing, it prevents reason's dialectical errors and also grounds reason's faith (Vernunftglaube), which in turn systematically conditions the practical use of reason.

Keywords

Kantcritical methoddisciplinereason's self-preservationfaith
Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Winter 2022 , pp. 623 - 644
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Philosophical Association

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Footnotes

I thank several anonymous reviewers, especially the two reviewers of Journal of the American Philosophical Association, and Rachel Bryant for their comments and criticisms that helped me improve this article. I also thank Ellen Wert for her editorial suggestions and copyediting of this article.

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