CFP: 1st Berlin Kant Workshop – Kant on Following Rules

Call for Abstracts

In Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, human knowledge appears as the end result of a plurality of cognitive activities. Perception, synthesis, intuition, thought, and judgment are only some of the cognitive activities involved in human knowledge. In contemporary epistemology, such cognitive activities have often been understood as involving normative aspects, the spontaneous activity of conscious cognitive subjects and the active following of rules. However, as a reading of Kant, such a thesis is rather controversial: it is unclear whether and how a normative understanding of the various cognitive activities can be reconciled with the role of psychological deterministic processes in the genesis of human cognition. What is then the place of rule following in Kant’s overall picture? How are the normative aspects of the rule-governed activities of the different cognitive faculties to be specified? What are the law-giving grounds of the epistemic norms?

This workshop will explore the controversial issue of normativity and rule-following in Kant’s theoretical philosophy. A special focus will be on his account of human knowledge and cognition.

We invite submissions from graduate students working on relevant aspects of Kant’s philosophy. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• The clarification of the very notion of normativity which is at stake in Kant’s theoretical philosophy

• Discussion of normative aspects which are (or which are not) involved in different cognitive faculties and processes according to Kant

• Discussion of particular problems that arise with respect to normative aspects of human cognition.

Keynote talks from:

Konstantin Pollok (USC)

Clinton Tolley (UCSD)

If you are interested in giving a presentation, please send:

An extended abstract (max. 1500 words) which briefly summarizes the central theses and arguments of the presentation. The abstract should be based on papers suitable for presentation in 40-45 minutes and should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identifying details.

The author’s name, institutional position and affiliation, as well as contact information should be included in the body of the e-mail.

The deadline for submissions is the 15 of February 2016. Please direct your queries to [email protected].