Developing Cognition From Its Original Seeds: Kant’s Conception of the Synthetic Method in the Critique of Pure Reason

The Digital Kant-Centre NRW is pleased to invite you to a lecture by Prof. Karin de Boer (KU Leuven) on the topic “Developing Cognition From Its Original Seeds: Kant’s Conception of the Synthetic Method in the Critique of Pure Reason.” The lecture will take place online (via Webex) on Wednesday, 26 April 2023, from 6:00 – 8:00 pm CET. Please see below for the Webex-link and an abstract of the lecture. 

This is the fourth talk in the series Digital Kant-Lectures, organized by Digital Kant-Centre NRW, which takes place on the last Wednesday of each month via Webex. For the program of the series, please see here: https://kant-zentrum-nrw.de/digital-kant-lectures/

To stay informed about the activities of Digital Kant-Centre, please subscribe here to our newsletter: https://kant-zentrum-nrw.de/newsletter/

Webex-link for Karin de Boer’s lecture:

https://uni-siegen.webex.com/uni-siegen/j.php?MTID=m7d71e3d4bd2d801bf4953562b9e83335

Abstract:

In the Prolegomena, Kant contrasts the synthetic procedure employed in the Critique of Pure Reason to the analytic procedure carried out in the Prolegomena itself. Given the tangle of analyses, arguments, and alleged proofs that make up the Critique itself, however, it is hard to relate Kant’s remarks on the method to the way he actually proceeds in this work. Unlike Merritt, and Gava, among others, I argue that Kant’s innovative use of the synthetic method consists not in the unification of two previously separated elements, but in the act of generating a sum total of cognitions without relying on anything given. Even though Kant in the Critique does not proceed synthetically in all regards, he arguably develops sets of synthetic a priori cognitions from a consideration of the functions of the pure understanding and pure reason per se. I support this reading by clarifying how the Critique proceeds synthetically as regards (1) the thrust of the Transcendental Analytic as a whole and (2) the metaphysical deduction of the categories.