Intellectual Freedom and the Possibility of novel and original Thought in Kant

Intellectual Freedom and the Possibility of novel and original Thought in Kant

What counts as novel and original thought and how is it possible? How is it thinkable that an original thought emerges or can be formed in finite rational beings without being determined by previous mental states? The conference deals with productive thought and is set up to address these questions by exploring the relationship between empirical thinking and transcendental freedom and by reconsidering the autonomy and the predetermination of processes of cognition and Kantian faculty-analysis. The conference will address topics from transcendental arguments and the relation between transcendental subjectivity and empirical thought to arguments for actual freedom, the Kantian notion of „real possibility“, the freedom of the intellect, the relation between spontaneity in thought and will, noumenal freedom and freedom of empirical thought, the  problem of the automaton spirituale, the problem of original innovative thought, revolutionary geniality and Kant‘s concept of the heautonomy of the reflexive power of judgment. 

The conference will take place at University of Munich (LMU) on 30th June and 1. July at ZEPP. The keynote speaker is Prof. Markus Kohl, University of North Carolina. 

Program

Time: 30th June –  1st July 2023 9am – 5 pm

Place: In person at ZEPP in the main building of the University (Room M 210) 

30th June

Panel 1

Chair: Larissa Wallner

9:00 am                                  Opening Remarks

9:10 – 10:00 am                       Markus Kohl (UNC Chapel Hill), Original Synthesis, Normativity, and Intellectual Freedom

10:00 – 10:20 am                     Discussion

10:25 – 10:55 am                      Lucia Volonté (Mainz), Transcendental Freedom and Spontaneity of Thinking in the pre-critical Kant

10:55 – 11:15 am                        Discussion

Break 11:15 – 11:25

11:25 – 11:55 am            Sabrina Bauer (Luxembourg), Kants kritischer Begriff endlicher Spontaneität in der theoretischen Philosophie 

11:55 – 12:15 am            Discussion

Lunch 12:15 – 13.45 pm

Panel 2 

Chair: Sabrina Bauer

1:45 – 2:15 pm              Larissa Wallner (Munich), On the Possibility of Novelty in Kant’ s critical Philosophy

2:15 – 2:35 pm              Discussion

2:40 – 3:10 pm            Mathis Koschel (Southern California),  Kant’s Direct Argument against Predeterminism 

3:10 – 3:30 pm             Discussion

3:30 bis 3:45 Break

3:45 – 4:15 pm             Konstanty Kuzma (Munich), Originality, Spontaneity and Freedom: Kant on the Activity of Rational Minds

4:15 – 4:35 pm                         Discussion

Who likes to go: Haus der Kunst

19:30 Dinner, Lucullus (Untergiesing, 81543 München)

July 1st

Panel 3 

Chair:

9:30 – 10:00 am          Charlotte Baumann (Berlin), Novel Concepts and epistemic Friction

10:00 – 10:20 am         Discussion

10:25 – 10:55 am          Florian Ganzinger (Stuttgart), Categorical Indeterminacy and Purposiveness of Nature: Kant on the Formation of Empirical Concepts

10:55 – 11:15 am            Discussion

11:15 – 11:35 Break

11:35 – 12:05 am           Neşe Aksoy (Sofia), Kant’s Highest Good. A Synthesis of Noumenal Freedom and the Freedom of Pursuing Happiness

12:05 – 12.30 am          Discussion

Lunch 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Panel 4

Chair: 

1:30 – 2:00 pm            Larissa Berger (Siegen), Heautonomy and Originality in Judging Beauty

2:00 – 2:20 pm            Discussion

2:25 – 2:55 pm             Christian Onof (London), The Freedom and Originality of Rational Thought

2:55 – 3:15 pm             Discussion

Break 3:15 – 3:35 pm

3:35 – 4.05 pm            David Kretz (Chicago), Genius as the Form of Moral-Historical Agency in Kant

4:05 – 4:40 pm           Discussion

Drinks