CFP: 3rd Annual Post-Graduate Conference: Kant and the Domains of Judgement

“Our cognitive power as a whole has two domains, that of the concepts of nature and that of the concept of freedom” (CJ: AK174)

The third annual post-graduate philosophy conference at the University of the West of England takes as its topic Kant and the Domains of Judgement. Kant’s Critique of Judgment is from the outset premised on a division of freedom and nature between which “an immense gulf is fixed”. The work of the third critique is an attempt to bridge this gulf and his perceived failure to do so was foundational for subsequent German Idealism. Kant’s legislation on the domains of judgement remains pertinent to contemporary debate. It encompasses questions of freedom, reason, and nature and the question of the priority and relation of these in respect to each  other. As such it represents an acute point of entry to contemporary problems. These questions are not only relevant to the Critique of Judgment but also are prevalent throughout the Kantian corpus.

We invite abstracts of up to 500 words for 20 minute presentations on the historical importance and contemporary relevance of Kant’s work.

Suggested topics might include (but are not limited to):

Freedom and nature
The empirical and the a priori
The response of the German Idealists to Kant’s legislative division
Science and philosophy
Kant’s work in natural science
Kantian aesthetics and the sublime
The problem of freewill

Abstracts due by February 1st 2013. E-mail to [email protected]