The hidden connection between Kant and scholasticism

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00019
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01010:Philosophy and ethics-related
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: ERTL WOLFGANG 慶應義塾大学, 文学部(三田), 教授 (30407150)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: Free Will / Kant / Transcendental Idealism / Scholasticism

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The overall aim of this project has been to highlight a so-far neglected connection in the history of philosophy, since Kant's scholastic predecessors are usually seen as representatives of precisely the kind of dogmatic philosophy which Kant's critical project was supposed to overcome.
The research conducted in this project has revealed that there is a deep similarity in the approach to human free will in Luis de Molina and Kant. Kant's core concept by means of which he tries to establish the compatibility of human free will and natural causal determinism can be interpreted in terms of Molina's famous conception of counterfactuals of freedom. Counterfactuals of freedom indicate how a free agent would act in a fully specified possible situation, and an intelligible character can be said to consist of the totality of all true counterfactuals about an individual free will.

Free Research Field

Philosophy/Ethics

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この計画は、特に思想史と哲学史についての、根強く広く保持されている見解の重要な修正を提供することに貢献しました。 確立された意見に疑問を投げかける例です。また、現代哲学だけでなく近代性全般における重要人物の一人の再評価も行っています。
このプロジェクトの目的は、たとえそれがかなり野心的で自慢に聞こえるかもしれないとしても、カントの哲学のより説得力のある理解を獲得することです。このような理解は、哲学の主要な代表者の一人についての正確な全体像を提供するだけでなく、哲学史の正確な全体像を提供するためにも非常に重要です。