2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Kant's Religious Solution to Reason's Self-Subversion
| Project/Area Number |
26370030
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| Research Institution | International Christian University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | Kant / Rousseau / Girard, René / Scandal / Religion |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In academic year 2017 two books that I either edited or co-edited appeared. The first was "Apocalypse Deferred: Girard and Japan" (South Bend: Notre Dame University Press) and the second was "Handbook of Mimetic Theory", co-editor with Wolfgang Palaver of “Part V: Apocalypse, Post-Modernity, and the Return of Religion” (New York: Palgrave Press). In this handbook I wrote two entries: “The Return of Religion” and “Scandal.” Both books contribute to the Kant project by deepening my understanding of the religious significance of violence and helping me to see how these themes are present in Kant's work. I also published a refereed article on the relationship between philosophy and the university, “Being on the Ground: Philosophy, Reading, and Difficulty,” Tetsugaku: International Journal of the Philosophical Association of Japan. Finally, an older article, “Why Rousseau Cannot Laugh: Structuring Motif” was finally published in in "Mimetic Theory and World Religions", ed. Wolfgang Palaver and Richard Schenk (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press). This book was important because it helps me to keep Rousseau's religious thought clear to see how it influences Kant.
Most importantly, I gave a paper at the 日本カント協会 for its symposium on カントとフランス哲学 in November. It was titled「カント、ルソー、訓練」and it was an exploration of the way Rousseau influenced Kant in his conception of philosophical method as that is explained in the last part of the Critique of Pure Reason.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Last year in April I became Director of the University Library. This appointment very much surprised me and was simply added on top of being Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. This makes me part of the University Administration with many meetings and reports. It takes away from my research time because I also teach almost a full load of classes.
Nevertheless, I wrote the article for the 日本カント協会. It is my second article on the Critique of Pure Reason and it allows me to now move more to the central problem of the First Critique - how the Transcendental Deduction allows us to have a common world.
I also wrote on the Antinomy of Pure Reason as a mimetic phenomenon. This too prepares me for the Transcendental Deduction.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will write for the rest of this year on the Transcendental Deduction. In it I will show that there is a "Rousseauian" moment. That is, a moment in which Kant shows that experience is open to all human beings and there is no "privileged" experience for the scholar or the philosopher. But precisely this openness to all makes people strive to outdo each other by claiming special knowledge or by disparaging the knowledge that others actually have. Either is fatal to philosophy.
I hope to show that this openness is an openness to transcendence and hence to religion.
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| Causes of Carryover |
This year(2018) I will be traveling to the United States for an International Conference and there will be commenting on a book that concerns Kant. I will also be purchasing some more of the latest research on Kant and buying a computer to continue my work.
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