Kant's distinctive account of space, matter and force had a significant role to play in his philosophy. (Photo courtesy of Underpuppy. Used with permission.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Rae Langton
MIT Course Number
24.201
As Taught In
Fall 2005
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
In this course we shall study the Critique of Pure Reason with special focus on questions about idealism, about our ignorance of things in themselves, and about what, if anything, idealism has to do with this kind of ignorance. Along the way we shall consider Kant's distinctive account of space, matter, and force, all of which had a significant role to play in his own philosophy, and in the historical evolution of field theory. In the last part of the course we shall look at an alternative, and unorthodox, interpretation of Kant's distinction between phenomena and things in themselves (as argued for in my own book, Kantian Humility).