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Kant’s Fact of Pure Reason

Kant’s “Critique of Practical Reason” marks a significant departure from the foundational project of the “Groundwork”. Whereas the earlier work offers a defence of the categorical imperative as an expression of autonomy, the later work expects us to accept morality as factual. Kant dubs the fundamental law of ethics the “sole fact of pure reason”. Many readers are worried that philosophical justification has given way to dogmatism. In this talk, I try to get to the bottom of this change of mind by addressing, inter alia, the following questions: How does Kant characterise the Fact of Reason? In what sense of the word is the Fact a fact? Why does Kant call the Fact a ‘fact’? What role does the Fact play in the second Critique? How does the Fact relate to demonstration or proof? When and how do we encounter the Fact of Reason? It turns out that Kant does have a distinctive justificatory project in the second “Critique” even if, by his own standards, it falls short of a fully fledged ‘deduction’.

► This event is in-person. Join in person at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin Building room 200).

Jens Timmermann

Professor of Moral Philosophy
University of St. Andrews

Sat, Jan 18, 2025
03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin