Kant on Causation: On the Fivefold Routes to the Principle of Causation

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi 1 Relationships 1 Concepts and intuitions 2 Kant’s introduction to the problem of the Schematism and his introductory solution 3 Kant’s true task in the Schematism 4 Leibniz 4 Hume 5 Leibniz, Hume, Kant, and applicability 7 The importance of the Schematism 9 A problem with Kant’s account of the Schematism 10 The transcendental deduction and the principles 13 Principles of Understanding and Principles of Reason 16 Analogies of Experience 22 Kant and Hume 26 Hume’s Doubt 28 Hume’s reasons for doubting the possibility of demonstration 30 Transcendental proof and Kant’s proof of the causal principle 32 2 The Causal Principle 35 The principle of the second analogy. 35 Evaluation of Possible Interpretations of the Formulation of the Causal Principle 39 The Same-Cause-Same-Effect thesis 39 The Every-Event-Some-Cause thesis 43 3 The Fivefold Routes to the Principle of Causation 45 Possible Argument Strategies 45 Evaluation of Argument Strategies 51 The Veridical Strategy 52 The Event/Object Strategy 55 The Event/Event Strategy 58 The Justification Strategy 67 v vi CONTENTS 4 The Irreversibility Argument 75 Lovejoy’s Position 76 Strawson’s Position 81 Bennett’s Position 87 Melnick’s Position 89 Guyer’s Position 92 The house, the ship, and irreversibility 97 5 Objects of Representations 103 The principle of the Second Analogy 104 Subject to a rule 107 Objects of representations and being subject to a rule 108 Irreversibility revisited: Are successions of appearances subject to a rule? 112 An example for the official definition 116 Successions of appearances must be subject to a rule 118 Problems and Defense 120 The requirements for a succession of appearances’ being subject to a rule 120 Are my requirements too strong? 121 Are my requirements too weak? 123 Repeatability 123 Necessary Order 126 Textual Worries 128 Repeatability 128 Necessary Order and Necessity 130 Is this really a causal theory? 135 6 Hume Revisited 137 A brief review 137 Transcendental proof and the mistake strategy 139 A problem with Kant’s transcendental proof and mistake strategy 143 The implications of this problem 144 Turning the copy thesis on its head 146 Problem: Drawing the distinction between a beginning of existence and a cause of existence 148 Final Status of Kant’s Answer to Hume 150 Conclusion 153 On the Guide(s) to the Discovery of the Route to the Principle of Causation 153 The house, the ship, and irreversibility 154 vii Contents The nature of the principle of the Second Analogy 157 Synthetic and a priori 157 Constitutive versus regulative 158 Objects of representations 160 Object of Experience Strategies 162 Bibliography 167 Index 173 ...