Logic & Philosophy of Science Colloquium



R. Lanier Anderson
  Stanford University

"A Difficult Birth: The Emergence of Kant's Analytic/Synthetic Distinction"

Abstract:

One of Kant’s most famous philosophical innovations was the introduction of a fundamental distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments.  That distinction, however, has often been the subject of interpretive controversy, and even the target of skepticism about whether a sufficiently sharp or objective distinction of this sort can be drawn.  This talk argues for a particular conception of the nature of Kant’s distinction by tracing the history of its emergence in his thought.  The history is puzzling because Kant appears to work with the distinction in his own notes for years even while his published writings make claims incompatible with it.  I resolve the puzzles by distinguishing methodological, epistemological, and logical versions of the analytic/synthetic distinction for judgments.  Once that distinction is in place, I defend the logical version, and argue that only the logical idea— and not the epistemological idea defended by many Kant scholars from Adickes (1895) to Allison (2004)— can do the philosophical work assigned to the distinction by the mature Kant.

Friday, May 2, 2008
233 HOB2
3 pm

Refreshments will be provided

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