Works in Progress
"A Realist Reading of Kant? Disentangling Heidegger from Riehl and Külpe"
Abstract: Many commentators argue that Heidegger offers a realist interpretation of Kant, which follows in the vein of two contemporaries: Alois Riehl and Oswald Külpe, who defend the position of critical realism. However, I argue that Heidegger’s reading of Kant departs from critical realism in two key respects. First, Heidegger defends a two-aspect reading of Kant, where the thing in itself and the appearance refer to two perspectives on the same being; he does not defend a two-world view, where the thing in itself is the cause of the appearance. He thus avoids attributing independent metaphysical properties to the thing in itself. Second, Heidegger attributes intersubjective agreement about beings to a shared conceptual scheme, rather than explaining it by way of a common cause of multiple subjects’ experiences. He thus undermines a crucial argument motivating critical realism. I conclude that Heidegger does not offer a critical realist interpretation of Kant.
To be presented at the 2023 Pacific Meeting of the American Philosophical Association
Abstract: Many commentators argue that Heidegger offers a realist interpretation of Kant, which follows in the vein of two contemporaries: Alois Riehl and Oswald Külpe, who defend the position of critical realism. However, I argue that Heidegger’s reading of Kant departs from critical realism in two key respects. First, Heidegger defends a two-aspect reading of Kant, where the thing in itself and the appearance refer to two perspectives on the same being; he does not defend a two-world view, where the thing in itself is the cause of the appearance. He thus avoids attributing independent metaphysical properties to the thing in itself. Second, Heidegger attributes intersubjective agreement about beings to a shared conceptual scheme, rather than explaining it by way of a common cause of multiple subjects’ experiences. He thus undermines a crucial argument motivating critical realism. I conclude that Heidegger does not offer a critical realist interpretation of Kant.
To be presented at the 2023 Pacific Meeting of the American Philosophical Association