Maimon Reading Group: Chapter 3

[by Nick Midgley, London] Chapter 3 This chapter discusses ideas of the understanding, and distinguishes them from the ideas of reason that Kant introduced in the Antinomy of Pure Reason (A405/B432 ff). Maimon had already deployed this notion in chapter 2 to characterise the differentials of sensation, but here he re-introduces them with different examples [...]

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Kant and the Turn to Romanticism (from Kritike)

Here‘s an interesting essay on Kant and Romantics by Vinod Lakshmipathy – the opening sections give a decent review of Kant’s “problem” (how do rules of understanding apply to intuitions) and could be helpful for anyone interested in the post-Kantian developments: The ontological specialty of human beings is that there is in “man a power [...]

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Adulation + Zizek= Vomiting

I was reading yet another article about Slavoj Zizek this morning–a figure I’ve basically stopped paying attention to for various reasons–and almost vomited when I came across this: He is very much a thinker for our turbulent, high speed, information-led lives,” says Sophie Fiennes, “precisely because he insists on the freedom to stop and think [...]

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Maimon Reading Group: Chapter 2 – A Rejoinder

I think Jon’s summary of the issues in chapter 2 is as comprehensive as it could be, considering the medium of our discussion, so my points here will mostly be related to things I’d like to reemphasize and draw attention to in terms of my own interests and my own reactions to the chapter. I [...]

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Karate Kid As A Class Warrior

We watched Karate Kid this afternoon – the old one, on Netflix stream – I forgot this part in the middle when the old guy makes him wax cars, paints the fence and so on as a preparatory exercise for his fighting. It’s a kind of “working will prepare you for fighting the rich spoiled [...]

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Too stupid to know you’re stupid

Great Errol Morris series in the NY Times this week. Excited enough about part 1 that I’m posting this before reading part  2. Morris is speaking with David Dunning, a Cornell professor who came up with the Dunning-Kruger effect. When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer [...]

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Thresholds of Consciousness: Leibniz-Maimon-Deleuze

I couldn’t agree more with Jon’s claim in his excellent summary of chapter 2 of Maimon’s Essay that “everything follows from the material in chapter 2.” Bringing in the contemporary debates regarding the ‘myth of the given’ and the Kripkenstein paradox was particularly helpful in illuminating the central concerns of Maimon’s chapter. I got a [...]

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New Contributors.

Just wanted to use this quick post to introduce two new contributors to our discussion of Maimon (and hopefully other related or unrelated matters): Jeffrey A. Bell is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and an author of several books on Deleuze, Hume and other figures. He has a new blog over here, [...]

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Kant’s Philosophy of Mathematics

I’m slowly making my way through Gideon Freudenthal’s “Definition and Construction: Salomon Maimon’s Philosophy of Geometry” and I came across a reference to Louis Couturat‘s discussion of Kant’s philosophy of mathematics (Les Principes des Mathematiques: avec un appendice sur la philosophie des mathématiques de Kant) – it is available on Google Books (as a PDF) [...]

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The Wizard Did It

I showed this short video (a talk by David Deutsch) in my class this afternoon – seemed to work well as a introduction to reading Descartes and the whole issue of modern philosophy/science. Also reminded me of some recent philosophical theories and their awesome power of explanation. Enjoy!

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