Normativity in Neo-Kantianism: Its Rise and Fall

Frederick C. Beiser
(Syracuse University, USA)

International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 17, Issue 1 February 2009 , pages 9 - 27

Abstract 

This article discusses the historical background to the concept of normativity which has a wide use in contemporary philosophy. It locates the origin of that concept in the Southwestern Neo-Kantian school, the writings of Windelband, Rickert and Lask. The Southwestern school made the concept of normativity central to epistemology, ethics and the interpretation of German idealism. It was their solution to the threats of psycologism and historicism. However, Windelband, Rickert and Lask found difficulties with the concept which eventually forced them to abandon it. These difficulties might be of interest to contemporary philosophers who find the concept of normativity appealing.

Keywords: Normativity; Southwestern Neo-Kantianism; Rickert; Lask; Windelbcand

Die Natur des Denkens und das Denken der Natur – Spinoza, Trendelenburg, und H. Cohen

- Amsterdam 2010 Colloquium Jewish Philosophy

The Center for Jewish Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy, VU University, Amsterdam will host a conference on the theme:

Die Natur des Denkens und das Denken der Natur – Spinoza, Trendelenburg, und H. Cohen.

The conference is organized in collaboration with the Hermann Cohen Gesellschaft, in Zürich.

The list of speakers includes: Franco Biasutti ( Padua ), Emanuela Scribano ( Siena ), Detlev Pätzold ( Groningen ), Andrea Poma ( Turin ), Ursula Renz ( Klagenfurt ), Wouter Goris ( Amsterdam ), Marco Giovanelli ( Turin ), Erik Kreiter ( Amsterdam ), Pierfrancesco Fiorato ( Sassari ), Robert Gibbs ( Toronto ), Luca Bertolino ( Turin ), and Reinier Munk ( Amsterdam ). The two languages of the conference will be English and German.

The colloquium is scheduled to take place June 21-23, 2010. Venue of the colloquium will be the Conference Hotel ‘Oud Poelgeest’, which is located in the vicinity of Leiden , The Netherlands.

If you would like to participate in the conference, please let us know by returning email at: NaturDesDenkens@gmail.com You will subsequently receive information about the conference fee and the full program of the colloquium. The program offers the possibility for PhD-students in the field of Neo-Kantianism and esp. Cohen to present their research program. We would like to welcome proposals for PhD-presentations at the email address mentioned above, and encourage PhD-students to apply.

Please be informed that there is a maximum number of 35 participants for this conference.
We look forward to receiving your reply.


Best regards,

Dr Erik Kreiter
Prof. Reinier Munk


Please send all your emails related to the colloquium to the conference’s email address: NaturDesDenkens@gmail.com

Prof. Reinier Munk
Chair History of Modern Philosophy and Modern Jewish Philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy
VU University
Amsterdam

Cohen w anegdocie

Walter Benjamin lubił opowiadać anegdotkę na temat Hermanna Cohena. Na uniwersytecie w Marburgu nawet farmaceuci, którzy chcieli uzyskać dyplom musieli zdawać filozofię. Pewnego dnia do egzaminowania został wysłany Cohen. Zapytał on kandydata na farmaceutę: „Co Pan wie o Platonie?” Kandydat odpowiada, że nigdy nie słyszał tego nazwiska. Cohen pyta dalej: „Czy może Pan powiedzieć na temat głównych doktryn Spinozy?” Cisza. Zrozpaczony Cohen pyta wreszcie: „Czy może Pan mi powiedzieć, jaki był najważniejszy filozof XVIII wieku?” Twarz farmaceuty rozjaśniła się i zaczyna coś odpowiadać. Cohen aktywnie zachęca go. Wreszcie kandydat mówi: „Kaut, Herr Geheimrat!”. Słysząc tą odpowiedz Cohen rozpłakał się.

Scholem Gershom Gerhard: Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York 2003, s. 135.

Neo-Kantianism in Contemporary Philosophy (Studies in Continental Thought)

Red. Rudolf A. Makkreel, Sebastian Luft


Opracowanie na temat neokantyzmu w odniesieniu do innych współczesnych kierunków filozoficznych. W 20-stym wieku wraz z pojawieniem się fenomenologii, egzystencjalizmu i szkoły frankfurckiej neokantyzm został uznany za zbyt wąski, zbyt akademicki i zbyt naukowy. Zaprezentowane w zbiorze rozprawy wprowadzają neokantyzm na nowo do dyskursu filozoficznego. Przedstawiają one neokantyzm w szerszej perspektywie i ponownie dokonują oceny jego wpływu. Praca stanowi nowe i ważne źródło wiedzy na temat historii filozofii transcendentalnej na temat myśli neokantowskiej i jej wpływu na naukę i intelektualną kulturę współczesną.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction / Rudolf A. Makkreel and Sebastian Luft

Part 1. Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, and Neo-Kantianism
1. Neo-Kantianism and Phenomenology: The Problem of Intuition / Helmut Holzhey
2. The Hermeneutics of Perception in Cassirer, Heidegger, and Husserl / Rudolf Bernet
3. Reconstruction and Reduction: Natorp and Husserl on Method and the Question of Subjectivity / Sebastian Luft
4. The Neo-Kantian Heritage in Gadamer / Jean Grondin

Part 2. The Nature of Transcendental Philosophy
5. Interpreting Kant Correctly: On the Kant of the Neo-Kantians / Manfred Kühn
6. The Highest Principle and the Principle of Origin in Hermann Cohen's Theoretical Philosophy / Jürgen Stolzenberg
7. Transcendental Logic and Minimal Empiricism: Lask and McDowell on the Unboundedness of the Conceptual / Steven G. Crowell

Part 3. The Neo-Kantians and the Sciences
8. Ernst Cassirer and Thomas Kuhn: The Neo-Kantian Tradition in the History and Philosophy of Science / Michael Friedman
9. To Reach for Metaphysics: mile Boutroux's Philosophy of Science / Fabien Capeillères

Part 4. History, Culture, and Value
10. Wilhelm Dilthey and the Neo-Kantians: On the Conceptual Distinctions between Geisteswissenschaften and Kulturwissenschaften / Rudolf A. Makkreel
11. The Multiplicity of Virtues and the Problem of Unity in Hermann Cohen's Ethics and Philosophy of Religion / Reiner Wiehl
12. Is Cassirer a Neo-Kantian Methodologically Speaking? / Massimo Ferrari

List of Contributors
Index

Indiana University Press

344 stron,
Indiana University Press (2009-11-01)
ISBN: 0253221447
Cena: $27.95
Cena w Amazon: $25.33