Relationship Between Leibniz and Kant Highlighted at UK Hosted Conference
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On the weekend of September 25-27, the University of Kentucky will host the third annual meeting of the Leibniz Society of North America, held this in year in conjunction with the North American Kant Society. The topic will be the relationship between Leibniz and Kant.
By any reckoning, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was the most important philosopher since Plato and Aristotle. His work in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics fundamentally changed the way philosophers look at the world. But if Kant’s philosophy was revolutionary, what was the situation to which he responded? Part of the answer lies in the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), the greatest of the rationalist philosophers, whose followers dominated German philosophy in the 18th-century. Kant explicitly criticizes Leibniz and his rationalist disciples in his mature work; at the same time, he also expresses great admiration for the depth, insight and genius of Leibniz. According to Kant, Leibniz failed to subject human reason to a true critique of its powers and scope and thus made illegitimate claims about the kinds of things that we can know – most importantly, claims about God and the soul.
The aim of this conference is to address some fundamental questions, answers to which are important for our understanding of the history of modern philosophy: What role did Leibniz’s philosophy play in the development of Kant’s philosophy? How well did Kant understand Leibniz? To what extent is Leibnizian rationalism tenable after the Kantian critique?
Some of the top scholars from North America working on Leibniz, Kant and the relationship between them will give papers and engage in philosophical discussion in this three-day event. It is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Philosophy, the Office of the Vice-President for Research, and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Chicago.