Empirical and intelligible character in the critique of pure reason

Henry Allison

pp. 1-21

in: Yirmiyahu Yovel (ed), Kant's practical philosophy reconsidered, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

Kant's conception of free agency has been much criticized and little understood. Since one of the basic criticisms is that it is incoherent, this combination is quite understandable. At the heart of the problem lies the connection between free agency and some of the more problematic and mysterious aspects of transcendental idealism. This connection leads to a familiar dilemma from which there seems to be no escape: either freedom is located in some timeless noumenal realm, in which case it is perhaps conceivable but also irrelevant to the understanding of human agency, or, alternatively, the exercise of free agency is thought to make a difference in the spatio-temporal world in which we live and act, in which case it comes into an irreconcilable conflict with the "causality of nature."¹

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel