Idealism and Freedom: Essays on Kant’s Theoretical and Practical Philosophy

Henry Allison is one of the foremost interpreters of the philosophy of Kant. This new volume collects all his recent essays on Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy. All the essays postdate Allison’s two major books on Kant (Kant’s Transcendental Idealism, 1983, and Kant’s Theory of Freedom, 1990), and together they constitute an attempt to respond to critics and to clarify, develop and apply some of the central theses of those books. Two are published here for the first time. Special features of the collection are: a detailed defence of the author’s interpretation of transcendental idealism; a consideration of the Transcendental Deduction and some other recent interpretations thereof; further elaborations of the tensions between various aspects of Kant’s conception of freedom and of the complex role of this conception within Kant’s moral philosophy.

• Allison is one of the world’s leading interpreters of Kant. (His earlier volume for Cambridge sold well for a book of this level) • Broad range of topics discussed • Books on Kant always sell well

Part I. Kant’s theoretical philosophy: 1. Transcendental idealism: a Retrospective; 2. Reflections on the B-deduction; 3. Apperception and analyticity in the B-deduction; 4. On naturalizing Kant’s transcendental psychology; 5. Gurwitsch’s interpretation of Kant: reflections of a former student; 6. Causality and causal law in Kant: a critique of Michael Friedman; 7. Kant’s refutation of materialism; Part II. Kant’s practical philosophy: 8. Kant on freedom: a reply to my critics; 9. Autonomy and spontaneity in Kant’s conception of the self; 10. On the presumed gap in the derivation of the categorical imperative; 11. Kant’s doctrine of obligatory ends; 12. Reflections on the banality of (radical) evil: a Kantian analysis; Notes; Index.