Reviews for Elements of Logic: Together with an Introductory View of Philosophy in General, and a Prelim...

The average rating for Elements of Logic: Together with an Introductory View of Philosophy in General, and a Prelim... based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-20 00:00:00 Tommy Pitts This dialogue clarifies some of Jacobi's previous remarks and statements, which he believes have been misinterpreted. In particular, he argues his use of the term faith is not irrational at all, and he was only forced into the terms usage by the seizing of the term reason by the enlightenment philosophers. He uses the term to mean the certainty of existence, the certainty of objects being perceived (very similar to Reid in this regard). The most interesting section for me is the one concerning transcendental idealism. Here, Jacobi makes the influential criticism of the affection theory. Summed up, this objection argues that it makes no sense for Kant to talk of things-in-themselves, of transcendental objects, affecting anything. If causation is, according to Kant, a result of the categories during the unifying synthesis of the manifold, and not a quality outside of human sensibility, then how can things-in-themselves cause us to have appearances? This criticism is interesting to be sure, but I am not certain it has really caught Kant out. A careful reading of Kant shows that the categories are not bound by sense impressions. We can think any object under the categories, it just means that the object thought without sense impressions is not cognitive. We simply do not know if that object exists, or if it does actually fall under the categories. I suppose the entire point is that such objects are unknowable for Kant, and any assertion about their nature is only speculative. But such a move to turn the thing in itself to a regulative idea may weaken Kant's position on the matter entirely, since it seems inconsequential to talk about them at all if their existence is so flimsy.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-09 00:00:00 Vernon Nikunen My favorite (okay, only - but still, wickedly comprehensive) reference book for all things philosophical (Ayn Rand not included, yay!). I see there's a 2005 edition out though (Ayn Rand still not included, yay!). Mine is 1995. I might have to upgrade.