Kant and His Influence

This book illustrates the extent to which Kant's "Weltanschauung" has permeated wide areas of learning, across many disciplines, despite a general ignorance, especially in England, of his philosophy. Consisting of nine major contributions to the Leeds Kant Conference in April 1990, "Kant and His Influence" shows how Kant's thought has had a marked effect on philosophers, both Continental and British, social and art historians, theologians and Church leaders. In their introduction the editors outline the need for a greater understanding of Kant's philosophical heritage and make a case as to why his philosophy deserves to be more influential. The first four papers deal with the interpretation of Kant's philosopy. Setting him in an historical context, they range from Kant's connections with earlier thinkers to comparison with subsequent developments. Catherine Wilson and Guy Stock in their papers are concerned with Kant's metaphysics, and focus on Kant's relationship with, and (via Wilson's paper) his unmistakable indebtedness, to Leibniz.
"If it was Hume who awoke Kant from his dogmatic slumbers, it was Leibniz who provided the main starting-point for his critical philosophy" (from the introduction). While Kant does not explicitly mention Luther, argues Roger M. White in the opening paper, he would have been aware of the opposition between Luther's views and his own, ecclesiastically hazardous, idea of "ought implies can". White provides a detailed analysis of what Kant may have meant by the concept. Peter Lewis, in the fourth of these papers, explores the term "orginal nonsense" as used by Kant in his discussions of art and genius in "The Critique of Aesthetic Judgment". "Works of genius" provides rules and sets standards of excellence to be followed and excelled, and Lewis present parallels between the thoughts of Kant and Wittgenstein on the subject. The remaining five papers are concerned more historically with Kant's direct influence on subsequent thinkers in various disciplines and countries.