Briefly describe
Kant's theory of "the postulate of practical reason".
When
Kant divided theoretical reason and practical reason clearly from function, he
was immediately faced with the problem of the unity of reason. Rationality is
unified, and theoretical rationality and practical rationality are its two
functions. Kant established the "priority" of practical reason: it is
impossible for us to let theoretical reason rule practical reason, because then
freedom will be destroyed, so only practical reason can rule theoretical
reason.
Kant defends moral purity by making a
"distinction" between the motive of the will and the effect of the
action, but this raises another question: If a person's will can comply with
the laws of reason itself, the moral law has nothing to do with the experience
also has nothing to do with the result of the behavior, it belongs to the ideal
world of pure reason, and the behavior inevitably fall into the world dominated
by the law of the inevitable natural phenomenon, this means that the motive and
effect is completely separate, this problem required Kant to explain the
relationship between the intellectual world and the sensory world, for which he
proposed the "postulate" of practical reason. Because human reason
respects the moral law, it yearns for an unconditional object, that is, the
"supreme good", and "postulate" is the essential
theoretical hypothesis of the "supreme good" established by the moral
law. There are three postulates of practical reason, which are freedom of will,
immortality of soul and existence of God. As far as moral law is concerned, it
is unconditional, does not require the immortality of the soul and the
existence of God as its foundation and premise, but when it comes to the
realization of moral law, it is beyond the reach of moral law. Obviously, this
is the inevitable result of the dualistic nature of Kantian philosophy
Briefly describe
Fichte's criticism of Kant's philosophy.
Fichte
was initially a follower of Kant's philosophy, but gradually became
dissatisfied with Kant's dualism and agnosticism. In Fichte's view, Kant's
critical philosophy is incomplete. In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant sets up
two indispensable but unknowable logical grounds for cognition: one is that
there is an unknowable in-itself outside the subject (the thing in itself),
which serves as the basis of sensory experience; One is that there is an
equally unknowable transcendental self in the subject, which serves as the
logical basis of all a priori comprehensive knowledge, and in fact this
transcendental self is the will noumon of morality in
the Critique of Practical Reason. In Fichte's view, Kant's admission of the
existence of things in themselves is tantamount to
uncritically applying the category of cause and effect beyond the scope of
experience, so it is in contradiction with the basic principles of his philosophy.
When Kant regards the thing in itself as the cause of a sensible
representation, he does illegitimately apply the category of cause and effect
beyond experience. In addition, although Kant's philosophy is characterized by
transcendence, there are too many factors of empiricism, and his dualism makes
it impossible for his philosophy to become a consistent philosophical system.
Briefly summarize
Schelling's criticism of Fichte's philosophy.
Schelling
was initially a follower of Fichte's philosophy, but he found that Fichte's
philosophy carried his philosophical principles through to the end.It is true that philosophy, as Fichte said, should be a
unified system established from a supreme principle, but his absolute self
cannot be this supreme principle. The supreme principle of philosophy must be
primary and unconditional, but the absolute ego is conditional. The ego is
always in opposition to a non-ego, and the two are mutually limiting: the ego
is premised on the non-ego, without which it cannot realize itself; The non-ego is premised on the ego, which is set by the ego.
Without the ego, there is no non-ego. Therefore, neither ego nor non-ego are
qualified, differentiated and mutually restrictive, and are not sufficient to
serve as the first principle of philosophy. The real supreme principle can only
be the absolute itself, which is unconditionally and undifferentiated above ego
and non-ego. Therefore, "Absolute" is the highest principle and
starting point of philosophy.
A review of Hegel's
thought of "entity is subject".
Hegel
believed that we should understand and express not only the most real existence
of the universe as substance, but also as subject. The basis of the unity of
the universe is both objective and dynamic, and it is a process of self movement, self development
and self completion.The reason why we have to
understand the entity as a subject is that it is a real existence only when it
is regarded as a subject, as an active entity within itself, and therefore as a
"living entity" that moves and develops itself. Subjectivity of
substance is expressed in its pure negation; it is the process by which the
single thing splits into two, that is, it sets itself up as the opposite, and
then suspends the difference in itself, and thus returns to itself and becomes
the real reality. In other words, the entity develops itself due to the
negative factors in itself, and becomes the reality from the potential.
Therefore, the unifying ground of all things in the universe, namely
"Absolute", is a "circle" that moves itself, completes
itself, becomes itself, and goes from potential to reality. It starts from the
end and aims at the end, and only when it reaches the end can it become
reality.
Hegel's
idea that substance is subject reflects the unity of the objectivity principle
of ancient philosophy and the subjectivity principle of modern philosophy.
According to Hegel, the process of cognition overcoming its own limitations and
achieving the identity with the object is the process of entity achieving the
unity with itself. Therefore, cognitive activity participates in the
ontological movement of entity, or in other words, the activity of cognition is
the ontological movement of entity. Thus, Hegel united ontology, epistemology
and dialectics. Although Hegel's theory of the "entity as main body"
is the objective idealism, but also contains rich thought of dialectics, it
argues that the truth is a process, the truth is all, the truth is a circle,
and from the height of the history of philosophy to ontology, epistemology and
dialectics unity together, established a comprehensive system of metaphysics.
Briefly describe
Hegel's theory of "the objectivity of thought".
True objectivity, according to Hegel,
is the nature of things as grasped by thought. Hegel expounded his related
thought through four characteristics of thought.
First of all, thought is the universal
of agency. Thought is the essential factor that runs through the whole
cognition. Secondly, thought is the "reflection" of things. The
essence of things is not directly presented in front of us, in order to
understand it, we must go deep into the back of things
and reflect on them. Third, only by means of "reflection" to
transform the immediate things, we can really understand the essence of things.
Finally, the product of thought's "reflection" is not only objective,
but also, as the embodiment of thought's activity, a product of freedom:
formally, thought is our thought, and I am independent and free; From the point
of view of content, thought grasps the essence of things, and thus frees itself
from all the limitations of individual and contingent things, and is
unconditionally universal.
In Hegel's view, the thought that has
these four characteristics, namely, the thought that grasses the essence of
things, is not only our subjective thought, but also the essence of things, and
can therefore be called "objective thought". Thought then dominates
everything and becomes the common ground of thought and existence. Thus Hegel
put forward the principle of "the identity of thought and existence".
