Kant on Evidence-transcendence & Reason

According to Immanuel Kant, God is experience- or evidence-transcendent. And, in this sense, he agrees with David Hume. According to Kant, Hume thinks that “we apply only ontological predicates (eternity, omnipresence, omnipotence)” to God. But what Hume required were “properties which can yield a concept in concreto”. They must be “superadded”. That is, predicates such as eternity, omnipresence and omnipotence are not intrinsic properties, they are, if you like, abilities of God. What Hume wanted was a criterion of identity for God, not simply descriptions of His abilities and powers.

It’s as if someone were to describe a rose by saying that "it delights people and is an emblem of love", instead of saying that roses are red and give off a sweet pungency. These are relational predicates. Hume was asking: What is God? I don’t want to know His powers or what do he does?

Of course Kant would say that his intrinsic properties are beyond us because such properties can only be given in experience. This prompts the question: Aren’t the properties of omnipotence, omnipresence also given only in experience? But part of God’s essence, as it were, is the fact that He is beyond experience. And not only that, part of God’s essence for Kant, is that He is beyond experience. If we wanted more than this from God, we would, Kant says, be guilty of “anthropomorphism”; and this is what many theists were guilty of.

So, in a sense, Kant sympathised we Hume’s deism and sided with him against theism and all other “anthropomorphisms”. Theism, or at least anthropomorphism, is for crude God-lovers who somehow project their own properties or attributes on to God (as Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud were later to elaborate on). However, despite what has been said, Humean deism is going to far, or so Kant thinks. Kant’s view of deism is unequivocal. He says, “nothing can come” of it. Not only that: it “is of no value” and “cannot serve as any foundation to religion or morals”. So whereas theism is too human (“all too human”?), deism is too anti-human. Kant therefore attempted, as ever, to find some kind of middle way between the two extremes.

Though, again, Kant is unhappy with anthropomorphism (and therefore theism?). We mustn't “transfer predicates from the world of sense to a being quite distinct from the world”. The end result of Kant’s vision of God is therefore quite unequivocal. We must “acknowledge that the Supreme Being is quite inscrutable and even unthinkable in any determinate way as to what it is in itself”. God is, therefore, another noumenol being.

Kant agreed with Hume who thinks that it is wise “not to carry the use of reason dogmatically beyond the field of all possible experience”. However, Kant had a problem with this dogmatic attitude towards reason itself. He thinks that Hume should not “consider the field of experience as one which bounds itself in the eyes of our reason”. Reason ,therefore, comes to Kant’s rescue again. That is, reason can take us beyond “all possible experience” and give us the means to understand, if not know, God Himself (in this instance). Indeed Kant calls Hume’s dogmatism towards reason “scepticism”. And Kant, yet again, attempts to find “the true mean between dogmatism…and scepticism”.

Kant reiterates why he thinks we can transcend experience. He says that experience “does not bound itself; it only proceeds in every case from the conditioned to some other equally conditioned thing”. However, experience’s “boundary must lie quite without it, and this is the field of the pure beings of the understanding”. And, of course, it is reason again that takes us to these “pure beings of the understanding”.

It is natural theology, via reason, that takes us beyond “the boundary of human reason”. It “looks beyond this boundary to the idea of a Supreme Being”.

And yet again Kant shows us that there is an illusive bridge between the offerings of experience and that which is beyond experience. He concedes “that reason by all it’s a priori principles never teaches us anything more than objects of possible experience”. However, this doesn't mean that “this limitation does not prevent reason from leading us to the objective boundary of experience, viz., to the reference to something which is not itself an object of experience but must be the highest ground of all experience”. However, Kant again concedes that reason “does not, however, teach us anything concerning the thing in itself”.

So what does reason do? It “only instructs us as regards its own complete and highest use in the field of possible experience”. Reason takes us beyond possible experience; though only into the field of conjecture, supposition and speculation. That is, it doesn't give us absolute knowledge of what lies beyond the boundaries of possible experience. It does, though, show us the boundaries themselves and what may lie beyond them.

Kant is clear that it is metaphysics itself that takes us beyond the bounds of possible experience. He says that pure reason is compelled “to quite the mere contemplation of nature, to transcend all possible experience” and to “endeavour to produce the thing…called metaphysics”. Metaphysics frees “our concepts from the fetters of experience and from the limits of the mere contemplation of nature” and allows us into the “field containing mere objects for the pure understanding which no sensibility can reach”. It is in passages like this that Kant shows us how far removed from the tenets of empiricism despite the fact that he, in a certain sense, fused empiricism and rationalism.

The empiricists believed that there was no knowledge beyond experience. Kant agreed. However, Kant believed that metaphysics took us beyond experience into the realm of “pure beings” that, nevertheless, could not be known. It was these flights of fancy that traditional empiricism was against. And indeed, later 20^th century empiricists and the logical empiricists thought that it was precisely because of these Kantian flights of fancy - even if they didn't claim to give us knowledge - which resulted in metaphysics itself becoming “meaningless” or “nonsense”.

Kant did indeed strike a balance between the rationalism that had no time at all for the experiences of the senses and the empiricists who equally had no time for anything that was putatively beyond sense experience. Kant himself criticised Plato for floating off into the ether because he had no solid moorings in the world of sense. However, he accused hard-core empiricists like Hume of being “sceptics”. Was it the case, therefore, that Kant was between a rock and a hard place; or, as David Lewis put it, “between the rock of fallibilism and the whirlpool of scepticism” (1996, pg 503). Does it indeed make sense to talk of what lies beyond sense experience? Equally, doesn’t empiricism in its hard form annihilate the very practice of metaphysics and, ultimately, all philosophy?

Searle on As-If Intentionality & Linguistic Meaning

According to John Searle, intentionality and consciousness are inextricably linked together. However, from the following it can be seen that some things can have intentionality without having consciousness. Or, more correctly, if intentionality comes along with consciousness, these things have "as-if intentionality" without consciousness; though they don’t have (pure) intentionality without consciousness. In other words, as-if intentionality is parasitical on real intentionality. And intentionality depends on consciousness. Thus as-if intentionality is parasitical on consciousness – it's parasitical on human beings or, more precisely, on persons.

Searle gives "linguistic meaning" as an example of intentionality, even if it is as-if intentionality. Linguistic meaning is a real form of intentionality; though it's not intrinsic intentionality.

Linguistic meaning is "a real form of intentionality"; though it's not "intrinsic" – it is extrinsic or as-if. It's dependent upon the intentionality of those who use linguistic meanings. That is, on us. Thus linguistic meaning is also dependent upon consciousness, which has intrinsic intentionality and is intrinsic in and of itself.

Searle gives other examples on as-if - or extrinsic - intentionality which display themselves in terms of the perceptual, epistemic and cognitive metaphors we apply to inanimate objects. For example,

"I say about my thermostat that it perceives changes in the temperature; I say of my carburettor that it knows when to enrich the mixture; and I say of my computer that its memory is bigger than the memory of the computer I had last year." (500)

The as-if-ness of thermostats, carburettors and computers is "derived" from the fact that these inanimate objects have been designed to perceive, know and memorise. Though this is only as-if perception, or as-if knowledge, or as-if memory. That is, it's dependent on human perception, on human knowledge, or on human memory. More precisely, they're designed to replicate or mimic - though not actually be - perceiving or knowing objects; or objects capable of memorising. Perception, knowledge and memory require real - or intrinsic - intentionality, not as-if intentionality. Thermostats, carburettors and computers have a degree of as-if intentionality, derived from (our) intrinsic intentionality. However, despite all these qualifications of as-if intentionality, as-if intentionality is still "real" intentionality; though derived (a game is derived from its parts, but is nonetheless real). This is especially true in the case of linguistic meaning.

As Searle puts it:

"There is nothing metaphorical or as-if about saying that certain sentences mean certain things or certain maps are correct representations of the state of California or the certain pictures are pictures of Winston Churchill. These forms of intentionality are real, but they are derived from the intentionality of human agents." (500)

There's nothing "metaphorical" about the fact that linguistic meanings actually "mean certain things" because meanings were never even supposed to have real - or intrinsic - intentionality or aboutness in the first place. (What about non-linguistic or abstract meanings?) No one ever thought that words or linguistic meanings had consciousness or intentionality. (However, some people do when it comes to computers. Some do even when it comes to thermostats!) So the word ‘cat’ means cat in a thoroughly intentional sense. Though the word’s (or meaning’s) intentionality is derived or as-if, not intrinsic. The meaning of ‘cat’ depends on the consciousness of the human beings who used the word ‘cat’ and think about cats. The same can be said about "maps of California" or "pictures of Winston Churchill" (500). In the case of pictures and maps, we can say the as-if intentionality is more obvious or direct because, perhaps, maps and pictures are depictive, unlike words and linguistic meanings. Though that doesn’t alter anything about the issue here.

Another way of looking at thermostats, carburettors, computers (and perhaps linguistic meanings, maps and pictures, though less so), is that we can take an "intentional stance" towards them (501). That is, we can treat them - or take them - as intentional though inanimate objects. Or we can take them as as-if intentional objects. It's not clear if it makes sense to take an intentional stance towards linguistic meanings, maps or pictures as it may do towards thermostats, carburettors or computers. We're more likely to see a computer or even a thermostat as an intentional object than we are to take linguistic meanings, maps or pictures that way. It would make little sense to take an intentional stance towards linguistic meanings, maps or pictures because, primarily, they aren't concrete things as such. They're about things (as with meanings) and of things (as with maps and pictures); though not themselves things - as computers, thermostats and carburettors are concrete things.

Private Facts?

 

I’m not sure that everyone does "assume that all the facts in the world are equally accessible to standard, objective, third-person tests (Searle, 497)". This is a peculiarly scientific account of fact or facts. That's not to say, however, that this account is not all-pervasive and even common; though it is still largely scientific in origin and nature. We do see some things that aren't susceptible to "objective, third-person tests" as factual.

For example, if you formulate a mental image of Tony Blair in your mind, surely that imaginative act and the mental image itself have a factual status. If not to me, then to you. Surely it is a fact if one formulates a mental image of Tony Blair no matter how private and first-person it is. Something happened. And the mental image of Tony Blair is something. If these things aren't factual, then what are they?

We can accept the stipulatory account of the word or concept [fact] and say that facts must be objective and susceptible to third-person tests. However, we can just as easily reject that stipulation and provide our own. Or we can adopt Wittgenstein’s Tractatus view of facts in which all facts must be worldly or part of the world. With this too we can either reject or accept it. So it depends on what we mean by ‘fact’ in the end.

For example, one definition is "the worldly correlate of a true proposition" or "that which makes a true proposition true". Can a mental image be a "worldly correlate"? Is a pain a part of the world? These things surely must be parts of the world – unless the mental is a ‘third realm’, as in Karl Popper. It's easier to accept that a mental image or pain can be that which makes a true proposition true.

However, even this version of fact is problematic for mental items. Then, if something is truly first person or private, how can it be factual? Surely what is factual needs some kind of communal or third-person agreement. Is that same kind of thing true of knowledge and even of truth?

Take non-mental private though first-person facts. Jim can say that he's a millionaire. He can say it is a fact; though he refuses to prove it in any way or show us what he has bought with his money. He may well be a millionaire. Why should anyone else think that he is? And if no one else has a reason for thinking him a millionaire, how can it really be a fact? However, perhaps he really is a millionaire and he's just playing with us, as it were. Would it even be factual in this case? He either has or doesn't have a million pounds. If he has a million pounds. Then it is a fact that he has a million pounds. It's a fact that only one person knows about and it's not even a mental ‘fact’. It does seem to be private, at least in a looser sense. Unless, again, it is a definitional point that facts must acquire, as it were, objective or third-person status. In that case, it is not (yet) a fact that Jim is a millionaire, which seems odd. It's odd even if he has not spent a penny of it and simply keeps it all under his bed. Whether or not he spends it, it is still a million pounds. And if it is still a million pounds, he is a millionaire. Thus it is a fact that Jim is a millionaire?

De Re & De Dicto Modality

[I wasn't able to use the symbol for the necessity operator in this piece.]

The x in ∃x occurs free in the scope of necessarily in ∃Fx therefore the statement is de re. On the other hand, no variable or constant is free in the scope of necessarily in the formula necessarily ∃x Fx, therefore it is a de dicto statement. [The logical symbolism in the above doesn't make sense. This needs to be revised.] So the de re statement reads:

There is at least one x, such as that x is necessarily F.

The de dicto statement reads:

Necessarily there is at least one x, such that that x is F.

The de re statement ascribes a necessary property to an object. Whereas the de dicto statement ascribes necessity to the formula itself. That is, necessarily at least one object is F. The de dicto statement is saying that there is necessarily at least one x such as that x is F. Whereas the de re statement says that there is at least one object (though not necessarily one object), such that the object is necessarily F. In the former case, the necessity operator works on the object, whereas in the latter case the operator works on a property of the object.

In terms of possible worlds, the de re statement says that all x’s have the property F at all possible worlds. And if a = x, then a has the property F at all possible worlds.

The de dicto statement, on the other hand, says that there is at least one x such that this x is F. However, x's aren’t necessarily F at all possible worlds. So x, or an x, on the de dicto reading, need not be F in all possible worlds.

Quine on De Re Modality

‘9 = the number of planets’ in Quine’s scheme because he was an extensionalist. That is, he didn’t believe in possible worlds. However, he didn't accept that that the number of planets necessarily is more than 7 because the number of planets does not necessarily equal 9. But if we don’t except that the definite description equals 9 because of possible world scenarios, then we have no “clear meaning” what the description ‘the number of planets’ refers to. It could be 10 in possible world w1 and 1000000 at another possible world. In fact if possible worlds are infinite in number, ‘the number of planets’ could equal any number. If this is the case, then the definite description ‘the number of planets’ quite evidently “lacks a clear meaning”. So the number of planets can either have no de re meaning or it has a different meaning at every possible world.

Quine must accept, and I think he did accept, Necessarily (9 > 7). Though, according to Marcus, the description ‘the number of planets’ can't be a proper name precisely because it designates different numbers at different possible worlds. However, the name ‘Tony Blair’ does indeed designate the same object at all possible worlds. Though what, precisely, does that mean? It doesn’t mean that Tony Blair is called ‘Tony Blair’ at all possible worlds. It does mean that our name ‘Tony Blair’ designates the object Tony Blair at all possible worlds, whether or not Tony Blair is actually called ‘Tony Blair’ at all these possible worlds.

Kripke’s necessary a posteriori means:

If a and b are identical, then necessarily a = b at all possible worlds.

No mention of actual names is mentioned here. The a and b designate objects, not names. So the person Tony Blair could be named ‘Frank Parsons’ at one possible world, just as Cicero was also named ‘Tully’ at our world. Therefore Tony Blair couldn't be two different entities at different worlds; though he could have two or more different names at other possible worlds.

De Re & De Dicto Modality

The first de dicto statement means that part of the concept [British monarch] includes or contains the concept [head of the British government]. Of course it could be the other way around. That is, the concept [head of the British government] contains or includes the concept [British monarch]. We could say that one is more of a definite description than the other. However, [British monarch] is still descriptive in that different individuals could fulfil that role at different possible worlds.

The de re reading applies an essential or necessary property to a res – to a person. It could be read this way: Ma necessarily ∃Ba. Here the necessity operator is applied to the person who is a British monarch. It says that if this is the case, then he or she must be head of the British government.

In the de dicto reading, the necessity operator is placed differently. Here we have: necessarily (Ma necessarily Ba) ¸  (Ba necessarily Ma) ˆ (Ma ≡ Ba). Here the necessity operator has as its scope the whole statement, including all the constituent concepts or predicates. It reads:

Necessarily, if a is M, then a is B and necessarily if a is B then a is M. Therefore a is M if and only if a is B.

It could be said that the biconditional in and of itself entails necessity.