THE YEAR OF KANT
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2024-02-01
For philosophers around the world, 2024 is the year of Kant. It is the 300th anniversary of his birth. He was born in Königsberg, lived in the city without leaving it, had no other occupations than philosophy, actively socialized with friends, devotedly taught at the local university, and persistently and purposefully searched for a new type of metaphysics. He therefore gave priority to synthetic, expansive over analytical, explanatory knowledge. But not just any knowledge, but one that ennobles the individual and demonstrates independent and thorough thinking, that prioritizes morality, stimulates free behavior, and activates the conscience. “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverence, the more often and more steadily one reflects on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me” (KpV, AA 05: 288).
Kant realizes the millennial bias, ambition and pathos of European philosophy: he justifies and manifests pure reason. But at the same time he strictly fixes its limits of validity and use. They are clear and distinct. Namely the human experience. Before he begins to expound his philosophical system – like his great predecessor Christian Wolff ‒ Kant proposes a preliminary clearing of the errors of reason in its non-empirical employment, as well as a determining its principles sources, extent, and limits. This is the task of critique. It starts with a few simple questions: „How are a priori synthetic judgments possible?”, “How is metaphysics as a natural predisposition possible?” and “How is metaphysics possible as a science?” They delineate the field of metaphysics. “Human reason, therefore, since it first began to think, or rather to reflect, has never been able to do without a metaphysics… The idea of a science of this kind is just as old as speculative human reason” (A 842/B 870).
The Filosofiya-Philosophy journal was actively involved in the celebrations of Kant’s anniversary. This booklet is devoted solely to Kant’s philosophy, including texts by its established and young scholars from Bulgaria and Europe.
Enjoy reading it!
Let us hope that the proposed texts will help to promote not only Kant’s critical philosophy, but also the much-needed commitment to deep philosophical thinking today.