What is the Scandal of Philosophy?

The central question of this paper is: what has Kant’s Refutation of Idealism argument proven, if anything? What is the real scandal of philosophy and universal human reason? I argue that Kant’s Refutation argument can only be considered as sound if we assume that his target is what I call ‘metaphys...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for the study of skepticism
Main Author: de Sá Pereira, Roberto Horácio (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2018
In: International journal for the study of skepticism
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Kant, Immanuel 1724-1804 / Metaphysics / Criticism
Further subjects:B metaphysical external-world skepticism epistemological external-world skepticism transcendental idealism material idealism transcendental arguments
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:The central question of this paper is: what has Kant’s Refutation of Idealism argument proven, if anything? What is the real scandal of philosophy and universal human reason? I argue that Kant’s Refutation argument can only be considered as sound if we assume that his target is what I call ‘metaphysical external-world skepticism’ (rather than traditional ‘epistemological external-world skepticism’). What is in question is not the ‘existence’ of outside things, but their very ‘nature’, that is, the claim that the thing outside us, which appears to us as persistent body in space, exists in itself as a substantia noumenon. Assuming the indirect-realist view that we only immediately know ideas and that their putative objects are known by inference, the metaphysical external-world skeptic doubts that the nature of things outside oneself is mind-independent.
ISSN:2210-5700
Contains:In: International journal for the study of skepticism
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22105700-20171276