Book by Karin Nisenbaum
For the Love of Metaphysics, 2018
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's... more Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Papers by Karin Nisenbaum
Journal of the History of Philosophy, 2023
This paper has two related aims. The first is to argue that Fichte’s concept of freedom is perfec... more This paper has two related aims. The first is to argue that Fichte’s concept of freedom is perfectionist. By ‘perfectionism,’ I mean a moral theory according to which our good, ultimately, is realizing our true nature; Fichte also holds a perfectionist view of freedom, according to which we achieve freedom only to the extent that we succeed in making ourselves good or realizing our true nature. The second aim of this paper is to show how Fichte’s perfectionist concept of freedom solves two problems confronting Kantian autonomy: the “paradox” of Kantian autonomy and the “dilemma” of post-Kantian autonomy. As I contend, Fichte’s perfectionist concept of freedom avoids these two problems by enabling us to view self-determination as a form of self-causation, and by showing that we can be responsible for our immoral actions even if we are not fully free when we perform them.
Kantian Legacies in German Idealism, 2021
I have said that practical reason shares the 'fate' of theoretical reason insofar as it, too, is ... more I have said that practical reason shares the 'fate' of theoretical reason insofar as it, too, is driven to 'seek the unconditioned.' In an important sense, however, the fate of practical reason is different from that of theoretical reason; this is one of the most central tenets of Kant's philosophy. (Christine Korsgaard, Creating the Kingdom of Ends) Most of [the interpreters of Kant] do not mean, by the practical postulate of the existence of God, the demand to realize practically the moral implication of the idea of God. They mean merely the demand to assume the existence of God theoretically, [ostensibly] for the sake of moral progress and therefore in a mere practical intention.
Schellings Freiheitsschrift: Methode, System, Kritik, edited by Thomas Buchheim, Thomas Frisch, and Nora C. Wachsmann, Mohr Siebeck , 2021
European Journal of Philosophy, 2018
Kant developed a distinctive method of philosophical argumenta-tion, the method of transcendental... more Kant developed a distinctive method of philosophical argumenta-tion, the method of transcendental argumentation, which continues to have contemporary philosophical promise. Yet there is considerable disagreement among Kant's interpreters concerning the aim of transcendental arguments. On ambitious interpretations, transcen-dental arguments aim to establish certain necessary features of the world from the conditions of our thinking about or experiencing the world; they are world-directed. On modest interpretations, transcendental arguments aim to show that certain beliefs have a special status that renders them invulnerable to skeptical doubts; they are belief-directed. This paper brings Kierkegaard's thesis of the "subjectivity of truth" to bear on these questions concerning the aim of transcendental arguments. I focus on Kant's argument for the postulate of God's existence in his Critique of Practical Reason and show that Kierkegaard's thesis of the subjectivity of truth can help us construe the argument as both belief and world directed. Yet I also argue that Kierkegaard's thesis of the subjectiv-ity of truth can help us understand the source of our dissatisfaction with Kant's transcendental arguments: It can help us understand that dissatisfaction as an expression of what Stanley Cavell calls the "cover of skepticism," the conversion of metaphysical finitude into intellectual lack.
It is no longer disputed that Salomon Maimon decisively inluenced the emergence and development o... more It is no longer disputed that Salomon Maimon decisively inluenced the emergence and development of post-Kantian German Idealism. Yet there is far less consensus on how to interpret most aspects of Maimon's thought, including the nature and philosophical signiicance of his skepticism and the reasons that compelled him to challenge Kant's transcendental deduction of the categories or pure concepts of the understanding in the Critique of Pure Reason. In this article, I argue that the two ideas that deine Fichte's doctrine of science or Wissenschaftslehre-the necessity of a common derivation of all a priori knowledge from one principle, and the idea that philosophy should be based on freedom-can be traced back to Maimon's Essay on Transcendental Philosophy. I also argue that, by emphasizing the regulative role of the ideas of pure reason in Kant's account of empirical cognition, Maimon enables a rereading of the argumentative structure of the irst Critique that reveals the relationship between sensibility, understanding, and reason. This rereading of the irst Critique shows that Kant has the resources to address Maimon's key challenges, but it also puts pressure on his discursive account of human cognition.
in the following paper i look at the body as a site where individual and communal normative struc... more in the following paper i look at the body as a site where individual and communal normative structures come into view. drawing from the work of sigmund freud and Paul ricoeur, and through an analysis of the compulsion to repeat, i offer an understanding of psychoanalysis as a practice whereby we decipher the body's call to configure our individual lives more humanly. this involves the interruption of the compulsion to repeat and the transition from an instinctual and organic development, towards an 'erotic life.' i also broaden the scope of the analysis and investigate the kinds of communal structures or bonds that the psychoanalytic concept of an 'erotic drive' calls for. to this end, i introduce Walter Benjamin's studies on the relation between different temporal and political structures.
Co-authored by Karin Nisenbaum
An introduction to F.W.J. Schelling's significance for thinking about religion with particular em... more An introduction to F.W.J. Schelling's significance for thinking about religion with particular emphasis on his thoroughgoing naturalisation of religion. We argue that such a project of naturalisation does not - particularly after 1809 - necessitate a reductionist stance towards religious value; indeed, preserving the autonomy of such values in a naturalistic discourse is one of Schelling's primary aims.
Co-written with Karin Nisenbaum. The uploaded version is merely a preliminary draft; please follow the link for the published version: https://www.routledge.com/Religion-and-European-Philosophy-Key-Thinkers-from-Kant-to-Zizek/Goodchild-Phelps/p/book/9781138188525
Critical Notice by Karin Nisenbaum
Book Reviews by Karin Nisenbaum
Society for German Idealism and Romanticism Review, 2022
The aim of the SGIR Review is to serve as a premier venue for diverse scholarship in German ideal... more The aim of the SGIR Review is to serve as a premier venue for diverse scholarship in German idealism and romanticism. The SGIR Review is structured around three major components. It publishes (i) peerreviewed articles and peer-reviewed special issues; (ii) symposium reviews and responses written for SGIR Author-Meets-Critics Sessions at annual American Philosophical Association conferences (Eastern, Central, and Pacific); and (iii) book reviews. The SGIR Review occasionally provides a book review to other journals in the field such as the Kantian Review or Hegel Bulletin. In such cases, we note the copyright transfer in the bibliographic portion of the review and reproduce it here with the permission of the given publisher (e.g., Cambridge Journals).
Journal of the History of Philosophy, 2020
Drafts by Karin Nisenbaum
The Fragmentation of Being Comments by Karin Nisenbaum To know God, world, and man means to know ... more The Fragmentation of Being Comments by Karin Nisenbaum To know God, world, and man means to know what in these tenses of actuality they do or what happens to them, what they do to each other and what occurs by one another … If we want to comprehend Him, God conceals Himself, the human, our self, closes itself up, and the world becomes a visible riddle. Only in their relations [to each other]-only as creation, revelation, and redemption-do they open themselves up. Franz Rosenzweig, "The New Thinking" Chapter seven of The Fragmentation of Being defends the view that there are not only different kinds of being; there are also different degrees of being: "some things are ontologically superior to others in that they have a higher degree of being than others" (195). Defending this view is a bold task, for as McDaniel notes, "perhaps no view is more despised by analytic metaphysicians than that there are gradations of [or degrees of] being" (195). I won't here rehearse McDaniel's defense of the doctrine that being comes in degrees. Yet if we assume that there are degrees of being, it seems natural to wonder about our own ontological status: "in what way (or ways) do we exist? … [Do] we exist to the fullest degree?" (170). McDaniel provides two "practical arguments" to defend the view that we are fully real. In what follows, I will first reconstruct McDaniel's "practical arguments" for our full reality (§ 1). Then, I will explain why it is helpful to regard them as kinds of transcendental arguments. I will discuss some early objections to transcendental arguments (Schulze) and more recent versions of these objections (Stroud) and consider whether they affect McDaniel's "practical arguments" for our full reality. One of these objections concerns what is required for our full reality (§ 2). In the final section of the paper, I will return to this question concerning what is required for our full reality. Specifically, I will present a view according to which we exist, but only become fully real by entering into relations with other beings that complete our nature. This view is defended in
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Book by Karin Nisenbaum
Papers by Karin Nisenbaum
Co-authored by Karin Nisenbaum
Co-written with Karin Nisenbaum. The uploaded version is merely a preliminary draft; please follow the link for the published version: https://www.routledge.com/Religion-and-European-Philosophy-Key-Thinkers-from-Kant-to-Zizek/Goodchild-Phelps/p/book/9781138188525
Critical Notice by Karin Nisenbaum
Book Reviews by Karin Nisenbaum
Drafts by Karin Nisenbaum
Co-written with Karin Nisenbaum. The uploaded version is merely a preliminary draft; please follow the link for the published version: https://www.routledge.com/Religion-and-European-Philosophy-Key-Thinkers-from-Kant-to-Zizek/Goodchild-Phelps/p/book/9781138188525