The mind-body problem in the genesis of Kantian critical philosophy: its moral strand

• Grant number: 22/12074-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): March 20, 2023
• Effective date (End): September 19, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Mário Ariel González Porta
• Grantee: Bruno Bueno Poli
• Supervisor: Heiner Friedrich Klemme
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Comunicação, Letras e Artes. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/01185-0 - The mind-body problem on the genesis of Kantian critical philosophy, BP.MS

Abstract

The mind-body problem in the early- and mid-18th century German-speaking world was conceived as a theoretical problem of how to explain the phenomena of the mind-body interaction.Nonetheless, the responses to it were thought to also touch morals, in particular the problem of freedom. In the last twenty years, analysis of its theoretical aspects, which revolved around the conflict between pre-established harmony and physical influx, has received considerably more attention than its moral aspects, although the latter is one of the greatest concerns of the authors involved in its discussion. Ever since the pietistic reception of pre-established harmony, one of the cornerstones of this discussion was the claim that pre-established harmony was incompatible with moral responsibility and freedom, a critique to which the theory of physical influx seemed exempt. The debate presented the opposition between them in antinomic manner (fatalism vs. freedom), something which arguably influenced Kant's Nova dilucidatio, in which the first incipient presentation of the Third Antinomy appears. Following this trail, our hypothesis in this research internship project is that the mind-body problem, in its relation to the problem of freedom, contributed to the genesis of Kant's critical philosophy.