The importance of the logical form of syllogism in considering the regulative use of reason

• Grant number: 23/05644-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2023
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Monique Hulshof
• Grantee: João Pedro Montandon Hokama
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this research, we propose to interpret the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic based on the theses stated by Kant in the Introduction to the Transcendental Dialectic. This proposal is justified by a more general reading hypothesis: the logical form of the syllogism should be taken as the guiding thread for understanding the theses stated in the Transcendental Dialectic. In the first part of the text, we will show how the consideration of the Introduction to the Transcendental Dialectic elucidates Kant's thesis that reason aims to give to the knowledge of the understanding "that unity which they could have if expanded to the maximum," stated in the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic. Next, we intend to justify the plausibility of our research hypothesis, according to which the form of the syllogism can be understood as the guiding thread of the theses of the Transcendental Dialectic. Thirdly, applying the reading proposal, we intend to outline how the form of the syllogism relates to the "hypothetical use of reason" and to the "idea of systematic unity of nature."