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Description
It has been supposed that man cannot have freewill if his actions are causally determined. But Kant was committed both to determinism and to freewill. In this programme Professor Vesey asks Profess...or Walsh about the determinism side of the supposed conflict. What is the status of the principle that everything is caused to happen exactly as it does? Walsh critically exarrines the two answers to this question that were current when Kant came on the scene - one that it is a 'truth of reason', the other, that it is an empirical generalisation - and then compares Kant's answer with them. For Kant, acceptance of the principle of causality is a prerequisite of our being able to make statements about what is objectively the case. Walsh explains how this is so, and defends Kant against the criticism that he fails to distinguish between objective successions that are causal, with ones that are merely coincidental.
It has been supposed that man cannot have freewill if his actions are causally determined. But Kant was committed both to determinism and to freewill. In this programme Professor Vesey asks Profess...or Walsh about the determinism side of the supposed conflict. What is the status of the principle that everything is caused to happen exactly as it does? Walsh critically exarrines the two answers to this question that were current when Kant came on the scene - one that it is a 'truth of reason', the other, that it is an empirical generalisation - and then compares Kant's answer with them. For Kant, acceptance of the principle of causality is a prerequisite of our being able to make statements about what is objectively the case. Walsh explains how this is so, and defends Kant against the criticism that he fails to distinguish between objective successions that are causal, with ones that are merely coincidental.
| Module code and title: | A202, The age of revolutions |
|---|---|
| Item code: | A202; 15 |
| First transmission date: | 1972-05-01 |
| Published: | 1972 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:18:20 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Patricia Hodgson |
| Contributors: | Godfrey Norman Agmondisham Vesey; Hugh S Walsh |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Empirical Generalisation; Truth of Reason |
| Master spool number: | TLN07FM170J |
| Production number: | TLN07FM170J |
| Available to public: | no |
