What is it about?
The word Gesinnung is one of the most important technical terms in Kant's theory of religion. In this article, I examine every use of the word in Kant's 1793/1794 book, Religion with the Bounds of Bare Reason, and conclude that he is talking about what religious people nowadays would call their "conviction".
Featured Image
Why is it important?
This new translation of Kant's key technical term is important because translating the word as "disposition", as is standard among Kant scholars, gives Kant's theory an abstract, metaphysical tone that makes it harder to grasp for the ordinary religious believer. The new translation also solves several other long-standing problems faced by the conventional use of "disposition", including the problem of how Kant's many plural uses of the term should best be understood.
Perspectives
I've employed this new translation in my re-translation of the entire text of Kant's Religion book, which is contained in my 2016 work, Comprehensive Commentary on Kant's Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (Wiley-Blackwell).
Professor Stephen R Palmquist
Hong Kong Baptist University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: What is Kantian Gesinnung? On the Priority of Volition over Metaphysics and Psychology in Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason, Kantian Review, June 2015, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s1369415415000035.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
