PhD defence

Paul Natorp’s Reformulation of the Kantian Distinction between Intuition and Concept

• L.A. Pelegrin

Date

Thursday 6 July 2023

Time

13:45 - 14:30 hour

Address

Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

Supervisor(s)

• Prof.dr. F.A.J. de Haas
• Prof.dr. H. Pringe
• dr. V.A. Gijsbers

Summary

The goal of our research is to analyze Natorp’s redefinition of the distinction between intuitions and concepts in relation to his conception of the method of philosophy. We will exhibit the connection between the way in which Natorp redefines the Kantian dichotomy and his conception of the method of philosophy. We will show how a new position regarding the problem of the method leads to a new conception of the way in which thinking relates to the object in its singularity. We will investigate how Natorp introduces his position in dialogue with Kant’s position and with contemporary approaches to the problem, psychologism and logicism. We will argue that the question of how a cognition may refer to the object requires rethinking the method of philosophy. It will be shown that the Kantian question of how thinking can have reference to objects was badly posed. The question is how the understanding can be the source of objectivity and not how it relates to the objects. We will study the arguments that led Natorp to argue that the object is the result of a construction of the understanding. The hypothesis of this investigation is that Natorp’s redefinition of the distinction between intuitions and concepts is based on a new conception of the philosophical method. We expect to exhibit that the criticism of psychologism and logicism are the pillars on which the new conception of the distinction between intuitions and concepts is based.

PhD dissertations

Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.

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