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Kant's Thoughts On Religion

One of the most famous parts of Kant's philosophical theology is his critique of the traditional theoretical arguments for God's existence, in his first Critique. He states that there are three approaches. "One, that which begins with "determinate experience and the specific constitution of the world of sense as thereby known" is the "physicotheological" argument form design." "Two, that based on "experience which is purely indeterminate, that is, form experience of existence in general" is "cosmological" reasoning." "Three, those which "abstract from all experience, and argue completely a priori from mere concepts, to the existence" of God are 'ontological.'" He says that no other arguments for God's existence are possible, from a theoretical perspective. Kant tells us that, "At some future time we shall show that the moral laws do not merely presuppose the existence of a supreme being, but also, as themselves in a different connection absolutely necessary, justify us in postulating it, though, indeed, only from a practical point of view."

Kant's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone considers the postulate of God that "arises out of morality" without being the basis of moral obligation. "Morality thus leads ineluctably to religion, through which extends itself to the idea of a powerful moral Lawgiver, outside of mankind, for Whose will that is the final end (of creation) which at the same time can and ought to be man's final end."


Biography - Reality - Bodies - Personality - Knowledge - Freedom - Morality - Society - Religion - Immortality - Fulfillment


Other Philosophers on the topic of Religion:

Plato - Aristotle - Augustine - Aquinas - Descartes - Hegel - Sartre


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