Kant and the Problem of Nothingness: A Latin American Study and Critique

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The Latin American philosopher Ernesto Mayz Vallenilla published the first study of Kants concept of nothingness in 1965. This translation of Mayz Vallenillas ground-breaking work makes it available in English for the first time.

Mayz Vallenillas interpretation is deeply informed by Heidegger's reading of Kant, against the background of the early 20th century neo-Kantian tradition. He offers a detailed interpretation and critique of nothing as it appears in the Amphiboly chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason and presents an analysis of Kants Table of Nothing which understands temporality as the horizon of all possible cognition[AE1] , including cognition of real nothings.

Accompanied by translators notes and a glossary, Addison Ellis' translation includes extensive commentary and an introduction providing historical context and references to the original sources in German. He preserves key terminology and phrasing from the original text and allows an often-neglected connection to be made between the Kantian tradition in Latin America and the tradition in the Anglophone world.

Reviews

Mayz Vallenillas Kant and the Problem of Nothingness offers the most thorough and insightful treatments of the intriguing Table of Nothingness in the Critique of Pure Reason. Kants fourfold division in the Table is superbly reconstructed by Mayz Vallenilla in this significant book of Latin American philosophical scholarship. The book puts into question, in a subtle and acute way, received ideas concerning temporality, experience and categorial thinking. It certainly constitutes a nice and refreshing counterpart to some of Heideggers most cherished thoughts about the ontology of time. Addison Ellis has done a superb philosophical translation from the Spanish, with detailed references to the original sources in German, together with aptly placed editorial notes explaining the historic and systematic context of the work. * Efran Lazos, Professor of Philosophy, The National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico *

Author Bio

Addison Ellis is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Ernesto Mayz Vallenilla (1925 - 2015) was a Venezuelan philosopher. He was Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Venezuela, and rector-founder of the Simn Bolvar University, Venezuela.