Kants Transition Project and Late Philosophy: Connecting the Opus postumum and Metaphysics of Morals

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Kants Transition Project and Late Philosophy is the first study to provide a close reading of the connection between texts written by Kant during 1796 and 1798. Connecting Kants unfinished book project, the Opus postumum, with the Metaphysics of Morals, it identifies and clarifies issues at the forefront of Kants focus towards the end of his life. Labelled by Kant as the Transition Project, the Opus postumum generates debate among commentators as to why Kant describes the project as filling a gap within his system of critical philosophy. This study argues for a pervasive transition project that can be traced through Kants entire critical philosophy and is the key to addressing current debates in the scholarship. By showing that there is not only a Transition Project in Kants theoretical philosophy but also a Transition Project in his practical philosophy, it reveals why an accurate assessment of Kants critical philosophy requires a new understanding of the Opus postumum and Kants parallel late writings on practical philosophy. Rather than seeing Kants late thoughts on a Transition as afterthoughts, they must be seen at the centre of his critical philosophy.

Reviews

The book is written in a lucid and accessible style, contains a wealth of original arguments, and discusses critically but charitably important contributions to Kant studies, old and new. It is an excellent piece of research and will be read with much benefit by both students and advanced Kant scholars. * The Review of Metaphysics *
Thorndikes book displays impressive scholarly engagement and offers a breadth of material: from Kants pre-critical to very late phases, to his intellectual surroundings, such as Wolffian philosophia naturalis and Newtonian physics, Stoic ethics, Kants letter exchanges, etc. It is clearly the result of many years of deep and serious engagement with the material. It does cast a fresh light on many central and controversial issues such as Kants alleged rigorism, the worry that a formal principle cannot be action guiding, etc. This book deserves a wide reception among Kant scholars. * British Journal for the History of Philosophy *
The book's historical thesis is compelling and plausible. Thorndike's juxtaposition of Kant's 1796-1798 texts on natural and moral philosophy is an innovative contribution to scholarship and brings to the fore important, yet subtle, strands in Kant's late philosophy. Furthermore, Thorndike offers an intriguing account of the moral transition, according to which moral feelings make possible the transition by serving as schemata for the moral law [A] fruitful first step in the direction of a reconceptualization of Kant's natural and practical philosophy. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Thorndikes work demonstrates compellingly the continuity and coherence of Kants ambitions for the transcendental philosophy across the entire critical period all the way through the Opus postumum and the Metaphysics of Morals of his later years. From the outset, Kant set himself the object of developing a metaphysical foundation for the law-governed systematicity of actual experience in nature and in moral choice. The Transition Project was no new impulse in Kant but the last great effort of the philosopher, in natural philosophy and also in ethical theory, to bring his system to closure. -- John H. Zammito, John Antony Weir Professor of History, Rice University, USA
All good philosophy begins in wonder and so does Thorndikes insightful new book. Its thesis is simple: the dualisms at the heart of Kants critical philosophy make the problem of finding a lawful connection between the formal (rational, a priori) structures and their material (empirical, a posteriori) manifestation utterly pervasive. Setting up a system of mirrors that reflects how the Transition Project shapes the development of Kants late theoretical and practical philosophy alike, Thorndike invites us to wonder how we could have ignored what was confronting us all along. It is a major accomplishment in a field saturated by titles to make an old problem newborn. -- Pablo Muchnik, Associate Professor, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College, USA

Author Bio

Oliver Thorndike is Lecturer of Philosophy at Loyola University, Maryland, USA.