Skepticism, Deduction, and Reason’s Maturation

In G. Anthony Bruno & A. C. Rutherford (eds.), Skepticism: Historical and Contemporary Inquiries. New York: Routledge. pp. 203-19 (2018)
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Abstract

A puzzle arises when we consider that, for Kant, the categories are 'original acquisitions' of our understanding to which we must nevertheless prove our entitlement via 'deduction', on pain of dogmatism. I resolve this puzzle by articulating skepticism’s role in the transcendental deduction, drawing on Kant’s construal of the skeptical 'question quid juris' in the juridical terms of entitlement to property. I then situate skepticism’s transformative potential within what Kant regards as reason’s 'maturation' from dogmatism toward self-knowledge. Finally, I contrast Hegel’s account of spirit’s progress toward 'absolute knowledge', which shifts both the mode of skepticism and the prospect of maturation.

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G. Anthony Bruno
Royal Holloway University of London

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