Second  Paper Topic

Philosophy 175

Spring, 2003

Due: May 28, 2003, in class

Write an essay of roughly 5 pages on the following topic.  Use the Critique and Prolegomena as the basis of your work.  You may use the course Web notes if you cite them by lecture title and section heading. Be sure to quote the text whenever you attribute a claim to Kant. Papers not turned in on the day due will be penalized progressively, with the penalties increasing each two working days overdue.  Papers should be double-spaced (3 lines per inch) with ample room in the margins for comments.

In the Second Analogy, Kant undertakes to prove the priniciple that “All changes occur according to the law of the connection of cause and effect” (B232).  Explain what the principle is supposed to mean and what its limitations are.  Give, in your own words, a reconstruction of the proof of the analogy.  Explain how Kant could respond to the Humean claim that one for any given change, one can imagine that it occurs without a cause to which it is lawfully connected.