Source Title:
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie
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Volume/Issue:
Volume 101: Issue 2

Three Myths About Kant’s Second Antinomy

Robert Watt 1
  • 1 Department of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Trinity College, Oxford, UK
Robert Watt
  • Corresponding author
  • Department of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Trinity College, Oxford, OX1 3BH, Oxford, UK
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2019-2006
|
Published online:
01 Jul 2019

Abstract

This article challenges three widespread assumptions about Kant’s argument for the antithesis of the Second Antinomy. The first assumption is that this argument consists of an argument for the claim that “[no] composite thing in the world consists of simple parts”, and a logically independent argument for the claim that “nothing simple exists anywhere in the world”. The second assumption is that when Kant argues that “[no] composite thing in the world consists of simple parts”, he is making a claim about the mereological structure of spatially extended things in particular, as opposed to a claim about the mereological structure of things in general. And the third assumption is that Kant’s argument for this part of the antithesis is based on a claim about the relationship between the size of the extension of a composite thing and the sizes of the extensions of the things of which this composite thing consists.

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Article information

Published Online:
2019-07-01
Published in Print:
2019-06-28

Citation Information: 
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, Volume 101, Issue 2, Pages 258–279, eISSN 1613-0650, ISSN 0003-9101, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2019-2006.

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

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Journal + Issues

Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie

Online ISSN:
1613-0650
First published:
01 Jan 1888
Language:
German, English, French
Publisher:
De Gruyter

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