Immanual Kant on Human Freedom vs. Scientific Determinism
Professor Irmgard Scherer (Loyola College of Maryland)

Thursday, 10 May, 6:45 pm: Goethe Institut. Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy rests on the basis of human freedom. Against classical physics Kant maintained the power of free will to overcome nature and to choose moral action over natural human desires. Brain research of our own time has renewed the debate, particularly in Germany, on the validity of Kantian ethics. See also the two columns by William Saletan in the Washington Post of 18 March and 1 April on this topic. In her lecture, Professor Scherer will argue that for Kant, human freedom means the ability to act, not as one wants or desires, but as one should. She will explore scientific determinism and some attempts of philosophy to overcome it by proposing indeterminism, "soft" determinism, and libertarianism.
 
Refreshments to follow the lecture.

 

Bardou, Emanuel, Immanuel Kant, 1789, Büste, Bildindex.de

 

 

Past Lectures

2005:

2006:

• Ted Kinnaman, The Relevance of Kant to American Philosophy Today
• Marion Deshmukh, German Graphic Artists and German Culture: From Holbein to Heckel

• Dirk Holger, Woven Marvels: Tapestries in German Collections
• Martin De Nys, Friedrich Nietzsche: A Question of Values