Human Conditions

Human conditions course Erasmus University

What is the purpose of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason"?

To explain how human subjectivity structures coherent experience.

What are synthetic a priori judgments?

Judgments that provide new knowledge without relying on experience.

What is the difference between categorical and hypothetical imperatives?

Categorical imperatives apply universally; hypothetical imperatives depend on specific conditions.

What does Kant mean by "radical autonomy"?

The ability to act based on universal moral principles. Every human being has the capacity of rationally come to these conclusions themselves, and should not rely on dogmatic texts and personas to reach moral principles. Kant hoped that the enlightenment would bring the courage for people to use this autonomy and exercise their common humanity individually.

What does Husserl mean by "phenomenological reduction"?

Suspending presuppositions to reveal the true relationship between consciousness and reality.

What is intentionality in Husserl's philosophy?

Consciousness is always directed toward something.

What is Dasein, and why does Heidegger use this term?

Dasein means "being-there," focusing on human existence as fundamentally situated in the world. Heidegger uses Dasein instead of "human being" to emphasize the unique mode of existence where humans project meaning onto the world. Dasein is possibility, it is a world-projecting possibility that cannot extricate itself from this structure. Dasein not only is - as long as it exists, it has to “be”.

How does Heidegger distinguish between ontic and ontological?

Ontic concerns empirical properties; ontological concerns the meaning of being.

What does Nietzsche mean by "eternal recurrence"?

Eternal recurrence is the concept that all events in life will repeat exactly as they have, infinitely. Nietzsche proposes this as a test of one's ability to affirm life fully, encouraging individuals to live authentically.

What is the "will to power" in Nietzsche's philosophy?

The will to power is Nietzsche's idea that all life is driven by a desire to assert and expand itself. It underpins creativity, ambition, and even moral values, reflecting the essence of existence. All people are looking to expand their power and it drives their actions according to Nietzsche.

How does Arendt distinguish between labor, work, and action?

Labor sustains life, work creates lasting artifacts, and action expresses individuality in the political realm.

What is Arendt's critique of totalitarianism?

Arendt critiques totalitarianism for creating mass societies that isolate individuals, making them vulnerable to manipulation. She highlights how such regimes erase individuality and spontaneity, relying on fear and fabricated realities.

How free does Sartre think we are?

We are radically free according to Sarte, our freedom has no limits. Our constant awareness of our freedom is both terrifying and liberating. - We are responsible for everything we do.

What is "bad faith" in Sartre's philosophy?

Bad faith occurs when individuals deceive themselves into believing they are not free, often by conforming to external roles or expectations. This denial of freedom limits authentic self-expression.

What does Levi-Strauss mean by "mythemes"?

Mythemes are the basic building blocks of myths, similar to phonemes in language. Levi-Strauss analyzes how these elements form universal structures across cultures, revealing shared patterns of human thought. Levi-Strauss believed myths are essentially an expression of how a culture solves a given dilemma.

What is the "Promethean Gap"? - Anders

The Promethean Gap refers to humanity's ability to create powerful technologies while lacking the emotional and ethical maturity to manage their consequences. Anders warns this gap could lead to catastrophic outcomes.

What is "Promethean Shame"? - Anders

Promethean Shame arises from comparing human limitations to the seemingly superior abilities of machines, leading to feelings of inadequacy and questioning of human value.

How does Foucault critique the concept of individual agency?

Foucault argues that individual agency is a product of institutional structures like prisons, schools, and medicine. He introduces concepts like discipline and the panopticon to illustrate how power relations construct subjects.

What is Foucault's "panopticon," and why is it significant?

The panopticon symbolizes how modern societies maintain control through constant surveillance, making individuals self-regulate their behavior. It reflects Foucault's broader critique of disciplinary power.

How does Plessner's concept of boundaries differentiate plants, animals, and humans?

Plants have open positionality, existing within their boundaries. Animals possess closed positionality, experiencing the world from a center. Humans, with excentric positionality, can transcend their boundaries through imagination and reflection.

What is "perspectivism" in Viveiros de Castro's anthropology?

Perspectivism posits that different beings see themselves as human and other beings as non-human, based on their cultural worldview. This challenges Western notions of universalism by highlighting the relativity of perspectives.

Why does Stengers emphasize the "intrusion of Gaia"?

Stengers' "intrusion of Gaia" underscores the need to acknowledge Earth's ecological systems as active agents. She critiques how humanity's actions disrupt these systems and calls for a collaborative, ethical approach to science and politics.

What is Stengers' critique of modern science?

Stengers critiques modern science for prioritizing objectivity while ignoring cultural and ethical dimensions. She advocates for "slow science," which integrates broader perspectives and questions the consequences of scientific practices.

How does de Beauvoir describe the relationship between immanence and transcendence?

De Beauvoir explains that societal roles often confine women to immanence, restricting their potential. Transcendence involves surpassing these roles to achieve freedom and self-realization.

What is the role of "the Other" in de Beauvoir's philosophy?

"The Other" represents the way individuals or groups define themselves by contrasting with others. De Beauvoir explores how women have historically been positioned as "the Other" in a male-dominated society.

What is "The Gay Science" about?

"The Gay Science" is a collection of aphorisms in which Nietzsche explores themes of art, knowledge, and existentialism. The central idea of the book is that life is a work of art and that the individual must embrace their own creativity and express their own unique perspective. It introduces the famous proclamation that "God is dead," signaling the decline of religious certainty in modern society. The book also discusses the role of laughter, cheerfulness, and poetic insight in confronting nihilism. Amor Fati is also introduced in the book.

Why does Nietzsche call his book "The Gay Science"?

The title "The Gay Science" (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft) reflects Nietzsche's belief in a joyful and artistic approach to philosophy. He contrasts this with the somber seriousness of traditional academic philosophy, advocating for a life-affirming, creative engagement with knowledge.

How does "The Gay Science" introduce the concept of the "death of God"?

In "The Gay Science," Nietzsche famously declares that "God is dead," meaning that the traditional foundation of moral and metaphysical beliefs has collapsed. He examines how this realization forces humanity to create new values in a world without divine authority.

What is Nietzsche’s view on science in "The Gay Science"?

 Nietzsche acknowledges science's value but critiques its tendency to present itself as the ultimate arbiter of truth. He argues that scientific knowledge, like all forms of human understanding, is shaped by perspective and cultural influence.

What role does art play in "The Gay Science"?

Nietzsche sees art as essential for overcoming nihilism and affirming life. He praises artistic creativity and metaphor as ways to enrich human experience, suggesting that aesthetic values can provide meaning in a world without absolute truths.

What does Kant write about in the Critique of practical reason?

Poses the problem of morality and comes up with the hypothetical and categorical imperative. Formalized the principle of not lifting your particularity above others: 1. Act so that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle of universal legislation. 2. Never treat others merely as a means to an end.

What did Husserl write about in “The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Philosophy?

Husserl was critical of the way in which philosophy was going, specifically how philosophers were not trying to make a systematic all-encompassing theory anymore. He was also critical to the philosophy of worldviews, where philosophy is made to only account for different worldviews. He was also critical of the rise of positivism (the only true knowledge is derived through hard science) and relativism (culture etc. is relative) and of the increasing reduction of philosophical metaphysical questions into psychology. He pointed out that this was not only a crisis on the scale of the sciences, but also on a societal scale as it could lead to the rise of irrational movements.

How are synthetic a priori judgments possible according to Kant?

He argues that synthetic a priori judgments are possible because our minds actively structure experience through innate forms of sensibility (space and time) and categories of the understanding (like causality, substance, etc.). These built-in frameworks allow us to generate new knowledge (synthetic) that does not solely come from experience, yet is universally and necessarily valid (a priori).

What concepts existed prior to experience according to Kant, and what did he call these?

He maintains that certain forms and concepts are prior to (and independent of) experience. Space and time are the forms of intuition, structuring how we perceive the world, while the categories (like unity, plurality, causality) are the pure concepts of the understanding. These are what the mind brings to experience so that we can organize and make sense of it. These categories are a-priori due to being conditions for the possibility of experience themselves.

What is the danger of using categories outside of them being connected with an experience according to Kant?

When we use the categories of understanding without grounding them in sensory experience, we can fall into speculative metaphysics and illusions. It can also eventually lead to undecidable paradoxes such as whether God exists or if we are ultimately free.

What does Kant write about aesthetic judgements in “The Critique of Judgement”?

In “The Critique of Judgement,” Kant describes aesthetic judgments as a judgment which is based on feeling, and in particular on the feeling of pleasure or displeasure. He also sees them as having a subjective universality: Although based on subjective feelings of pleasure, with no inherent rules present, we still expect others to agree with our judgments of beauty because they stem from a shared human faculty of taste. Seeing a beatiful thing corresponds to one seeing something that mashes agreebly with ones capacity to understand the world. One can also have a feeling of the sublime, where one experience a displeasure due to ones failure of understanding.

What does Kant write about teleological judgements in “The Critique of Judgement”?

Kant explains teleological judgments as a way of interpreting natural objects and organisms as if they were designed for a purpose, even though we cannot prove actual design. This “reflective” judgment helps us study nature systematically by assuming a purposeful order, but it remains a regulative principle for understanding rather than a definitive statement about nature’s ultimate purpose. Humanity neccessarily strives for the beyond.

What is radical evil according to Kant?

For Kant, radical evil refers to bypassing the categorical imperative by finding some kind of excuse for oneself or just being egotistical. It suggests a deep-seated propensity in human nature that inclines us toward evil, requiring moral effort and the cultivation of goodwill to overcome.

What is the difference between an analytical and a synthetic judgement?

An analytical judgment is one in which the predicate is already contained in the subject concept (e.g., “All bachelors are unmarried”), so it doesn’t expand our knowledge—it just clarifies what we already mean. A synthetic judgment adds something new to the subject that isn’t already implied by it (e.g., “All bachelors are unhappy”), thereby extending our understanding.

What is “authenticity” and “inauthenticity” according to Heidegger?

In Heidegger’s philosophy, especially in Being and Time, authenticity means confronting one’s finite existence and taking responsibility for one’s own being—living with awareness of one’s mortality and individual potential. Inauthenticity occurs when we allow ourselves to be absorbed by the crowd (the “they” or das Man) and uncritically follow social conventions, losing sight of our personal responsibility and unique possibilities. It is essentially submitting, and saying that one just is and has no choices. “That is just the way I am”

What is the purpose of the work “Being and Time” by Heidegger?

The main aim of Being and Time is to reawaken the question of the meaning of Being. Heidegger conducts an existential analysis of human existence (Dasein) to reveal the structures that underlie our experience of the world, hoping this groundwork (fundamental ontology) will clarify how “Being” is understood in general.

What were the constants in Husserl’s philosophy?

1. Philosophy as a rigorous science

2. Radicalism - He tries to reach the original source of perception

3. Radical autonomy - He wants to get rid of all presuppositions of the words he uses, this requires a “radical autonomy towards oneself” according to Husserl

4. Re-thinking subjectivity - exploring pure consciousness through his work

What does Husserl use as a starting point for his philosophy?

Self-evident truths. He tries to prove how there are truths that can be known a priori and uses these in his philosophy. He calls this world of self-evident truths for the lebensweld (lifeworld).

How did Heidegger want to change western philosophy’s approach to “Being”?

Heidegger showed that the word being had been historically approached as a noun - substantive, while Heidegger thought we should approach it as a verb; referring to the event or occurrence of being.

What is “being-towards-death”  and why did Heidegger find it so important?

Being-towards death shows that our being comes and ends in death. Heidegger therefore finds it important for us to understand what it means to be an authentic human being, to do this it is essential that we project our lives onto the horizon of our death.

Why is the analysis of the Dasein hermeneutic?

Hermeneutic means to interpret something, because the Dasein is always analysing itself, it is essentially interpreting its own thoughts and structures.

What did Heidegger think about the technological thought?

He thought that technological thought had gone too far, due to the fact that we now only think of places as means to an end (e.g. nature) instead of appreciating it for what it is.

What did Nietzsche think about the Socratic doctrine and Christianity?

He thought that the socratic doctrine of trying to find the true world was mistaken. He also thought Christianity was life-denying due to the large focus on the afterlife. He didn’t see this as a negative by itself, but that the problem was when people stopped believing in it. Because, if all the weight of the world has been put on the afterlife, but suddenly there is none, it will result in Nihilism. He thought Kant was the reason that christianity became entirely faith-based.

What did Nietzsche write about in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”?

He tried to deal with the death of metaphysics and belief in the afterlife by creating a new doctrine based on the eternal recurrence. Nietszsche believed that this doctrine could create an overman - someone who can effectively deal with the death of old metaphysics.

What were the three phases of Nietzsche?

1. European culture’s inferiorities to the Greeks, especially Greek art.

2. Morality, religion and art are the ‘all too human’ distractions from the harsh truths of existence.

3. Revaluation of values; perspectivism; rejection of the distinction between appearance and reality.

What were Nietzsche's critiques of modernity and morality?

Nietzsche thought that craving for some apart or beyond was not helpful as it is not attainable. He thought that there was only the philosophy of the person, and was therefore critical to the modern values of happiness as a negative definition, the principle of peace above war, and the finality of metaphysical theories.

He thought morality was the enemy of strong individuality, and thought that a strong individual should figure out their own moral principles. Morality leads to mediocrity and a herd mentality

What is Nietzsche’s concept of “Amor Fati”?

Making the world beautiful by giving style to one’s character. Surveying all the values and morality of one’s person to create an artistic plan and reach a point where it all is like reason and art, and even weakness delights the eye.

What are the characteristics of the Excentric positionality?

Humans have the possibility of putting themselves in the position of others, and to use their imagination, in contrast to animals who just live in the here and now. Our body can also be both the center from which we experience and sense the world, and viewed from an external point of view, as pure materiality - e.g when looking in the mirror.

What does Plessner think laughing and crying are examples of?

He thinks that laughter and crying are expressions of situations where we fundamentally do not know what to do with our own bodies.

What are Plessner’s 3 Anthropological laws?

1. Natural artificiality - We cannot purely live in the state of nature, instead we rely on artificial tools like language, culture, social institutions, etc. to survive and flourish. We depend on constructing an environment that mediates our relationship with the world.

2. Mediated immediacy - Every experience is mediated by language, social norms, cultural practises and conceptual frameworks

3. The Utopian standpoint - Humans always transcend their immediate situation. We perpetually imagine possibilities and alternatives that do not yet exist.

What is Double Aspectivity (Plessner)?

Our body appears as a living-centered body and as a purely material body (Leib vs. Korper). Our inner life is also not just subjective experience, but also the deeper unity of the soul (Erlebnis vs. Seele). Our engagement in the world is also double-sided. We have the individual view, as well as the collective view that sustains culture and shared understanding (Bewusstsein vs. Geist). We essentially experience existence from two perspectives simultaneously in every part of life.

What are the three anthropological worlds according to Plessner?

1. Outer world -  Our body appears as a living-centered body and as a purely material body. 

2. Inner world - Our inner world is both soul and lived experiences.

3. Shared world - Our shared world appears both as the shared consciousness that creates culture, and as the spirit that carries our consciousness.

How would Husserl respond to the question posed by Kant; “What is the Human being?”

He thinks that Kant presupposes a founding rationality that we can no longer suppose. Therefore, we must deploy a phenomenological attitude and expend our presuppositions.

How would Heidegger respond to the question posed by Kant; “What is the Human being?”

Husserl is overly focused on cognitive intentional acts (knowing, thinking), and on the subject. Instead: Dasein

How would Nietzsche respond to the question posed by Kant; “What is the Human being?”

He would essentially say that there is no answer. Philosophy always depends on the philosopher, as philosophy is necessarily an expression of life itself.

How did Arendt criticize modernity in connection to totalitarianism?

She believed that we have created a society where people are so preoccupied with labor and work, that their political opinions are isolated from one another. ‘Common sense’ is also being used to isolate people. Arendt calls this society a mass society. The politically neutral citizens were the ones who were the easiest to activate in Germany and USSR, this due to them being easily enlisted if one admits the game of checks, balances, procedures and legal requirements is rigged.

How did Arendt think the Nazi takeover of Germany was possible?

She believed that it was due to social isolation and loneliness, and how Germany had become a mass society. She also thought that the way Nazi’s explained the world and their vision in a simple way, with scapegoats they could blame for their problems.

What does Arendt mean when she describes the ‘banality of evil’?

How evil acts do not have to be done in radical manners, but can be done under the dictates of authority, not necessarily out of active malice.

What does Anders say about human obsolescence?

Anders believes that with increasing technological improvement, we humans are becoming obsolete. As these machines are becoming more complex, the role of human being shifts from creators to overseers and cogs in an automated process, this can lead to questions about human dignity. He urges humanity to cultivate a moral and imaginative capacity to match our technological power.

What is existentialism?

Trying to find a meaning in life while assuming that there is no god. It is a radical and unrelenting attention to concrete individual existence. It was most influential in the years after WW2.

Sartre distinguishes two ways of being, what are they?

Pour-soi: Human consciousness

En-soi: Things that are self-contained and do not transcend their boundaries. They are in no way related to the outside world.

How does Sartre think the consciousness behaves?

With intentionality like Husserl. There is no subconscious, the conscious only exists in conscious acts and thoughts. E.g. When one counts something, one is not aware of oneself during the act. Sartre also believes that consciousness can never be encountered in its true form. If you try to isolate the consciousness, it vanishes, it becomes the consciousness of the consciousness of …..etc.

Sartre thinks consciousness is based on negation, how does this make sense?

Things are what they are by their continuing of not being what they are not. We also transcend the given reality by negating our situation (no, I could be otherwise). This means it is also our grounds for freedom, as we can imagine ourselves not doing things, and are therefore able to choose what to do.

How did Sartre view the other in his philosophy?

The other is treated as an object until they affect one's own freedom. One does not notice the other until one is objectified or struck by the case of another. The art of dealing with another is the expression and suppression of freedom.

What does Sartre say about love?

There is desire and sacrificial love. Through desire one aims to possess the other person. Through sacrificial love, one sacrifices one’s own being for the other to be the possessor. So either you are a pour-soi or an en-soi. Love is the balance of suppression of freedom.

How did De Beauvoir interpret the pour-soi and en-soi?

Showed how transcendence and immanence are distributed over different roles. Women are usually “the other” gender, or “the second sex”, and are therefore more often en-soi and immanent. De Beauvoir believed that it was the responsibility of women to break out of capacity and see themselves as a free subject to get out of being treated to immanence.

What is De Beauvoir’s existentialist pedagogy?

She tried to make a moral system based on “being and nothingness” by Sartre. Therefore believed in how individuals are not born with a predefined nature or essence. This leads to her thinking that in pedagogy, children should learn to use their freedom to create their own values and that they should not rely on nihilism or dogma.

What did Foucalt write about in “Madness and civilization”?

Madness is treated differently in different ages, in the middle-ages the mad are integrated in society, in the Renaissance they are starting to be shipped away, in the modern age a logical and physical division is created between mad and non-mad. Foucalt believed that every man is necessarily mad, so we must try to reach the zero-point at which madness is undifferentiated.

What does Levi-Strauss think about magic?

He thinks magic is a linguistic intervention of the society, not a metaphysical force. Magic is essentially a symbolic intervention. - Uses the example of Hindu Indians that want to touch a muslim to purify their caste. There is a kind of logic behind magic, in that it is a parallel way of understanding the world, where it has a structural role in how it shapes how people see reality and solve problems.

What does Levi-Strauss think about gifts?

He built on Marcel Mauss’ work on the topic. He thinks it is an important part of the social fabric. It is an important part of the social structure, and the obligation that the gift brings lies at the core of social organisation. It can also be used as a system of communication, and is useful for creating alliances between families etc. He also argues that anthropology should be a study of symbolic gestures such as this one.

What did Levi-Strauss say about kinship and marriage within your family?

He rejected biological reasoning in favor of linguistic explanations. It is a basic rule that forms in all cultures, and serves as a positive in terms of shaping societies. It makes it so that alliances across families are formed and makes it so that a community becomes a larger interlinked social structure.

What did Levi-Strauss say about mankind?

There is Universal Humanism, meaning we are all very similar. This can be seen in the structures that emerge in all different cultures. He criticized ethnocentric universalism, in favor of cultural differences.

What is Universal Particularism as proposed by Viveiros de Castro?

There is a common human ground, but this does not erase the uniqueness of each cultural worldview. He challenged the western-style universalism - not all cultures ought to fit one universality.

What is the Amerindian perspective that Viveiros de Castro wrote about?

The Amerindian perspective is the perspective where culture and nature is flipped. They believed that all animals and humans have the same culture, but they differ in their nature. Every animal has a similar “interiority”, or human standpoint, for all animals they are their own center of the world. They differ in what they choose to eat and how they behave due to their nature.

What is the Arrow of time as explained by Stengers?

Even though many physicists do not believe in time having a specific direction due to this not being seen in physical phenomena, Stengers thinks we can prove the arrow of time just by looking at our own experiences. Many other scientific results are also dependent on the arrow of time, like in thermodynamics which she and Prigoigne wrote about. It is written about in the work “Order Out of Chaos”.

What does Stengers think about modern science?

She thinks science is too rigid and political. Science is done in a construct of rigid omission of certain factors to the detriment of others. She advocates for more of a slow science that doesn’t dismiss questions of the idiot as irrelevant to it. Scientists should not just be left alone.

According to Kant, how are we able to do science even though we do not have access to the “ding an sich”?

Through how our cognitive capacities structure the world. Our mind structures the world through space and time, and through the a priori categories that exist in human conscience. Science is done on phenomena, not noumena, so our shared structure of the world means that we can do science.

How does Dasein relate to consciousness according to Heidegger?

Dasein is the fundamental mode of our existence—always already in a meaningful world—within which something like “consciousness” can arise. It is more encompassing than “consciousness,” because it includes our practical, social, historical, and existential ways of being, not merely our reflective mental states.

What did Nietzsche think of facts and all-encompassing theories?

He believed that there are no facts, only interpretations. All philosophy and science is formed by the person who created it.

What did Levi-Strauss think about cultures?

Cultures are different ways of expressing the same fundamental human categories. In the same way that we all have languages which arrange phonemes, albeit different languages with different grammar and vocabulary.

Why did Hannah Arendt speak of the human condition instead of human nature?

She wanted to assess the social, historical and political conditions under which humans act, not speak of a fundamental human essence. She rejects the idea of this essence.

What is Arendt’s concept of Natality?

The creation of something new. Each human birth brings something novel into the world. We are born not just to die, but to begin something new. Every human has the capacity to create something unprecedented and unexpected.

What is Husserl’s point when he says “Zu den sachen selbst!“ (“To the things themselves!”)?

Since one cannot know the thing in itself (ding an sich), one needs to use the consciousness and structure one has to examine the world in a phenomenological sense. He uses phenomenological reduction to achieve this.

What distinguishes organic vs. inorganic being according to Plessner?

Inorganic beings have no self-relation or positionality, while organic beings have different forms of positionality.

What is Structuralism?

The study of deep, often hidden frameworks that determine human behavior. For Levi-Strauss this meant uncovering the universal mental structures behind kinship and myth. For Foucalt, it meant studying how social institutions and discourses form different knowledge and subjectivity at different points in history.

Why did Arendt think the launch of Sputnik was such a monumental event?

Because launching Sputnik marked the event where humans were no longer “Earth-bound”. The reaction to this event was also important, as they showed how many people had a lust to “escape” this planet.  It signalled a deep transformation in the human relationship with nature and the world.

What did Arendt write about plurality?

She thinks that we are all both similar and distinct. We are all able to speak and do actions - the hallmark of political life. We are also fundamentally distinct, even in our ways of existing. Politics relies on us engaging with similar people, but who are distinct enough to enrich the political discussion. Through speech and action among others, individuals reveal who they are. This is why Arendt places great importance on public spaces.

What did Hannah Arendt write about work?

Work is when one creates a durable artifact, e.g. a house, a tool, etc., things that can outlast our immediate needs. Work involves a means-end logic, with a human design on the material world. Both objects of use and art are considered to be created by work. The cumulative result of work is the creation of a shared world of objects that shape human life. She criticizes the trend of mass production and consumption in modern life, and thinks it undermines the importance of lasting “worldly” structures that support political and communal life.

What did Hannah Arendt write about Action?

Action directly involves other people, and relies on human plurality. Actions are irreversible, so we have to rely on forgiveness and promises as remedies. Action becomes powerful only once more people are involved in a political sphere. Action, such as speech, reveals the true identities of people.

What are the two rules of morality that Kant formalized?

1) Act in such a way that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle of a universal legislation. 

2) Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end. 

Why do we need to believe in God, the immortality of the soul, and the afterlife according to Kant?

Due to the conflicting demands posed upon us by our duty and interests. God, the immortality of the soul and the afterlife must serve as practical postulates in morality.

What did Husserl say about the question: “Can we nevertheless believe in the necessary nature of logical truths, without also accepting the thesis that there is a realm of ideal objects?”

1. Logical truths are absolutes and do not rest in convictions. Logical truths are self-evident. We must part with empiricism, as empiricists claim that logical truths stem purely from convictions.

2. Logic and mathematics are not concerned with ‘ideal objects’, rather with ‘intentional objects’. He calls this intuition, and observes that these intentional objects are always immediately given.

What did Husserl think about the existence of consciousness and the world?

For the world to exist, consciousness being present is a necessary condition. It is impossible for there to be a world and no consciousness.

What does Husserl oppose concerning the ‘natural attitude’?

Husserl thinks that consciousness cannot just be examined on a natural basis, but that one needs to approach it with the phenomenological attitude. Consciousness itself does not belong to nature according to Husserl.

What prejudices have prevented “Being” from being adequately developed according to Heidegger?

1. Hegel: Being is the most general thing one can say about reality. Heidegger: It is also the most opaque.

2. The concept of being is indefinable, after all, it is not possible to ask what something is, without knowing what “is” means. This, however, does not free us from the task of analyzing the meaning of the plural version of the word. 

3. Being is the most self-evident concept. It does not require any elucidation or explanation. Heidegger wants to use this prejudice to explain the every-day phenomenon of being.