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Hope, virtue, and the postulate of God: a reappraisal of Kant's pure practical rational belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2013

M. JAMIE FERREIRA
M. JAMIE FERREIRA*
Affiliation:
Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA22904 e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

After identifying contrasting formulations of the practical postulates of reason in Kant's second critique, I analyse the context of each formulation, showing both how the postulate of the ‘possibility’ of God is consistent with Kant's understanding of a significant transition arising from practical needs as well as how the postulate of the existence of God can be seen as a ‘practical belief’ acting out a ‘hope’. My goal is to re-examine Kant's view of the relation between the practical and theoretical employments of reason in order to distinguish clearly between what Kant sees as required of the moral believer as opposed to permitted.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 3 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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