Kant's Logic in the Critique of Practical Reason - a Logical Formalization of Kant's Practical Transcendental Argument Msc in Logic

Logic plays a fundamental role in Kant’s transcendental philosophy. The general presupposition is that Kant’s logic can be subsumed under the Aristotelian tradition. However, with respect to this presupposition some problems arise in Kant’s philosophy. This thesis takes a new approach to Kant’s logic: Instead of imposing a logical framework on Kant’s thought this thesis aims at deriving the logical apparatus underlying Kant’s reasoning via the process of logical formalization. The formalization will be concerned with Kant’s practical transcendental argument. In this thesis I will, firstly, provide a philosophical model for detecting, interpreting and evaluating Kantian transcendental arguments. Secondly, I will show that Kant’s argument for ‘the possibility of the moral law as a synthetic a priori proposition’, as found in the Critique or Practical Reason, is a transcendental argument. The main aim of this thesis is to further our understanding of Kant’s logical reasoning via the logical formalization of Kant’s practical transcendental argument. Furthermore, this thesis aims to solve the philosophical problems of Kant’s argument on the basis of this formalization. The argument will be formalized in an intuitionistic many-sorted type-free situation calculus. The encountered axioms underlying Kant’s reasoning will turn out to be intuitionistic in nature. Furthermore, the logical formalization of Kant’s argument will allow for the derivation of the necessary and sufficient definition of the concept of objective validity. As such, I hope to have shown that logical analysis can substantiate philosophical research.