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Feeling, Orientation and Agency in Kant: A Response to Merritt and Eran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2021

Alix Cohen
Alix Cohen*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
*
Email: alix.cohen@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

On my interpretation of Kant, feeling plays a central role in the mind: it has the distinct function of tracking and evaluating our activity in relation to ourselves and the world so as to orient us. In this article, I set out to defend this view against a number of objections raised by Melissa Merritt and Uri Eran. I conclude with some reflections on the fact that, despite being very different, Merritt and Eran’s respective views of Kantian feelings turn out to have something potentially problematic in common: they blur the boundary between feelings and other kinds of mental states.

Keywords

Kantfeelingemotionagencyorientationpleasuredesireintentionality

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Article
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Kantian Review , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 379 - 391
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Kantian Review

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