Kant on Proofs for God's Existence

This volume provides a highly needed, comprehensive analysis of Kant's views on proofs for God's existence and explains the radical turns of Kant's accounts. In the "e;Theory of Heavens"e; (1755), Kant intended to harmonize the Newtonian laws of motion with a physicotheological argument for the existence of God. But only a few years later, in the "e;Ground of Proof"e; essay (1763), Kant defended an ontological ('possibility' or 'modal') argument on the basis of its logical exactitude. Nevertheless he continued to praise the physicotheological argument. In the first "e;Critique"e; (1781/7), Kant replaced the traditional constitutive proofs with regulative theoretical and practical arguments. He continued to defend a moral argument in the second "e;Critique"e; (1788). But in the third "e;Critique"e; (1790), Kant reintroduced a physicotheological besides an ethicotheological argument in order to unify the critical system of philosophy. Kant developed further moral arguments in the "e;Theodicy"e; essay (1791) and the "e;Religion"e; (1793/4), and still continued to discuss proofs for God's existence in the "e;OP"e; (1796-1804). This volume speaks to Kant specialists in the fields of philosophy and theology, but can be used also as an introduction for non-academic readers.