Kant's Empirical Psychology

Patrick R. Frierson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Whitman College. He is the author of Freedom and Anthropology in Kant's Moral Philosophy (Cambridge, 2003) and Kant's Questions: What Is the Human Being? (2013), and has published numerous articles in edited volumes and journals including Philosophers' Imprint and the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

• 1. Introduction: the nature and possibility of empirical psychology; 2. Kant's empirical account of human action; 3. Kant's empirical account of human cognition; 4. Kant's empirical account of moral motivation: respect for the moral law; 5. Kant's empirical markers for moral responsibility; 6. Defects of cognition: prejudice and mental disorder; 7. Defects of volition: affects, passions, and weakness of will; 8. Conclusion; Appendix: charts and tables describing Kant's empirical psychology.

'With this lucid explanation and analysis of Kant's empirical psychology, Patrick R. Frierson makes a major contribution to Kant scholarship. Up till now, the general lack of familiarity with this aspect of Kant's philosophy has led many to conflate his moral theory and his empirical psychology, which in turn has produced many misguided objections and caricatures. Frierson's clear and balanced discussion enables readers to gain a deeper understanding of Kant's empirical account of human cognition and action, and to situate it properly in its broader philosophical context.' Pauline Kleingeld, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands