Tom Rockmore Bücher

Kant and Phenomenology traces the formulation of Kant's phenomenological approach back to the second edition of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. In response to various criticisms of the first edition, Kant more forcefully put forth a constructivist theory of knowledge. This shift in Kant's thinking challenged the representational approach to epistemology, and it is this turn, Rockmore contends, that makes Kant the first great phenomenologist. He then follows and evaluates the epistemological usefulness of this phenomenological line through the work of Kant's idealist successors, Fichte and Hegel, and through the work of his phenomenological successors, Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Steeped in the sources and literature it examines, Kant and Phenomenology persuasively reshapes our conception of both of its main subjects. --Page [4] of cover.

Exploring the foundations of philosophy, Tom Rockmore challenges the traditional view established by Parmenides that thought and being are identical. He argues against the existence of a non-mind-dependent reality, advocating instead for a constructivist perspective where knowledge is shaped by mental constructs. The book traces the evolution of philosophical thought from ancient figures like Plato and Aristotle to modern thinkers such as Kant and Hegel, revealing how these ideas can be reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, fostering new connections in philosophical discourse.

Distinguished scholar and philosopher Tom Rockmore examines one of the great lacunae of contemporary philosophical discussion--idealism. Addressing the widespread confusion about the meaning and use of the term, he surveys and classifies some of its major forms, giving particular attention to Kant. He argues that Kant provides the all-important link between three main types of idealism: those associated with Plato, the new way of ideas, and German idealism. The author also makes a case for the contemporary relevance of at least one strand in the tangled idealist web, a strand most clearly identified with Kant: constructivism. In terms of the philosophical tradition, Rockmore contends, constructivism offers a lively, interesting, and important approach to knowledge after the decline of metaphysical realism.