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Stephen Palmquist

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Stephen Palmquist
Palmquist in 2017
Born
Stephen Richard Palmquist

1957 (age 66–67)
Nome, Alaska, U.S.
Alma mater
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolKantianism
Comparative philosophy
Doctoral advisor
Main interests
Kant, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, political theology, logic, Chinese philosophy

Stephen Richard Palmquist (born 1957)[1] is an American philosopher, currently living in Los Angeles. He taught philosophy at various universities in Hong Kong from 1987 to 2021. A Patheos article referred to him as "one of the greatest living interpreters of Kant".[2]

Education and career

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While attending Westmont College in the late 1970s, Palmquist worked as a part-time youth minister, a job that helped him realize that, instead of becoming a pastor, his real calling was to be a university teacher.[3] Shortly after starting his doctoral studies at Oxford University in October 1980, he realized his calling was to be a philosopher.[3] He completed his PhD in Philosophical Theology under the supervision of John Macquarrie and W. H. Walsh in August 1987. The next month he joined as faculty at Hong Kong Baptist University, at that point still named Baptist College.[4] He played an important role in compiling e-text versions of the various writings of Immanuel Kant. He founded "Kant on the Web", an award-winning website in 1995.[5] The staff profile page describes that his website "was selected as ‘Web site of the month’ by Point of Life (11/03), offered the reputable ‘Study Web Excellence Award’ (6/99), given a ‘Special Mention Award’ by the Churches.com organization (7/98), placed on a list of web sites specially recommended by the Britannica Internet Guide (5/98), won Majon Web Select’s prestigious ‘seal of excellence award’ (6/97), and selected as ‘Top 1% of the Web’ by 21st Century Renaissance (6/96)."[4]

Palmquist has more than 200 publications, which have been translated into at least twelve different languages. His writings include 12 books and over 110 refereed articles and book chapters [6][7] In 2020, he received the HKBU President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work.[8]

Philosophical work

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Palmquist's earlier work focused on a "perspectival”"interpretation of Kant's philosophical system: by emphasising the "architectonic" form of reason, he claims to resolve many apparent contradictions in Kant's philosophical writings that have long plagued interpreters. Among the various applications of the perspectival methodology to solving long-standing philosophical problems, one of the most significant is found in his 2016 article, which offers a solution to the Cartesian mind-body problem.[9]

Another major contribution to Kant scholarship is Palmquist’s interpretation of Kant's entire philosophical system as having a "theocentric" orientation, which provides the foundation for a religion and theology that aims at restoring Christianity to its "pure and authentic form".[i] Central to Palmquist's new paradigm, as argued most fully in his book, Kant's Critical Religion,[12] is the claim that Kant's 1793 book, Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason, attempts not to reduce religion to morality, but to raise morality to the level of religion: religious faith is necessary to fulfill a genuine need of reason that significantly limits the ability of human beings to be good unless they call upon divine assistance.[13][ii] In the most significant of his numerous articles supplementing the arguments of Kant's Critical Religion since 2007, Palmquist has traced the roots of panentheism to Kant's philosophy of religion,[15] located the infamous missing argument for the alleged presence of radical evil in human nature in Kant's Religion book,[16] unpacked the logical basis for a previously undetected "religious argument" for God's existence,[17] and demonstrated that Kant was more amenable to a belief in divine grace than has often been assumed.[18] His work on Kant’s theory of religion culminated in the publication of Comprehensive Commentary on Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason,[19] which presents the entire text of Kant’s Religion in a thoroughly revised translation and incorporates insights from the relevant articles published during the previous decade.

Hong Kong Philosophy Café

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In a 1998 interview with the South China Morning Post, Palmquist mentioned his desire to move philosophical practice into the marketplace.[20] Subsequently, he founded the Hong Kong Philosophy Café in 1999 which currently has autonomous branches running concurrently in Hong Kong. The monthly meeting usually is held in the evenings and attracts people from all walks of life.[21] In a 2012 interview on Academic Foresights, he said that the Café had a mailing list of over 700.[22] Talks and discussions at the Café address contemporary metaphysical, political, and economical issues that attract popular media attention[23][24] In March 2001, a Chinese branch of the Café was also established to meet the needs of Chinese speaking participants.[25]

Hong Kong Kant Society

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Palmquist founded the Hong Kong Kant Society in 2015.[26] The Society is an affiliated group of the American Philosophical Association[27] and organizes symposiums, conferences, and various events in Hong Kong related to Kantian studies.[28][29]

Prior to the setting up the Hong Kong Kant Society, Palmquist organized Asia’s first major conference on Kantian scholarship in 2009, the Kant in Asia Conference, whose keynote speakers were Patricia Kitcher, Chung-ying Cheng, and Günter Wolfhart. De Gruyter published the conference proceedings in 2010.[30] Palmquist organized a second Kant in Asia Conference in 2016.[31]

Major publications

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  • Kant and mysticism: Critique as the experience of baring all in reason's light (2019). (ISBN 9781793604651)
  • Kant on Intuition: Western and Asian Perspectives on Transcendental Idealism (Routledge, 2019). (ISBN 978-0-429-49177-1)
  • Comprehensive Commentary on Kant's Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)(ISBN 978-1-118-61920-9)
  • Cultivating Personhood: Kant and Asian Philosophy, Edited Proceedings of the Kant in Asia international conference (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2010)
  • Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion, co-edited with Chris L. Firestone (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, January 2006)
  • Kant’s Critical Religion: Volume Two of Kant’s System of Perspectives (London: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2000)
  • Kant’s System of Perspectives: An architectonic interpretation of the Critical philosophy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1993)

Notes

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  1. ^ While this religious and theological application played a role in his early doctoral research, Palmquist's first published defense of his position on Kantian religion came in his 1989 article, "Immanuel Kant: A Christian Philosopher?".[10] See also the response to Anthony Perovich's critique of his position, in Palmquist's follow-up article, "Triangulating God: A Kantian Rejoinder to Perovich".[11]
  2. ^ For a thorough-going summary of Kant's entire Religion book that takes this non-reductionist assumption fully into account, while also outlining the way Kant's four perspectives play an architectonic role similar to that of the three Critiques, see Palmquist's "Introduction" to Pluhar's translation of Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason[14] Pluhar was the first translator of Kant's book to adopt Palmquist's suggestion in his 1992 Kant-Studien article[13] that "bare" is the best translation of Kant's use of bloßen in the title of Religion.

References

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  1. ^ "Palmquist, Stephen Richard 1957-," www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  2. ^ Whitaker, Justin (15 January 2013). "A Buddhist view of human nature". Patheos. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b Staff, H. "Psychology, Philosophy, and Wisdom". HealthyPlace. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Academic Staff". Department of Religion and Philosophy, HKBU. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Professor Stephen Palmquist". HKBU Research. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  6. ^ "Professor Stephen Palmquist". HKBU Research. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Stephen Palmquist". ORCID. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Award Recipients". Hong Kong Baptist University. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  9. ^ Palmquist, S. (2016), "Kant’s perspectival solution to the mind-body problem: Or, why eliminative materialists must be Kantians." Culture and Dialogue 4 (1):194-213. See also: Palmquist, S. (1993). "Kant's system of perspectives : an architectonic interpretation of the critical philosophy." University Press of America.
  10. ^ Palmquist, S. (1989), "Immanuel Kant: A Christian Philosopher?". Faith and Philosophy 6:1, pp.65-75.
  11. ^ Palmquist, S. (1994), "Triangulating God: A Kantian Rejoinder to Perovich". Faith and Philosophy 11:2, pp.302-310.
  12. ^ Palmquist, S. (2000). Kant's Critical Religion. Ashgate. Reprinted Routledge (2019).
  13. ^ a b Palmquist, S. (1992), "Does Kant Reduce Religion to Morality?", Kant-Studien 83:2, pp.129-148.
  14. ^ Kant, I., & Pluhar, W. S. (2009). Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Indianapolis: Hackett.
  15. ^ Palmquist, S. (2008). "Kant's Moral Panentheism", Philosophia 36:1 (2008), pp.17-28.
  16. ^ Palmquist, S. (2008), "Kant's Quasi-Transcendental Argument for a Necessary and Universal Evil Propensity in Human Nature", The Southern Journal of Philosophy 46.2, pp.261-297.
  17. ^ Palmquist, S. (2009), "Kant's Religious Argument for the Existence of God—The Ultimate Dependence of Human Destiny on Divine Assistance", The Faith and Philosophy 26.1, pp.3-22.
  18. ^ Palmquist, S. (2010), "Kant's Ethics of Grace: Perspectival Solutions to the Moral Problems with Divine Assistance", The Journal of Religion 90.4, pp.530-553.
  19. ^ Palmquist, Stephen R. (2015). Comprehensive Commentary on Kant's Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. doi:10.1002/9781118619599. ISBN 9781118619209.
  20. ^ Lo, Alex (5 July 1998). "The New Age sage rage". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  21. ^ Whitehead, Kate (26 May 2001). "Coffee and conversation is the philosophy of fun". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  22. ^ "Philosophy in Hong Kong". Academic Foresights. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  23. ^ DiBiasio, Jame. "The good, the bad, MPF?". FinanceAsia, December 2000. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  24. ^ Strauss, Valerie. "Philosophy's Resurgence". Washington Post, October 2000. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  25. ^ Yeung, Winnie (June 2002). "A Place to exercise your mind". Vol. 34, no. 8. The Young Reporter. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  26. ^ "Faculty Profile". Hong Kong Baptist University. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  27. ^ "Affiliated Groups". American Philosophical Association. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  28. ^ "Group Program". American Philosophical Association. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  29. ^ Palmquist, Stephen (November 2018). Kant on Intuition: Western and Asian Perspectives on Transcendental Idealism. Routledge. ISBN 9780429958908. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  30. ^ Palmquist, S. (ed.) (2010), Cultivating Personhood: Kant and Asian Philosophy. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d6b5ff86e6c087a92f8f89/t/593dea1f893fc0758732dbff/1497229861670/Stephen+R.+Palmquist+editor+Cultivating+Personhood+Kant+and+Asian+Philosophy++++2010.pdf
  31. ^ “Kant in Asia: Intuition East & West” https://staffweb.hkbu.edu.hk/ppp/KantInAsia2/
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