The essays in this volume provide new readings of Kant’s account of human nature.
Despite the relevance of human nature to Kant’s philosophy, little attention has been paid to the fact that the question about human nature originally pertains to pure reason. The chapters in this volume show that Kant’s point is not to state once and for all what the human being actually is, but to unite pure reason’s efforts within a unitary teleological perspective. The question about human nature is the cornerstone of reason’s unity in its different activities and domains. Kant’s question about human nature goes beyond our empirical inquiries to show that the notion of humanity represents the point of convergence and unity of pure reason’s most fundamental interests.
Kant on Freedom and Human Nature will appeal to scholars and advanced students working on Kant’s philosophy.
Introduction: Human Freedom and Human Nature Luigi Filieri and Sofie Møller
Part 1: The Legislation of the Realm of Freedom
1. Freedom Within Nature Allen Wood
2. Kant’s Answer to the Question “What Is the Human Being?” Marcus Willaschek
3. What Is Humanity? Sofie Møller
4. Maximizing Freedom? Paul Guyer on the Value of Freedom and Reason in Kant Heiner F. Klemme
5. Putting Freedom First: Some Reflections on Paul Guyer's Interpretation of Kant's Moral Theory Herlinde Pauer-Studer
Part 2: The Legislation of the Realm of Nature
6. Kant on the Exhibition (Darstellung) of Infinite Magnitudes Rolf-Peter Horstmann
7. The Problem of Intersubjectivity in Kant's Critical Philosophy Konstantin Pollok
8. Kant on Conviction and Persuasion Gabriele Gava
Part 3: Bridging the Gulf between the Realms of Nature and Freedom
9. Why is There Something, Rather than Nothing? Kant on the Final End of Creation Reed Winegar
10. Kant’s Philosophy of History, as Response to Existential Despair Rachel Zuckert
11. Mendelssohn and Kant on Human Progress: A Neo-Stoic Debate Melissa Merritt
12. Aesthetic Subjectivity in Ugly Matters: A Comparison Between Kant and Mendelssohn Anne Pollok
Postscript: Kant on Freedom and Human Nature: Responses Paul Guyer
Biography
Luigi Filieri is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Kant-Forschungsstelle of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Among his publications: Sellars and Kant on Givenness and Intuition (Phänomenologische Forschungen 2, 2021), Concept-less Schemata: The Reciprocity of Imagination and Understanding in Kant’s Aesthetics (Kantian Review XXVI/4, 2021), and The Highest Good as the Ideal of Reason in the Canon of the first Critique (forthcoming in Kant-Studien).
Sofie Møller is Junior Professor of Kant and German Idealism at the Universität zu Köln. She was a research associate at the Research Center “Normative Orders” at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main and published Kant’s Tribunal of Reason: Legal Metaphor and Normativity in the Critique of Pure Reason (2020).
