Kant and the Possibility of Progress

Kant and the Possibility of Progress PDF Author: Paul T. Wilford
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252829
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Through a reexamination of Immanuel Kant and his philosophical legacy, this volume explores the philosophic presuppositions of the possibility of progress and our belief in reason's capacity not only to improve the material well-being of humanity but also to promote our true vocation as moral beings.

Kant and the Possibility of Progress

Kant and the Possibility of Progress PDF Author: Paul T. Wilford
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252829
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
Through a reexamination of Immanuel Kant and his philosophical legacy, this volume explores the philosophic presuppositions of the possibility of progress and our belief in reason's capacity not only to improve the material well-being of humanity but also to promote our true vocation as moral beings.

Kant and the Possibility of Progress

Kant and the Possibility of Progress PDF Author: Paul T. Wilford
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812297792
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) transformed the philosophical, cultural, and religious landscape of modern Europe. Emphasizing the priority of practical reason and moral autonomy, Kant's radically original account of human subjectivity announced new ethical imperatives and engendered new political hopes. This collection of essays investigates the centrality of progress to Kant's philosophical project and the contested legacy of Kant's faith in reason's capacity to advance not only our scientific comprehension and technological prowess, but also our moral, political, and religious lives. Accordingly, the first half of the volume explores the many facets of Kant's thinking about progress, while the remaining essays each focus on one or two thinkers who play a crucial role in post-Kantian German philosophy: J. G. Herder (1744-1803), J. G. Fichte (1762-1814), G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). This two-part structure reflects the central thesis of the volume that Kant inaugurates a distinctive theoretical tradition in which human historicity is central to political philosophy. By exploring the origins and metamorphoses of this tremendously influential tradition, the volume offers a timely perspective on fundamental questions in an age increasingly suspicious of the Enlightenment's promise of universal rational progress. It aims to help us face three sets of questions: (1) Do we still believe in the possibility of progress? If we do, on what grounds? If we do not, why have we lost the hope for a better future that animated previous generations? (2) Is the belief in progress necessary for the maintenance of today's liberal democratic order? Does a cosmopolitan vision of politics ultimately depend on a faith in humanity's gradual, asymptotic realization of that lofty aim? (3) And, if we no longer believe in progress, can we dispense with hope without succumbing to despair?

The Political Implications of Kant's Theory of Knowledge

The Political Implications of Kant's Theory of Knowledge PDF Author: G. Lahat
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137264381
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
Based on an insightful and innovative reading of Kant's theory of knowledge, this book explores the political implications of Kant's philosophical writings on knowledge. It suggests that Kant offers a stable foundation for the reconsideration of the idea of progress as crucial in matters of political management at the outset of the 21st Century.

Unnecessary Evil

Unnecessary Evil PDF Author: Sharon Anderson-Gold
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791448199
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Demonstrates the systematic connection between Kant's ethics and his philosophy of history.

Community and Progress in Kant's Moral Philosophy

Community and Progress in Kant's Moral Philosophy PDF Author: Kate A. Moran
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813219523
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
The text draws on a wide range of Immanuel Kant's writings, including his texts on moral and political philosophy and his lectures on ethics, pedagogy, and anthropology. Though the book is grounded in an analysis of Kant's writing, it also puts forward the novel claim that Kant's theory is centrally concerned with the relationships we have in our day-to-day lives.

Opus Postumum

Opus Postumum PDF Author: Immanuel Kant
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521319287
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Occupying him for more than the last decade of his life, this volume includes the first English translation of Kant's last major work, the so-called Opus postumum, which he described as his "chef d'oeuvre" and the keystone of his entire philosophical system.

Kant’s Political Theory

Kant’s Political Theory PDF Author: Elisabeth Ellis
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271059869
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Past interpreters of Kant’s thought seldom viewed his writings on politics as having much importance, especially in comparison with his writings on ethics, which (along with his major works, such as the Critique of Pure Reason) received the lion’s share of attention. But in recent years a new generation of scholars has revived interest in what Kant had to say about politics. From a position of engagement with today’s most pressing questions, this volume of essays offers a comprehensive introduction to Kant’s often misunderstood political thought. Covering the full range of sources of Kant’s political theory—including not only the Doctrine of Right, the Critiques, and the political essays but also Kant’s lectures and minor writings—the volume’s distinguished contributors demonstrate that Kant’s philosophy offers compelling positions that continue to inspire the best thinking on politics today. Aside from the editor, the contributors are Michaele Ferguson, Louis-Philippe Hodgson, Ian Hunter, John Christian Laursen, Mika LaVaque-Manty, Onora O’Neill, Thomas W. Pogge, Arthur Ripstein, and Robert S. Taylor.

Kant and Cosmopolitanism

Kant and Cosmopolitanism PDF Author: Pauline Kleingeld
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139504266
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive account of Kant's cosmopolitanism, highlighting its moral, political, legal, economic, cultural and psychological aspects. Contrasting Kant's views with those of his German contemporaries and relating them to current debates, Pauline Kleingeld sheds new light on texts that have been hitherto neglected or underestimated. In clear and carefully argued discussions, she shows that Kant's philosophical cosmopolitanism underwent a radical transformation in the mid 1790s and that the resulting theory is philosophically stronger than is usually thought. Using the work of figures such as Fichte, Cloots, Forster, Hegewisch, Wieland and Novalis, Kleingeld analyses Kant's arguments regarding the relationship between cosmopolitanism and patriotism, the importance of states, the ideal of an international federation, cultural pluralism, race, global economic justice and the psychological feasibility of the cosmopolitan ideal. In doing so, she reveals a broad spectrum of positions in cosmopolitan theory that are relevant to current discussions of cosmopolitanism.

American Philosophy

American Philosophy PDF Author: John Kaag
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374713111
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
The epic wisdom contained in a lost library helps the author turn his life around John Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James’s question “Is life worth living?” that guides this remarkable book. The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy—self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence—and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books. Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one’s life around.

Kant and Colonialism

Kant and Colonialism PDF Author: Katrin Flikschuh
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191034118
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
This is the first book dedicated to a systematic exploration of Kant's position on colonialism. Bringing together a team of leading scholars in both the history of political thought and normative theory, the chapters in the volume seek to place Kant's thoughts on colonialism in historical context, examine the tensions that the assessment of colonialism produces in Kant's work, and evaluate the relevance of these reflections for current debates on global justice and the relation of Western political thinking to other parts of the world.