From Rationality to Morality

The Collective Development of Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Anthropology

Bibliographic Data

ID20510992
AuthorsOlga Lenczewska (0000-0002-7977-8151, University of North Carolina Wilmington, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume27
Issue3
Pages363-383
Publication date2022-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueKantian Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-4154 • E-ISSN: 2044-2394
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1369415422000152
OpenAlexW4281628244
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

While Kant’s account of humankind’s rational progress has been widely discussed, his speculative views about the way in which this progress might have begun and the circumstances surrounding this beginning have been largely neglected. Implicit in such an omission is the assumption that Kant does not say much about the very beginning of human history or that whatever he says is of little philosophical value. This article challenges these assumptions. I reconstruct Kant’s account of the emergence of reason by looking at his various conjectural and more literal remarks about our species’ transition from mere irrational animals into primitive human beings possessing a rudimentary form of rationality. Next, I show how this account fits with Kant’s broader view of humankind’s rational progress and its subsequent stages. By doing so, I elucidate Kant’s guidelines for achieving this progress in the future by unifying them with his regulative view of reason’s past

Epistemology · Irrational number · Morality · Practical reason · Rationality · Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations · Mathematics · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · War, Ethics, and Justification

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