Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment

Katerina Deligiorgi

Description

Katerina Deligiorgi interprets Kant's conception of enlightenment within the broader philosophical project of his critique of reason. Analyzing a broad range of Kant's works, including his Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Judgment, his lectures on anthropology and logic, as well as his shorter essays, she identifies the theoretical and practical commitments that show the achievement of rational autonomy as an ongoing project for the realization of a culture of enlightenment. Deligiorgi also considers Kant's ideas in relation to the work of Diderot, Rousseau, Mendelssohn, Reinhold, Hamann, Schiller, and Herder. The perspective opened by this historical dialogue challenges twentieth-century revisionist interpretations of the Enlightenment to show that the "culture of enlightenment" is not simply a fragment of our intellectual history but rather a live project.

Acknowledgments
Note on the Texts Used
Introduction: A Critical Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment?

1. The Enlightenment in Question
Enlightenment as an "Age of Criticism"
Diderot, Rousseau, and the Tasks of Criticism
Diderot's Normative Impasse
Rousseau's Conception of Freedom and Its Problems
Mendelssohn, Reinhold, and the Limits of Enlightenment

2. The Idea of a Culture of Enlightenment
Kant's Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment?
A New Approach to Independent Thinking
The Culture of Enlightenment: Public Argument as Social Practice
Communication, Autonomy, and the Maxims of Common Understanding
Reason's Good Name and Reason's Public
Power and Authority: Hamann on the Immature and Their Guardians

3. Culture as a Historical Project
Kant's Attempt at a Philosophical History
The "Plan of Nature": History from a Political Perspective
Teleological Judgments of Nature and of Culture
Culture and Moral Progress: Two Perspectives on Rational Ends
The a priori Thread of History, Providence, and the
Possibility of Hope

4. Nature and the Criticism of Culture
Schiller on the Predicament of the "Moderns"
The Failures of Enlightenment
Nature Condemned: The Severity of Kantian Morality
Schiller's "Aesthetic State" and Its Criticism
Nature, Reason, and the Beginning of Culture

5. Culture after Enlightenment
Enlightenment and Its Discontents
Adorno and Horkheimer on Enlightened Thought
Foucault on the Origin of Norms
Gilligan on Mature Adulthood
Culture within the Bounds of Reason

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie moderne
• Philosophie moderne

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791483145
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment

SUNY series in Philosophy George R. Lucas Jr., editor

Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment

 Katerina Deligiorgi

State University of New York Press

Cover image: Immanuel Kant. Steel engraving by J. L. Raab (ca. 1860). Used by permission of the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2005 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Judith Block Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Deligiorgi, Katerina, 1965– Kant and the culture of enlightenment / Katerina Deligiorgi. p. cm. — (SUNY series in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–7914–6469–5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804. 2. Enlightenment. 3. Philosophy, Modern—18th century.

B2798.D452 2005 190.9033—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2004021559

Acknowledgments

Note on the Texts Used

Contents 

Introduction: A Critical Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment?

Chapter 1. The Enlightenment in Question 1. Enlightenment as an “Age of Criticism” 2. Diderot, Rousseau, and the Tasks of Criticism 3. Diderot’s Normative Impasse 4. Rousseau’s Conception of Freedom and Its Problems 5. Mendelssohn, Reinhold, and the Limits of Enlightenment

Chapter 2. The Idea of a Culture of Enlightenment 1. Kant’s Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment? 2. A New Approach to Independent Thinking 3. The Culture of Enlightenment: Public Argument as Social Practice 4. Communication, Autonomy, and the Maxims of Common Understanding 5. Reason’s Good Name and Reason’s Public 6. Power and Authority: Hamann on the Immature and Their Guardians

Chapter 3. Culture as a Historical Project 1. Kant’s Attempt at a Philosophical History 2. The “Plan of Nature”: History from a Political Perspective 3. Teleological Judgments of Nature and of Culture

v

vii

i

x

1

13 13 16 20 30 41

5

5

55 59

6

9

77 85

9

2

99 99

104 112

vi

CONTENTS

4. Culture and Moral Progress: Two Perspectives on Rational Ends 5. The a priori Thread of History, Providence, and the Possibility of Hope

Chapter 4. Nature and the Criticism of Culture 1. Schiller on the Predicament of the “Moderns” 2. The Failures of Enlightenment 3. Nature Condemned: The Severity of Kantian Morality 4. Schiller’s “Aesthetic State” and Its Criticism 5. Nature, Reason, and the Beginning of Culture

Chapter 5. Culture after Enlightenment 1. Enlightenment and Its Discontents 2. Adorno and Horkheimer on Enlightened Thought 3. Foucault on the Origin of Norms 4. Gilligan on Mature Adulthood 5. Culture within the Bounds of Reason

Notes

Bibliography

Index

118

128

133 133 136 142 149 154

159 159 161 169 176 183

187

231

243

Acknowledgments 

would like to thank Alison Ainley, Gordon Finlayson, Jason Gaiger, Neil Gascoigne, Iain Macdonald, Nick Walker, and the anonymous c I omments on portions of the manuscript. readers for State University of New York Press, for their helpful I would also like to thank Stephen Houlgate, Bob Stern, and my colleagues at APU for their support, Onora O’Neill for making avail- able to me some of her unpublished papers, Stephen Mulhall and Tom Baldwin for their encouragement during the early stages of this project, and the students at York, Essex, and APU, where I taught some of the material contained in this book, for their keen interest and probing questions about the Enlightenment and its legacy. An early version of section 3 of chapter 2, now substantially revised, appeared as “The Public Tribunal of Political Reason: Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment,” in Volker Gerhardt, Rolf-Peter Horstmann, and Ralph Schumacher (eds.),Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung. Akten des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, vol. 5 (Walter de Gruyter: Berlin and New York, 2001), and early versions of sections 2 and 4 of chapter 2, which are also now thoroughly revised and expanded, appeared as “Universalisability, Publicity, and Communication: Kant’s Conception of Reason” inThe European Journal of Philosophy10:2 (2002).

vii

This page intentionally left blank.

Note on the Texts Used 

or Kant, reference to the collected works in German is given to the volume (indicated by Roman numeral) and page number of the de F r Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften(formerlyKöniglichen Akademie edition:Kants gesammelte Schriften:herausgegeben von Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften), in twenty-nine vols. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter (formerly Georg Reimer), 1902–. For Diderot, reference to the French is given to the volume and pages of the collected worksDenis Diderot Oeuvres Complètes, under the general editorship of H. Dieckmann and J. Varloot, in twenty-five vols. Paris: Hermann, 1990–. For Rousseau, reference to the French is given to the volume and pages of the Pléiade edition,Jean-Jacques Rousseau Oeuvres Complètes, under the general editorship of B. Gagnebin and M. Raymond, Pléiade edition, in six vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1969. For Schiller, reference to the collected works in German is given to the volume and pages of the Nationalausgabe edi- tion (NA),Schillers Werke Nationalausgabe, under the general editor- ship of Lieselotte Blumenthal and Benno von Wiese, in twenty-six vols. Weimar: Hermann Böhlhaus Nachfolger, 1943–.

List of Abbreviations

Kant

Anthropology:Anthropology from a Pragmatic Perspective, trans. Mary Gregor, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974. CB: “Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History,” trans. H. B. Nisbet, inKant’s Political WritingsCambridge:, Hans Reiss (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 1991.

i

x