The Social Authority of Reason

Philip J. Rossi Sj

Description

In The Social Authority of Reason, Philip J. Rossi, SJ argues that the current cultural milieu of globalization is strikingly reflective of the human condition appraised by Kant, in which mutual social interaction for human good is hamstrung by our contentious "unsociable sociability." He situates the paradoxical nature of contemporary society—its opportunities for deepening the bonds of our common human mutuality along with its potential for enlarging the fissures that arise from our human differences—in the context of Kant's notion of radical evil. As a corrective, Rossi proposes that we draw upon the social character of Kant's critique of reason, which offers a communal trajectory for human moral effort and action. This trajectory still has power to open the path to what Kant called "the highest political good"—lasting peace among nations.

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations and English Translations

1. The Moral and Social Trajectories of Kant's Critical Project

2 The Human Place in the Cosmos I: Critique at the Juncture of Nature and Freedom

3. The Human Place in the Cosmos II: Critique as the Social Self-Governance of Reason

4. The Social Consequences of "Radical Evil"

5. The Social Authority of Reason: The Ethical Commonwealth and the Project of Perpetual Peace

6. The Social Authority of Reason and the Culture(s) of Post-modernity

7. The Unfinished Task of Critique: Social Respect and the Shaping of a Common World

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Philosophie moderne
• Philosophie moderne
• Ethique et morale

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791483367
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

philip j. rossi, sj
RE
A
S
O
N
the social authority of
REASON
kant’s critique, radical evil, and
the destiny of humankindThe Social Authority of ReasonSUNY series in Philosophy
George R. Lucas Jr., editorThe Social Authority of Reason
Kant’s Critique,
Radical Evil,
and the Destiny of Humankind
Philip J. Rossi, SJ
State University of New York PressPublished 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 Diane Ganeles
Marketing by Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rossi, Philip J.
The social authority of reason : Kant’s critique, radical evil, and the destiny
of humankind / Philip J. Rossi.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6429-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804—Ethics. 2. Social ethics. 3. Good and evil.
I. Title. II. Series.
B2799.E8R647 2005
170'.92—dc22 2004011172
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations and English Translations xi
Chapter One: The Moral and Social Trajectories of Kant’s
Critical Project 1
Chapter Two: The Human Place in the Cosmos I: Critique at
the Juncture of Nature and Freedom 19
Chapter Three: The Human Place in the Cosmos II: Critique
as the Social Self-Governance of Reason 41
Chapter Four: The Social Consequences of “Radical Evil” 67
Chapter Five: The Social Authority of Reason: The Ethical
Commonwealth and the Project of Perpetual Peace 87
Chapter Six: The Social Authority of Reason and the
Culture(s) of Post-modernity 113
Chapter Seven: The Unfinished Task of Critique: Social
Respect and the Shaping of a Common World 139
Notes 173
Index 191
vAcknowledgments
The first elements of the argument that this book frames on behalf
of Kant’s understanding of the social authority of reason and its value
for contemporary discussions in social philosophy emerged during my
tenure as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced
Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh in 1992. The
first full draft of the manuscript was completed during a subsequent
Visiting Research Fellowship in 1999. So my first and most extensive
debt of gratitude is due to Dr. Peter Jones, then Director of the
Institute, and Mrs. Anthea Taylor, the Assistant to the Director, who both
made the institute such a welcome place in which to pursue
scholarship. I am also grateful to the many other fellows who worked at the
institute each of those times; while only a few directly shared in my
interest in Kant, conversation with all of them was always rich in
substance and provided energy for returning to my own work with
renewed interest and conviction. I hope that my mention of the names
of just a few—Giancarlo Carabelli, Timothy Engström, Martin
Fitzpatrick, Ferenc Hörcher, Andrés Lema-Hincapié, Iain McCalman,
Robert Morrison, Andrei Pilgoun, Benjamin Vogel, Andrew Ward,
Richard Yeo—will serve as a way to thank all. My thanks to those in
Edinburgh would not be complete without a special word of gratitude
to the members of the Jesuit community at Sacred Heart Parish for
their hospitality during my two terms in residence, especially Fr. Damian
Jackson SJ, Fr. Jack Mahoney SJ, and the late Fr. Charles Pridgeon SJ,
who served as religious superiors of the community during those times.
Fittingly enough, this acknowledgment has been drafted during a short
stay in Edinburgh.
viiviii Acknowledgments
In the interval between my two opportunities to work in Edinburgh,
many other colleagues and their institutions in a variety of places—
Chicago, Kaliningrad, Jakarta, Marburg, Manila, Memphis,
Milwaukee, Moscow, Seoul and South Bend—afforded me opportunities to
test one or another fragment of this work in the form of a conference
paper or lecture; there were also a number of patient editors who
helped shepherd some of these fragments into print as journal articles
or chapters in books. Thanks and acknowledgment are thus also due
to the following: Dr. Sidney Axinn, Dr. Vladimir Bryushinkin, Fr. Luis
David SJ, Dr. Rainer Ibana, Dr. Leonard Kalinnikov, Dr. Jane Kneller,
Dr. V. Lektorski, Dr. G. Felicitas Munzel, Dr. Joseph Pickle, Dr. Hoke
Robinson, Dr. Hans Schwartz, Dr. Galina Sorina, Fr. Christopher
Spalatin SJ, Fr. Justin Sudarminto SJ, Dr. Burkhard Tuschling, and Dr.
Robert Wood. Informal conversation with other colleagues provided
much that has been useful in clarifying and correcting my thinking as
this project moved ahead. Here, too, I mention just a few—Dr. Sharon
Anderson-Gold, Dr. Gene Fendt, Dr. Chris Firestone, Dr. Pauline
Kleingeld, the late Dr. Pierre Laberge, Dr. Curtis Peters, Dr. Ramon
Reyes, Fr. Jack Treloar SJ, Dr. Howard Williams, Dr. Holly Wilson,
and Dr. Allen Wood—to thank all. I owe special thanks to the students
in the graduate class I taught in 1998 on Kant’s moral philosophy at
the Ateneo de Manila, Philippines, since discussion in that course led
to the idea I propose in Chapter Four that Kant considered war to be
the social form of radical evil. I am also deeply in debt to colleagues
in Russia—Dr. Leonard Kalinnikov and Dr. Vladimir Bryushinkin,
President and Vice President, respectively of the Russian Kant Society,
Dr. Boris Goubman, Dr. Irina Griftsova, and Dr. Galina Sorina—who
provided warm hospitality and stimulating intellectual company during
the meetings of the Russian Kant Society in Kaliningrad (Königsberg)
in which I have been privileged to participate in 1993, 1995, and 1999.
The home cities both of David Hume and Immanuel Kant thus have
been important venues in the development of this work.
My colleagues in the Department of Theology at Marquette
University have provided much intellectual encouragement to me during
the long incubation period of this project and I am thankful for their
support. The department, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the
Graduate School each provided some of the funding that made it
possible for me to travel to conferences overseas to present portions
of this work. My graduate assistants during these years—Dr. MarkAcknowledgments ix
Ginter, Dr. John Meech, Mr. Aaron Smith, Dr. Wolfgang Vondey—
performed a variety of tasks that helped in the research for this project
and the preparation of the manuscript for publication.
I am grateful to the editors and publishers who have given
permission to incorporate revised material that has appeared in the following
previously published essays:
“Autonomy: Towards the Social Self-Governance of Reason,”
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 75, 2001: 171–177.
“War: The Social Form of Radical Evil,” Kant und die Berliner
Aufklärung: Akten des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, Band 4,
ed. by Volker Gerhardt, Rolf-Peter Horstmann, and Ralph Schumacher.
Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2001: 248–256.
(Russian translation of “The Social
Authority of Reason: Critique, Radical Evil, and the Destiny of
Humankind”), Voprosi filosofii [Problems of Philosophy] 7 (Moscow), 2000:
43–52.
“Kant’s Ethical Commonwealth: Moral Progress and the Human
Role in History”: Part I: “The Ethical Commonwealth and the Human
Place in the Cosmos”; Part II: “Kant’s ‘Cosmopolitan Perspective’: A
View from the Sideline of History?” Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and
Culture 2/2 (Manila), 1998: 1–24.
“Critical Persuasion: Argument and Coercion in Kant’s Account
of Politics,” Recht, Staat und Völkerrecht bei Immanuel Kant, ed. Dieter
Hüning and Burkhard Tuschling. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1998:
13–33.
“Public Argument and Social Responsibility: The Moral
Dimensions of Citizenship in Kant’s Ethical Commonwealth,” Autonomy and
Community: Readings in Contemporary Kantian Social Philosophy,
ed. Jane Kneller and Sidney Axinn. State University of New York
Press, 1998: 63–85.
(Russian translation of “A Commonwealth of Virtue: Guarantee
of Perpetual Peace?”) Kantovskij Sbornik [Journal of the Russian Kant
Society] 20 (Kaliningrad), 1997: 55–65.
“The Social Authority of Reason: The ‘True Church’ as the Locus
for Moral Progress,” Proceedings of the Eighth International Kant
Congress, II/2, ed. Hoke Robinson. Milwaukee: Marquette University
Press, 1995: 679–685.
ixx Acknowledgments
“The Final End of All Things: The Highest Good as The Unity of
Nature and Freedom,” Kant’s Philosophy of Religion Reconsidered,
ed. Philip J. Rossi and Michael Wreen. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1991: 132–164.List of Abbreviations and English Translations
Citations to the Critique of Pure Reason follow the standard
convention of providing the pagination from the first (A) and second (B) editions
in German.
Kant’s other works are cited in the text and notes according to
the abbreviations below. The citations first provide the pagination from
the appropriate volume of Kant’s Gessamelte Schriften (GS) (Ausgabe
der Königlichen Preußichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin
1902– ); after the slash, they provide pagination from the
corresponding English translation.
A/B Kritik der Reinen Vernunft. English translation: Critique of
Pure Reason. Trans. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. The
Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
AP Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht. GS 7. English
translation: Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Trans.
Mary J. Gregor. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974.
BF “Beanwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?” GS 8. English
translation: “What is Enlightenment?” Trans. Lewis Whi