Immanuel Kant died on February 12 in 1804. In preparation for that anniversary, here are links to nine liberal/libertarian philosophers who argue whether Kant is or is not classically liberal. Mark D. White, “Defending Kant’s Classical Liberalism.” Professor White argues that Kant’s politics gives individuals the liberty to act on the products of their deliberation […]
Kant and Liberalism: Nine Perspectives Read More »
Philosopher Christopher Janaway said: “One feature uniting many kinds of recent philosophy is an increasing recognition that we are working within the legacy of Kant”. For more on the meaning and implications of Janaway’s remark, see p. 79 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. Information about other editions and translations is available at this
Christopher Janaway in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
The biographer of Nobel Peace prize-winning (and Rockford University graduate) Jane Addams recounts this incident, in which Addams invokes Kantian duty-ethic in response to a friend’s desire for some gratitude in response to her charitable works: “Her wealthy friends like Louise deKoven Bowen [1859-1953] viewed gratitude for their good work as the only payment they
Jane Addams and Ellsworth Toohey Read More »
G. W. F. Hegel: “From the Kantian system and its completion I expect a revolution in Germany.” Johann Holderlin: “Kant is the Moses of our nation.” “Within a few years of the publication of his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was recognized by his contemporaries as one of the seminal thinkers
Some post-Kantians on Kant, pro and con Read More »
In Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice by Nikhil Goyal asks: Are America’s schools little more than cinderblock gulags that spawn vicious cliques and bullying, negate creativity and true learning, and squelch curiosity in their inmates, um, students? Goyal is a recent high school graduate (2013), but recalls his
Goyal’s *Schools on Trial* Read More »
University of Pittsburgh philosophy professor Robert Brandom: “I want to start going back and looking at the roots of American pragmatism in the German Idealist tradition. I think developments over the last four decades have secured Immanuel Kant’s status as being for contemporary philosophers what the sea was for the poet Swinburne: ‘the great grey
Robert Brandom: Kant as “the great grey mother of us all” Read More »
[From lecture notes for Immanuel Kant’s 1775-1780 courses as published in Lectures on Ethics [1775-1780], translated by Louis Infield, New York: Harper and Row, 1963, pp. 162-168. The text is below and here as PDF.] Duties towards the Body in Respect of Sexual Impulse Amongst our inclinations there is one which is directed towards other
Kant on sex, marriage, concubines, prostitutes, and incest [text] Read More »
Professor Roderick T. Long has published his essay, “Kant: Liberal, Illiberal, or Both?”, in the Cato Unbound discussion series. Here is the abstract of his essay: Roderick Long offers a complex view of Immanuel Kant, who emerges as more often liberal in principle than in practice. Kant approved of taxation, a welfare state, and even
Long on Kant and liberal politics [Cato Unbound Series] Read More »