Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: The Vocation of Humankind, 1774
- 2 The Taming of Kant: Popular Philosophy
- 3 The Intractable Kant: Schultz, Jacobi, Reinhold
- 4 Of Human Freedom and Necessity
- 5 Kant's Moral System
- 6 The Difference That Fichte Made
- 7 The Parting of the Ways
- 8 The Vocation of Humankind Revisited, 1800: Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Kant's Moral System
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: The Vocation of Humankind, 1774
- 2 The Taming of Kant: Popular Philosophy
- 3 The Intractable Kant: Schultz, Jacobi, Reinhold
- 4 Of Human Freedom and Necessity
- 5 Kant's Moral System
- 6 The Difference That Fichte Made
- 7 The Parting of the Ways
- 8 The Vocation of Humankind Revisited, 1800: Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
[The Critique of Pure Reason] is a totally new science – one of which nobody has previously grasped even just the thought; of which even the mere idea was unknown; and to which nothing so far available is of any use.
Kant, Prolegomena (AK 4:262)Accordingly, all metaphysicians are henceforth officially and legally relieved of their businesses, until they have satisfactorily answered the question: “How are synthetic cognitions a priori possible?”
Kant, Prolegomena (AK 4:278)The debate on freedom did not stop where we left it in the previous chapter. The original Reinhold–Schmid controversy grew in scope with the publication of other books and reviews, and eventually acquired a new tone when Fichte entered on the scene. At one point, it degenerated into a nasty exchange of attacks and counterattacks between the new arrival and Schmid. We shall resume the narrative in due time when introducing Fichte. First, however, we must consider the event of greatest intellectual significance that took place in the course of the debate. That was the publication in 1793 of Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. The first part of the book, “Of the Radical Evil in Human Nature,” had already been published the previous year in the Berlin Monthly. How it came to be published again, as the first part of a four-part volume, makes for an interesting story. In short, Kant found himself skirmishing against the Prussian censors. Since the story is well known, it need not detain us here.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Freedom and Religion in Kant and his Immediate SuccessorsThe Vocation of Humankind, 1774–1800, pp. 152 - 204Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005