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2 - Happiness and the moral life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Sonia Sikka
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
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Summary

At one time, during the 1760s, Herder had been a student of Kant's, and had greatly admired the views communicated in his lectures of that period. Kant's highly unsympathetic review of the second part of Herder's Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind, published in 1785, however, shows how profound the philosophical differences between these two had become by this point. The nature of happiness, and its place within the “destiny” or “vocation” (Bestimmung) of the human race, forms a central area of dispute emerging from the review. Kant is responding, in particular, to a section of the Ideas entitled: “The happiness (Glückseligkeit) of human beings is everywhere an individual good; consequently, it is everywhere climatic and organic, a child of practice, tradition, and custom” (Ideas, 327). Although he is not mentioned by name, this section clearly contains critical rejoinders, often quite harsh in tone, to aspects of Kant's practical philosophy and philosophy of history, as Herder understands them. Against the idea that happiness requires extrinsic justification, for example, Herder insists that “every living creature takes delight in its life; it does not brood and ask, why is it there? Its existence is to it an end and its end is existence” (Ideas, 330).

Type
Chapter
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Herder on Humanity and Cultural Difference
Enlightened Relativism
, pp. 44 - 83
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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  • Happiness and the moral life
  • Sonia Sikka, University of Ottawa
  • Book: Herder on Humanity and Cultural Difference
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511783012.004
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  • Happiness and the moral life
  • Sonia Sikka, University of Ottawa
  • Book: Herder on Humanity and Cultural Difference
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511783012.004
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Happiness and the moral life
  • Sonia Sikka, University of Ottawa
  • Book: Herder on Humanity and Cultural Difference
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511783012.004
Available formats
×