Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Key to abbreviations and translators
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The context for Kant's moral philosophy
- Part I The nature of morality
- Part II The moral norm for persons
- Part III The norm for moral judgment
- Part IV Kant on history, politics, and religion
- Appendixes
- 1 Kant's two-viewpoints doctrine
- 2 Kant's philosophy of moral education
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
2 - Kant's philosophy of moral education
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Key to abbreviations and translators
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The context for Kant's moral philosophy
- Part I The nature of morality
- Part II The moral norm for persons
- Part III The norm for moral judgment
- Part IV Kant on history, politics, and religion
- Appendixes
- 1 Kant's two-viewpoints doctrine
- 2 Kant's philosophy of moral education
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
Because the Enlightenment placed its faith above all else in the power of reason, education was considered the hope of the future. (See Ed. 444/8.) Becoming enlightened requires, externally, the removal of institutional restraints on free inquiry and, internally, what Kant calls “the most important revolution within man,” the renunciation of dependence on external authority and a willingness to think for oneself (Anthr. 229). Nature has brought man to the place where he now is responsible for himself and his future. “Man can only become man by education. He is merely what education makes of him” (Ed. 443/6; see Anthr. 323–24).
Kant believed that, in the main, education had been badly mismanaged by those groups controlling it – civil rulers and the church – for they had been far more interested in inculcating blind obedience than in promoting autonomy. (See Ed. 448–49/16–17, 450–51/20–21; Conflict 19/27.) But, reflecting the optimism typical of the Enlightenment, he wrote that “it is only now that something may be done in this direction [promoting enlightenment through education], since for the first time people have begun to judge rightly, and understand clearly, what actually belongs to a good education” (Ed. 444/7–8). The development of the ability to reason depends on education in freedom, a systematic process in discipline that can be directed only by “enlightened experts” (Ed. 449/17; see 441/2–3, 444/8; Anthr. 325; Lect. 470–71/252–53). “It is through good education that all the good in the world arises” (Ed. 448/15).
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- Immanuel Kant's Moral Theory , pp. 287 - 294Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989