Anthropology, History and Education

by Immanuel Kant, Robert B. Louden (Translator), Günter Zöller (Translator)

Anthropology, History, and Education, first published in 2007, contains all of Kant's major writings on human nature. Some of these works, which were published over a thirty-nine year period between 1764 and 1803, had never before been translated into English. Kant's question 'What is the human being?' is approached indirectly in his famous works on metaphysics, epistemology, moral and legal philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion, but it is approached directly in his extensive but less well-known writings on physical and cultural anthropology, the philosophy of history, and education which are gathered in the present volume. Kant repeatedly claimed that the question 'What is the human being?' should be philosophy's most fundamental concern, and Anthropology, History, and Education can be seen as effectively presenting his philosophy as a whole in a popular guise.

Genres: Philosophy, Education, History, Nonfiction

614 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century philosopher from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He's regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe & of the late Enlightenment. His most important work is The Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics & epistemology, & highlights his own contribution to these areas. Other main works of his maturity are The Critique of Practical Reason, which is about ethics, & The Critique of Judgment, about esthetics & teleology.

Pursuing metaphysics involves asking questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed thru epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources & limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. He asked if an object can be known to have certain properties prior to the experience of that object. He concluded that all objects that the mind can think about must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality–which he concluded that it does–then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. However, it follows from this that it's possible that there are objects of such a nature that the mind cannot think of them, & so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. So the grand questions of speculative metaphysics are off limits, but the sciences are firmly grounded in laws of the mind. Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists & the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired thru experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason. Kant’s thought was very influential in Germany during his lifetime, moving philosophy beyond the debate between the rationalists & empiricists. The philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding Kant's system, thus bringing about various forms of German Idealism. Kant continues to be a major influence on philosophy to this day, influencing both Analytic and Continental philosophy.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin - a collection of writings on the aforementioned topics. 'Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View' is especially worth reading.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, but I still want to read his religion beyond the bounds of pure perception and practical philosophy and rational theology. Three stars.

[Jooseppi Räikkönen]

Essay 1: Mankind finds its vocation in universal harmony, all the globe a community in fraternal peace eternal.

Essay 2: What's up guys, it's Kant, Immanuel, and today we'll be RANKING THE RACES.

[Noah Christiansen]

- On the use of teleological principles in philosophy

[Luke Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather odd collection of Kant's writings. Drawn from various periods and include many of his more notoriously racist remarks. In parts quite interesting reading, but in others really a tedious chore.

Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View ... What was that all about?
Also Kant's apparent obsession with the dangers of "shame" in pedagogy was surprising.