Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:39:23.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Anthropology from a Kantian Point of View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2021

Robert B. Louden
Affiliation:
University of Southern Maine

Summary

Kant's anthropological works represent a very different side of his philosophy, one that stands in sharp contrast to the critical philosophy of the three Critiques. For the most part, Kantian anthropology is an empirical, popular, and, above all, pragmatic enterprise. After tracing its origins both within his own writings and within Enlightenment culture, the Element turns next to an analysis of the structure and several key themes of Kantian anthropology, followed by a discussion of two longstanding contested features - viz., moral anthropology and transcendental anthropology. The Element concludes with a defense of the value and importance of Kantian anthropology, along with replies to a variety of criticisms that have been levelled at it over the years. Kantian anthropology, the author argues, is 'the eye of true philosophy'.
Get access
Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781108592871
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 11 March 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Bibliography

Sources

Baumgarten, Alexander (2013). Metaphysics: A Critical Translation with Kant’s Elucidations, Selected Notes, and Related Materials, trans. and ed. Fugate, Courtney D. and Hymers, John. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Brandt, Reinhard (1994). “Ausgewählte Probleme der kantischen Anthropologie,” in Der ganze Mensch: Anthropologie und Literatur im 18. Jahrhundert, ed. Schings, Hans-Jürgen. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1432.Google Scholar
Brandt, Reinhard (1999). Kritischer Kommentar zu Kants Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht (1798). Hamburg: Meiner.Google Scholar
Brandt, Reinhard (2003). “The Guiding Idea of Kant’s Anthropology and the Vocation of the Human Being,” in Essays on Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Jacobs, Brian and Kain, Patrick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 85104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandt, Reinhard (2007). Die Bestimmung des Menschen bei Kant. Hamburg: Meiner.Google Scholar
Brandt, Reinhard and Stark, Werner (1997). “Einleitung,” in Vorlesungen über Anthropologie, ed. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Berlin: De Gruyter, viicli (= vol. 25 of Kant’s gesammelte Schriften).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinton, Crane, ed. (1956). The Portable Age of Reason Reader. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Buber, Martin (1965). Between Man and Man. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cassirer, Ernst (1944). An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.Google Scholar
Cicero, (1971). Tusculan Disputations, trans. J. E. King. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Alix (2009). Kant and the Human Sciences: Biology, Anthropology and History. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Elden, Stuart and Mendieta, Eduardo, eds. (2011). Reading Kant’s Geography. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Ellingson, Ter (2001). The Myth of the Noble Savage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fellini, Julian (2008). “Skizze einer transzendental Anthropologie bei Kant,” in Recht und Frieden ind der Philosophie Kants: Akten des X. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, ed. Rohden, Valério . Berlin: De Gruyter, 2332.Google Scholar
Firla, Monika (1981). Untersuchungen zum Verhältnis von Anthropologie und Moralphilosophie. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fleischacker, Samuel (2018). Review of Robinson, Elizabeth and Suprenant, Chris W (eds.), Kant and the Scottish Enlightenment. New York: Routledge, 2017. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2018.02.14, URL = https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/kant-and-the-scottish-enlightenment.Google Scholar
Flikschuh, Katrin and Ypi, Lea, eds. (2014). Kant and Colonialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1973). The Order of Things, trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (2008). Introduction to Kant’s Anthropology, ed. and trans. Robert Nigro and Kate Briggs.Los Angeles: Semiotext(e).Google Scholar
Frierson, Patrick R. (2003). Freedom and Anthropology in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Frierson, Patrick R. (2013). What Is the Human Being? London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford (2000). Available Light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gehlen, Arnold (1988). Man, His Nature and Place in the World, trans. Clare McMillan and Karl Pillemer. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Girtanner, Christoph (1796). Ueber das Kantische Prinzip für die Naturgeschichte. Ein Versuch, diese Wissenschaft philosophisch zu behandeln. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Hampshire, Stuart (1960). Thought and Action. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin (1997). Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, 5th ed., enlarged, trans. Richard Taft. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hinske, Norbert (1966). “Kants Idee der Anthropologie,” in Die Frage nach dem Menschen: Aufriss einer philosophischen Anthropologie. Festschrift für Max Müller zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Rombach, Heinrich. Freiburg and Munich: Karl Alber, 410–27.Google Scholar
Homer, (1965). The Odyssey, trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Hume, David (1975). Enquiries Concerning Human Nature and Concerning the Principles of Morals, ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A., 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David (1978). A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A., 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hutcheson, Francis (1994). Philosophical Writings, ed. Downie, R. S.. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Jachmann, Reinhold Bernhard (1804). Immanuel Kant geschildert in Briefen an einen Freund. Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius.Google Scholar
Kain, Patrick (2003.) “Prudential Reason in Kant’s Anthropology,” in Essays on Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Jacobs, Brian and Kain, Patrick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 230–65.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1980). Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht, ed. Vorländer, Karl, with an introduction by Kopper, Joachim and a supplementary appendix by Rudolf Malter. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.Google Scholar
Kaulbach, Friedrich (1966). “Weltorientierung, Weltkenntnis und pragmatische Vernunft bei Kant,” in Kritik und Metaphysik. Studien: Heinz Heimsoeth zum achtzigsten Geburtstag, ed. Friedrich, Kaulbach and Joachim, Ritter. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 6075.Google Scholar
Kleingeld, Pauline (2007). “Kant’s Second Thoughts on Race,” The Philosophical Quarterly 57: 573–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleingeld, Pauline (2012). Kant and Cosmopolitanism: The Philosophical Ideal of World Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kleingeld, Pauline (2014). “Kant’s Second Thoughts on Colonialism,” in Kant and Colonialism, ed. Flikschuh, Katrin and Ypi, Lea. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4367.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, Arnold, ed. (1924). Die philosophischen Hauptvorlesungen Immanuel Kants. Nach den neu aufgefundenen Kollegheften des Grafen Heinrich zu Dohna-Wundlacken. Munich and Leipzig: Rösl & Cie.Google Scholar
Linden, Mareta (1976). Untersuchungen zum Anthropologiebegriff des 18. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Lorini, Gaultiero (2018). “The Rules for Knowing the Human Being: Baumgarten’s Presence in Kant’s Anthropology,” in Knowledge, Morals and Practice in Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Lorini, Gualtiero and Louden, Robert B.. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 6380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2000). Kant’s Impure Ethics: From Rational Beings to Human Beings. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2011). Kant’s Human Being: Essays on His Theory of Human Nature. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2013). “Schleiermacher, Friedrich,” in the International Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. Hugh, LaFollette. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 8: 4728–38.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2014 a). “The Last Frontier: The Importance of Kant’s Geography,” Society and Space 32: 450–66. (Reprinted in Reading Kant’s Lectures, ed. Robert R. Clewis. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, 507–25.)Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2014 b). “Cosmopolitical Unity: The Final Destiny of the Human Species,” in Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology: A Critical Guide, ed. Cohen, Alix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 211–29.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2014 c). “Kantian Anthropology: A Science Like No Other,” Estudos Kantianos 2: 201–15.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2017). “A Writer More Excellent Than Cicero: Hume’s Influence on Kant’s Anthropology,” in Kant and the Scottish Enlightenment, ed. Robinson, Elizabeth and Suprenant, Chris W.. London: Routledge, 164–80.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2018 a). “Kant’s Anthropology: (Mostly) Empirical Not Transcendental,” in Der Zyklop in der Wissenschaft: Kant und die anthropolgia transcendentalis, ed. Francesco, Valerio Tommasi. Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1933.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2018 b). “The Moral Dimensions of Kant’s Anthropology,” in Knowledge, Morals and Practice in Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Lorini, Gualtiero and Louden, Robert B.. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 101–16.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2018 c). “Freedom from an Anthropological Point of View,” in Natur und Freiheit: Akten des XII. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, ed. Waibel, Violette L., Ruffing, Margit, and Wagner, David. Berlin: De Gruyter, 457–72.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2021 a). “Lectures on Anthropology,” in The Cambridge Kant Lexicon, ed. Wuerth, Julian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 756–60.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (forthcoming a). “Anthropology,” in The Kantian Mind, ed. Baiasu, Sorin and Timmons, Mark. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (forthcoming b). “Philosophical Anthropology,” in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, ed. Goetz, Stewart and Taliaferro, Charles. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (forthcoming c). “‘An Illusion of Affability That Inspires Love’: Kant on the Value and Disvalue of Politeness,” in The Philosophy of (Im)Politeness, ed. Xie, Chaoqun. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2021 b). “Humans-Only Norms: An Unexpected Kantian Story,” in Kant on Morality, Humanity, and Legality: Practical Dimensions of Normativity, ed. Lyssy, Ansgar and Yeomans, Christopher. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 131–47.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (2020). “Kant the Naturalist,” Journal of Transcendental Philosophy 1: 317.Google Scholar
Louden, Robert B. (forthcoming d). “Foucault’s Kant,” The Journal of Value Inquiry.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Thomas (2009). Race, Empire, and the Idea of Human Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellin, Georg Samuel (1970). Enzyklopädisches Wörterbuch der kritischen Philosophie, 6 vols. Aalen: Scientia Verlag.Google Scholar
Mensch, Jennifer (2018). “From Anthropology to Rational Psychology in Kant’s Lectures on Metaphysics,” in Kant’s Lectures on Metaphysics, ed. Fugate, Courtney D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 194213.Google Scholar
Mikkelsen, Jon M., trans. and ed. (2013). Kant and the Concept of Race: Late Eighteenth-Century Writings. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muthu, Sankar (2003). Enlightenment Against Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Niquet, Marcel (2001). “Transzendentale Anthropologie und die Begründung der praktischen Philosophie,” in Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung: Akten des IX. Kant Kongresses, ed. Gerhardt, Volker, Horstmann, Rolf-Peter, and Schumacher, Ralph. Berlin: De Gruyter, 405–15.Google Scholar
Nobbe, Frank (1995). Kants Frage nach dem Menschen: Die Kritik der äesthetischen Urteilskraft als transzentale Anthropologie. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Pagden, Anthony (1993). European Encounters with the New World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Peacocke, Christopher (2004). “Moral Rationalism,” Journal of Philosophy 101: 499526.Google Scholar
Plato, (1997). Complete Works, ed. Cooper, John. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Plessner, Helmuth (2019). Levels of Organic Life: An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology, trans. Millay Hyatt. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Rensch, Thomas (1990). Die Konstitution der Moralität: Transzendentale Anthropologie und praktische Philosophie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Rink, Friedrich Theodor (1805). Ansichten aus Immanuel Kant’s Leben. Königsberg: Göbbels und Unzer.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard (1982). “Keeping Philosophy Pure: An Essay on Wittgenstein,” in Rorty, Richard, Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1936.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1964). The First and Second Discourses, ed. Masters, Roger D.. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Said, Edward W. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Sánchez, Madrid, Nuria (2018). “Controlling Mental Disorder: Kant’s Account of Mental Illness in the Anthropology Writings,” in Knowledge, Morals and Practice in Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Lorini, Gualtiero and Louden, Robert B. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 147–62.Google Scholar
Schacht, Richard (1990). “Philosophical Anthropology: What, Why and How,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50 (Supplement): 155–76.Google Scholar
Scheler, Max (2009). The Human Place in the Cosmos, trans. Manfred S. Frings. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Schiller, Friedrich (1955). Gedichte. Wiesbaden: Insel-Verlag.Google Scholar
Schmid, Carl Erhard, Christian (1976). Wörterbuch zum leichtern Gebrauch der kantischen Schriften. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Claudia M. (2007). “Kant’s Transcendental, Empirical, Pragmatic, and Moral Anthropology,” Kant-Studien 98: 156–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shell, Susan Meld (1996). The Embodiment of Reason: Kant on Spirit, Generation, and Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Simmermacher, Volker (1951). “Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft als Grundlegung einer Anthropologia Transcendentalis.” PhD dissertation, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Stark, Werner (2003). “Historical Notes and Interpretive Questions about Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology,” in Essays on Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Jacobs, Brian and Kain, Patrick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturm, Thomas (2009). Kant und die Wissenschaften vom Menschen. Paderborn: Mentis.Google Scholar
Van de Pitte, Frederick P. (1971). Kant as Philosophical Anthropologist. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Van Norden, Bryan W. (2017). Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Vorländer, Karl (2003). Immanuel Kant: Der Mann und das Werk, special ed. after the 3rd expanded ed. of 1992. Wiesbaden: Fourier.Google Scholar
Weber, Max (1958). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Google Scholar
Weiler, Gersohn (1980). “Kant’s Question ‘What Is Man?’”, Philosophy of the Social Sciences 10: 123.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard (2014). “Colonialism in Kant’s Political Philosophy,” Diametros 39: 154–81.Google Scholar
Willich, A. F. M. (1798). Elements of the Critical Philosophy. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Wilson, Holly L. (2006). Kant’s Pragmatic Anthropology: Its Origin, Meaning, and Critical Significance. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Holly L. (2018). “Elucidation of the Sources of Kant’s Anthropology,” in Knowledge, Morals and Practice in Kant’s Anthropology, ed. Lorini, Gualtiero and Louden, Robert B.. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1128.Google Scholar
Wood, Allen W. (1994). “Unsociable Sociability: The Anthropological Basis of Kantian Ethics,” Philosophical Topics 19: 325–51.Google Scholar
Wood, Allen W. (2008). Kantian Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Allen W. (2012). “General Introduction,” in Kant, Immanuel, Lectures on Anthropology, ed. Wood, Allen W. and Louden, Robert B.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 110.Google Scholar
Zammito, John H. (2002). Kant, Herder, and the Birth of Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zammito, John H. (2014). “What a Young Man Needs for His Venture into the World: The Function and Evolution of the ‘Characteristics’,” in Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology: A Critical Guide, ed. Cohen, Alix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 230–48.Google Scholar
Zöller, Günter (2011). “Kant’s Political Anthropology,” Kant Yearbook 3: 131–61.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Anthropology from a Kantian Point of View
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

Anthropology from a Kantian Point of View
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

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.

Anthropology from a Kantian Point of View
Available formats
×