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Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment / Katerina Deligiorgi

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Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment / Katerina Deligiorgi KANT AND THE CULTURE OF ENLIGHTENMENT KATERINA DELIGIORGI Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment SUNY series in Philosophy George R. Lucas Jr., editor Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment Katerina Deligiorgi State University of New York Press Cover image: Immanuel Kant. Steel engraving by J. L. Raab (ca. 1860). Used by permission of the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2005 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production by Judith Block Marketing by Anne M. Valentine Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Deligiorgi, Katerina, 1965– Kant and the culture of enlightenment / Katerina Deligiorgi. p. cm. — (SUNY series in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–7914–6469–5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804. 2. Enlightenment. 3. Philosophy, Modern—18th century. B2798.D452 2005 190Ј.9Ј033—dc22 2004021559 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Note on the Texts Used ix Introduction: A Critical Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment? 1 Chapter 1. The Enlightenment in Question 13 1. Enlightenment as an “Age of Criticism” 13 2. Diderot, Rousseau, and the Tasks of Criticism 16 3. Diderot’s Normative Impasse 20 4. Rousseau’s Conception of Freedom and Its Problems 30 5. Mendelssohn, Reinhold, and the Limits of Enlightenment 41 Chapter 2. The Idea of a Culture of Enlightenment 55 1. Kant’s Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment? 55 2. A New Approach to Independent Thinking 59 3. The Culture of Enlightenment: Public Argument as Social Practice 69 4. Communication, Autonomy, and the Maxims of Common Understanding 77 5. Reason’s Good Name and Reason’s Public 85 6. Power and Authority: Hamann on the Immature and Their Guardians 92 Chapter 3. Culture as a Historical Project 99 1. Kant’s Attempt at a Philosophical History 99 2. The “Plan of Nature”: History from a Political Perspective 104 3. Teleological Judgments of Nature and of Culture 112 v vi CONTENTS 4. Culture and Moral Progress: Two Perspectives on Rational Ends 118 5. The a priori Thread of History, Providence, and the Possibility of Hope 128 Chapter 4. Nature and the Criticism of Culture 133 1. Schiller on the Predicament of the “Moderns” 133 2. The Failures of Enlightenment 136 3. Nature Condemned: The Severity of Kantian Morality 142 4. Schiller’s “Aesthetic State” and Its Criticism 149 5. Nature, Reason, and the Beginning of Culture 154 Chapter 5. Culture after Enlightenment 159 1. Enlightenment and Its Discontents 159 2. Adorno and Horkheimer on Enlightened Thought 161 3. Foucault on the Origin of Norms 169 4. Gilligan on Mature Adulthood 176 5. Culture within the Bounds of Reason 183 Notes 187 Bibliography 231 Index 243 Acknowledgments would like to thank Alison Ainley, Gordon Finlayson, Jason Gaiger, Neil Gascoigne, Iain Macdonald, Nick Walker, and the anonymous Ireaders for State University of New York Press, for their helpful comments on portions of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Stephen Houlgate, Bob Stern, and my colleagues at APU for their support, Onora O’Neill for making avail- able to me some of her unpublished papers, Stephen Mulhall and Tom Baldwin for their encouragement during the early stages of this project, and the students at York, Essex, and APU, where I taught some of the material contained in this book, for their keen interest and probing questions about the Enlightenment and its legacy. An early version of section 3 of chapter 2, now substantially revised, appeared as “The Public Tribunal of Political Reason: Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment,” in Volker Gerhardt, Rolf-Peter Horstmann, and Ralph Schumacher (eds.), Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung. Akten des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, vol. 5 (Walter de Gruyter: Berlin and New York, 2001), and early versions of sections 2 and 4 of chapter 2, which are also now thoroughly revised and expanded, appeared as “Universalisability, Publicity, and Communication: Kant’s Conception of Reason” in The European Journal of Philosophy 10:2 (2002). vii Note on the Texts Used or Kant, reference to the collected works in German is given to the volume (indicated by Roman numeral) and page number of the FAkademie edition: Kants gesammelte Schriften: herausgegeben von der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften (formerly Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften), in twenty-nine vols. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter (formerly Georg Reimer), 1902–. For Diderot, reference to the French is given to the volume and pages of the collected works Denis Diderot Oeuvres Complètes, under the general editorship of H. Dieckmann and J. Varloot, in twenty-five vols. Paris: Hermann, 1990–. For Rousseau, reference to the French is given to the volume and pages of the Pléiade edition, Jean-Jacques Rousseau Oeuvres Complètes, under the general editorship of B. Gagnebin and M. Raymond, Pléiade edition, in six vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1969. For Schiller, reference to the collected works in German is given to the volume and pages of the Nationalausgabe edi- tion (NA), Schillers Werke Nationalausgabe, under the general editor- ship of Lieselotte Blumenthal and Benno von Wiese, in twenty-six vols. Weimar: Hermann Böhlhaus Nachfolger, 1943–. List of Abbreviations Kant Anthropology: Anthropology from a Pragmatic Perspective, trans. Mary Gregor, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974. CB: “Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History,” trans. H. B. Nisbet, in Kant’s Political Writings, Hans Reiss (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. ix x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CF: “The Contest of Faculties. Part Two: The Conflict between the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Law,” in Kant’s Political Writings. CJ: Critique of Judgement, trans. Werner S. Pluhar, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987. CPR: Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Norman Kemp Smith, London: Macmillan, 1964. CPrR: Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Lewis White Beck, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merill, 1977. ET: “The End of All Things,” trans. Lewis White Beck, in Immanuel Kant: On History, Lewis White Beck (ed.), Indianapolis and New York: Hackett, 1963. GW: Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals, trans. H. J. Paton, as The Moral Law, London: Hutchinson, 1953. IUH: “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose,” in Kant’s Political Writings. Logic: Logic (the G. B. Jäsche edition), trans. J. Michael Young, Immanuel Kant: Lectures on Logic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. MM: Metaphysics of Morals, including “The Doctrine of Right” and “The Doctrine of Virtue,” tran. Mary Gregor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. PP: “Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch,” in Kant’s Political Writings. Religion: Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, trans. Theodore M. Greene and Hoyt H. Hudson, New York: Harper and Row, 1960. RH: “Reviews of Herder’s Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind,” in Kant’s Political Writings. TP: “On the Common Saying: ‘This May Be True in Theory, But It Does Not Apply in Practice,’” in Kant’s Political Writings. WE: “An Answer to the Question, “What Is Enlightenment?” in Kant’s Political Writings. WO: “What Is Called Orientation in Thinking?” in Kant’s Political Writings. Diderot Enc: Diderot’s articles for the Encyclopédie including the 1750 “Prospectus” from the Dieckmann Varloot edition of the collected works. Oeuvres Politiques: Paul Vernière (ed.), Oeuvres Politiques de Diderot, Paris: Garnier, 1963. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi RN: “Rameau’s Nephew,” trans. Leonard Tancock, in Rameau’s Nephew and D’Alembert’s Dream, Harmondsworth: Penguin,1966. Refutation: Refutation of “De l’esprit,” P. Vernière (ed.), Oeuvres Philosophiques de Diderot, Paris: Garnier, 1956. Salon I: “The Salon of 1765,” trans. J. Goodman, in Diderot on Art I: The Salon of 1765, including the “Notes on Painting,” New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995. Salon II: “The Salon of 1767,” trans. J. Goodman, in Diderot on Art II: The Salon of 1767, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995. Rousseau Discourse I: “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,” trans. Roger and Judith Masters, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The First and Second Discourses, Roger Masters (ed.), New York: St. Martin’s, 1964. Discourse II: “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men,” trans. Roger and Judith Masters, in Jean- Jacques Rousseau: The First and Second Discourses, Roger Masters (ed.), New York: St. Martin’s, 1964. Émile: Émile, or On Education, trans. Alan Bloom, Harmonds- worth: Penguin, 1989. SC: The Social Contract, trans. G. D. H. Cole, in The Social Contract and Discourses, London: Everyman, 1963. Mendelssohn WHA: “Über die Frage: ‘Was heisst aufklären?’’’ in Alexander Altmann (ed.), Gesammelte Schriften Jubiläumausgabe, VI:1, Stuttgart- Bad Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann (formerly: Günther Holzboog), 1972. Reinhold Gedanken: “Gedanken über Aufklärung,” in Der Teutsche Merkur, vol. 3, 1784. Schiller AE: On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters, trans. Elizabeth M. Wilkinson and L. A. Willoughby, Oxford: Clarendon, 1982. Introduction A Critical Answer to the Question, What Is Enlightenment? his book presents an argument about Kant that can also be read as an interpretation of a particular Enlightenment project. Kant’s phi- Tlosophy belongs to an intellectual context in which the meaning, orientation, and possible limits of “enlightenment” were the subject of intense debate. Kant sought to answer the increasingly pressing ques- tions concerning the theoretical underpinnings and practical conse- quences of philosophical criticism by construing rational enquiry itself as a form of self-criticism.
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