Kant’s philosophy as the development of the intentions of enlightenment

Abstract

Ernst Cassirer in hisThe Philosophy of the Enlightenmentwrites of Kant’s overcoming of the Enlightenment yet giving its deepest justification. This justification came in the form of epistemology which transformed the modern worldview, handing its form and content over to science. The medieval theistic worldview had to be cleansed from miracles and mysticism and give way to a scientific worldview. However, the Enlighteners, though initiating this movement, could not follow it through and failed to break the ties to theology. This was true in psychology, epistemology, philosophy of history and religion, law and the state. Kant’s role was to complete this task. His philosophy is built upon the principle of the material unity of the world. This required the creation of transcendental anthropology which resolved the problem of the human being and the natural foundations of reason – the problem that had puzzled the most prominent thinkers of the Enlightenment. The principle of the material unity of the world is consistently maintained from the firstCritique to the Opus Postumum, making Kant’s system monistic. In order to maintain this unity, Kant had to subordinate formal logic to transcendental logic which made extensive use of the antinomical dialectic, the principle of the relativity of rational thinking, including the relativity of such ideas of reason as object and subject. Kant’s effort resulted in human nature’s being presented as part of the whole of nature, and so the limit of Enlightenment thinking was overcome.