Kant's Religion Research Articles

The Haunting Image of the Frozen Jew (in Christian Self-Understanding), the Self-Determining Universality of Human Reason, and Anticipating the Secular-Nation-State: From Hobbes to Kant and Beyond

Abstract: The following article takes aim at the deeply contested relationship between the secular and the religious in the contemporary: in its conceptual but also genealogical dimensions. Toward this end the essay analyzes Hobbes's Leviathan and Kant's Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason by adopting a bifocaled lens in exposing what is seen as two interrelated forms of universality. One consisted in the (historical and pre-Christian) image of Judaic law and the Jewish people in the self-understanding of what claimed to be a universalizing (moral) Christianity, while the other consisted in a notion of reason that articulates and expresses human morality as a characteristic and index of freedom therein constituting a political society and its laws. The essay argues that the secular-religious dialectic is best understood in terms of this relationship between the image of the Judaic as it operates within Christian and "modern" aspirations toward universality. This dialectic is thereby shown to be essential to thinking and reflecting about the modern emergence of categories like the secular, the national, and the religious in their distinctions: their development as much as their ruin. In such an analysis a critique of the contemporary forms of political-theology—prominently in Schmitt and reiterated in Agamben and Badiou—is also undertaken as conclusion.

The Day the World Stopped Working

The Day the World Stopped Working

Kant's religion and belief in the resurrection

Kant's religion and belief in the resurrection

Pessimism in Kant's Ethics and Rational Religion by Dennis Vanden Auweele

Pessimism in Kant's Ethics and Rational Religion by Dennis Vanden Auweele

Constructivism, moral realism, and the possibility of Kant's rational religion

AbstractIn this article I challenge Kantian constructivism both as an interpretation of Kant's own philosophical commitments and on its own merits as a moral theory, and argue in favour of a moral realist interpretation of Kant. I do so by focusing on Kant's own religious views and the question of whether a Kantian moral theory can be religiously neutral. I show that constructivist readings have severe problems on both fronts, while realist readings of Kant do not. This provides strong evidence that realist forms of Kantian ethics are preferable both as readings of Kant and as approaches to moral theory.

Restoring Kant's Conception of the Highest Good

Since the publication of Andrews Reath's Two Conceptions of the Highest Good in Kant, most scholars have come to accept the view that Kant migrated away from an earlier 'theological' version to one that is more 'secular.' The purpose of this paper is to explore the roots of this interpretative trend, reassess its merits, and then examine how the Highest Good is portrayed in Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason . We will see that it is in this text, more so than any other, that Kant develops his most philosophically sophisticated account of the Highest Good. Because of the central significance of Kant's doctrine of the Highest Good for both his ethical theory and philosophy of religion, this paper therefore seeks to provide an important corrective to the current received views.

Duty Sui Generis and the Individual in Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason

In this paper I examine Kant’s argument that human beings are morally obligated to join or establish a religious “ethical community” as a therapy for “radical evil.” Kant regards this as a duty sui generis, because the human propensity to evil cannot be eradicated. This requirement seems to conflict with the fundamental axiom of Kant’s moral philosophy that “ought” implies “can” — i.e. that we are only morally responsible for what is within our power. Although, on Kant’s account, evil has no cause outside the individual’s free decision to deviate from the moral law, Kant’s religious writings would require us to regard it precisely as though it had a phenomenal cause. I seek to show how this duty sui generis in Kant’s Religion essay can be made compatible with Kant’s ethical writings, arguing that this constitutes an intriguing, pragmatic moment in Kant’s practical philosophy.

In the letter of mere reason: Rethinking the universal secular intellectual with Immanuel Kant, Jacques Derrida and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

This article reconsiders a question, ‘Is Critique Secular?’, which ostensibly polarised Saba Mahmood and Stathis Gourgouris in the 2008 exchange forum of Public Culture. After positing that Mahmood and Gourgouris are mutually invested in challenging and overcoming the intransigence of epistemic secularism, the article canvasses Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's deconstruction of the Kantian ‘universal secular intellectual’. The article suggests that Spivak's reading of Kant's Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone constitutes a vital exercise in democratic criticism that sets into relief an important convergence between Mahmood and Gourgouris as interlocutors. Delineating imbrications among Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Judgment and Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, the article synthesises Jacques Derrida's work on Kantian aesthetics and Spivak's recalibration of the Kantian intellectual as a means to unsettle the recalcitrance of epistemic secularism in academic debate and public culture.

Understanding of Kant's rational religion- Surrounding the objects of hope and two practical antinomies

Understanding of Kant's rational religion- Surrounding the objects of hope and two practical antinomies

Kant’s Ethics of Grace: Perspectival Solutions to the Moral Difficulties with Divine Assistance

Previous articleNext article No AccessKant’s Ethics of Grace: Perspectival Solutions to the Moral Difficulties with Divine AssistanceStephen PalmquistStephen PalmquistHong Kong Baptist University Search for more articles by this author Hong Kong Baptist UniversityPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 90, Number 4October 2010 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/654821 Views: 73Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref © 2010 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Dennis Vanden Auweele Liberal Democracy Needs Religion: Kant on the Ethical Community, Kantian Review 27, no.22 (Mar 2022): 299–314.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1369415421000728Stephen Palmquist How Political Is the Kantian Church?, Diametros (Sep 2020): 1–19.https://doi.org/10.33392/diam.1639Stephen R. Palmquist The Paradox of Inwardness in Kant and Kierkegaard, Journal of Religious Ethics 44, no.44 (Nov 2016): 738–751.https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12158 Works Cited, (Oct 2015): 537–551.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118619599.oth1Dennis vanden Auweele Kant on Religious Moral Education, Kantian Review 20, no.33 (Oct 2015): 373–394.https://doi.org/10.1017/S136941541500014XJames DiCenso Grace and favor in Kant’s ethical explication of religion, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 78, no.11 (Jul 2014): 29–51.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-014-9474-1Douglas McGaughey Historical and Pure Religion: A Response to Stephen Palmquist, The Journal of Religion 93, no.22 (Jul 2015): 151–176.https://doi.org/10.1086/669206Stephen R. Palmquist, Steven Otterman The Implied Standpoint of Kant's Religion : An Assessment of Kant's Reply to (and an English Translation of) an Early Book Review of Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason, Kantian Review 18, no.11 (Feb 2013): 73–97.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1369415412000295

In Defense of Kant's Religion– By Chris L. Firestone and Nathan Jacobs

In Defense of Kant's <i>Religion</i>– By Chris L. Firestone and Nathan Jacobs

Religion within the boundaries of mere reason as the key for a comprehension of Kant's cosmopolitanism

This article advances the thesis that Kant's cosmopolitanism is to be interpreted as a view that contains at its core the idea of a world state as the final destination of humanity's historical progress. Evidence for this is to be found in Kant's Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, in particular on the basis of an interpretation of the notion of the 'ethical commonwealth'. A phase in this progress of humanity toward a world state is a federation of states that Kant advances in Toward Perpetual Peace. Before elucidating this core idea of my article, a review of contemporary interpretations of Kant's cosmopolitanism will be offered. The primary division of these interpretations will be based on the distinction between the 'democratic peace paradigm' and the 'cosmopolitan democracy paradigm'. It will be asserted that the proponents of both paradigms generally claim to have Kantian underpinnings, but by and large suffer from a failure to devote the necessary attention to Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. This failure is above all detrimental to the argumentation of the proponents of the cosmopolitan democracy paradigm.

Habermas and the `Post-Secular Society'

The article appraises Habermas's recent writings on theology and social theory and their relevance to a new sociology of religion in the `post-secular society'. Beginning with Kant's Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, Habermas revisits his earlier thesis of the `linguistification of the sacred', arguing for a `rescuing translation' of the traditional contents of religious language through pursuit of a via media between an overconfident project of modernizing secularization, on the one hand, and a fundamentalism of religious orthodoxies, on the other. Several questions, however, must be raised about this current project. How far can Habermas engage adequately with religious ideas of the absolute while still retaining certain broadly functionalist theoretical premises? Is the notion of an ongoing secularization process in the `post-secular society' a contradiction in terms? What appropriate `limits and boundaries' are to be accepted between the domains of knowledge and faith, and how strictly can they be drawn? How coherent is the notion of `methodological atheism', and how consistently can Habermas pursue the project of a `religious genealogy of reason'?

The Missing Formal Proof of Humanity's Radical Evil in Kant's Religion

Research Article| January 01 2005 The Missing Formal Proof of Humanity's Radical Evil in Kant's Religion Seiriol Morgan Seiriol Morgan Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2005) 114 (1): 63–114. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-114-1-63 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Seiriol Morgan; The Missing Formal Proof of Humanity's Radical Evil in Kant's Religion. The Philosophical Review 1 January 2005; 114 (1): 63–114. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-114-1-63 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsThe Philosophical Review Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Cornell University2005 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Front Matter You do not currently have access to this content.

Book Review: Kant's Critical Religion

Book Review: Kant's Critical Religion

Schiller on the Will and on the Heroic Villain

EAR L Y in 1793, Schiller read the first published section of Kant's Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft after he had devoted intensive study to the critical philosophy. He approved Kant's exposition of the moral import of the Christian religion, but he was offended by Kant's views on the 'radical evil' in human nature. On 28 February he wrote to Korner: 'Zwar ist einer seiner ersten Grundsatze darin emporend fur mein, und wahrscheinlich auch fur Dein Gefuhl. Er behauptet namlich eine Propension des menschlichen Herzens zum Bosen, das er das radicale Bose nennt, und das mit den Reizungen der Sinnlichkeit ganz und gar nicht verwechselt werden dar£.' We might infer that Schiller, as one of the leading humanists of the Enlightenment, was in some way positive and hopeful in his beliefs about man's nature and felt surprise that the author of the Kritik der praktischen Vernunft should hold such grim and contrary views; though he does not appear after February 1793 to have reversed his allegiance (with its various qualifications) to Kant's moral teachings. Is it possible to detect in Schiller's essays of the seventeennineties, with their manifold depictions of strenuous heroism and the 'beautiful soul', of the appetites, impulses, and ideals of mankind, any exact notion of the shape which the propensities of human nature assumed in his own mind? Among the great humanists of his generation, it is he who is most likely to yield an exposition of the mainspring of Humanitiit. No doubt Herder, and still more Lessing and Goethe, are close to him in viewpoint. But Herder is too given to enthusing over divinely-created faculties, whose functioning he expounds only haphazardly. Lessing was too preoccupied with harrying the religious dogmatists and parrying their blows; his own rational humanism was a secret weapon he hardly dared to display and thus had little incentive to analyse. Goethe was too subtly poetic and too distrustful of pedantry to advance into any analytic crudities at all. It is in Schiller that we may best hope to find the vision of Humanitiit analysed into its components and its functioning. An attempt to come to grips with Schiller's thinking on these matters must stand or fall on the interpretation of the will, and of the

Immanuel Kant's Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by T. M. Greene and H. H. Hudson . (Chicago and London: Open Court Publishing Co.1934. Pp. lxxxv + 200. Price 15s.)

Immanuel Kant's Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by T. M. Greene and H. H. Hudson . (Chicago and London: Open Court Publishing Co.1934. Pp. lxxxv + 200. Price 15s.)

Immanuel Kant's Religion within the limits of Reason Alone.

Immanuel Kant's Religion within the limits of Reason Alone.