Above All Things Human: Bestimmung in Salomo Friedlaender’s Kant for Children
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Krista K. Thomason
Abstract
Kant’s commitment to universalism has been called into question since increasing attention has been paid to his work on race in the last 20 years. This worry can easily be applied to Kant’s work on education: when Kant describes education as allowing humanity to fulfill its Bestimmung (vocation), scholars might reasonably conclude that such a claim only applies to certain racial groups. Yet Salomo Friedlaender claims that if Kant’s moral theory is taught to children, “Every person is valued according to her morality and no longer, as in our crude days, according to ‘race’ or national and religious affiliation” (18). This interpretation of Kant might strike some contemporary Kant scholars as naïvely optimistic, but neo-Kantians were well aware of Kant’s racial claims. By examining how neo-Kantians read Kant’s work on race, I argue that Friedlaender’s interpretation provides a way of reading an unracialized Bestimmung in the pedagogy.
Abstract
Kant’s commitment to universalism has been called into question since increasing attention has been paid to his work on race in the last 20 years. This worry can easily be applied to Kant’s work on education: when Kant describes education as allowing humanity to fulfill its Bestimmung (vocation), scholars might reasonably conclude that such a claim only applies to certain racial groups. Yet Salomo Friedlaender claims that if Kant’s moral theory is taught to children, “Every person is valued according to her morality and no longer, as in our crude days, according to ‘race’ or national and religious affiliation” (18). This interpretation of Kant might strike some contemporary Kant scholars as naïvely optimistic, but neo-Kantians were well aware of Kant’s racial claims. By examining how neo-Kantians read Kant’s work on race, I argue that Friedlaender’s interpretation provides a way of reading an unracialized Bestimmung in the pedagogy.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments VII
- Table of Contents IX
- Table of Abbreviations XI
- Translator’s Introduction 1
- Kant for Children: Questions and Answers for the Teaching of Morality 11
- Shlomo Friedlaender: Portrait of a Jewish Kantian 63
- Kant, Philosophy, and the Public 67
- Do Children Have Common Sense? 85
- “If You Want to Write for Children”: Conflicting Advice from Kant and Friedlaender 105
- Above All Things Human: Bestimmung in Salomo Friedlaender’s Kant for Children 121
- Equality and Reciprocity, or: The Primacy of the Practical 141
- Notes on Contributors 145
- Index 147
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments VII
- Table of Contents IX
- Table of Abbreviations XI
- Translator’s Introduction 1
- Kant for Children: Questions and Answers for the Teaching of Morality 11
- Shlomo Friedlaender: Portrait of a Jewish Kantian 63
- Kant, Philosophy, and the Public 67
- Do Children Have Common Sense? 85
- “If You Want to Write for Children”: Conflicting Advice from Kant and Friedlaender 105
- Above All Things Human: Bestimmung in Salomo Friedlaender’s Kant for Children 121
- Equality and Reciprocity, or: The Primacy of the Practical 141
- Notes on Contributors 145
- Index 147
