Sapere aude: Understanding or Reason?
Abstract
The way Horaceʼs saying “sapere aude” was perceived in the German Enlightenment before Kant shows that in his essay on enlightenment, Kant drew on his time’s notion of the common good. The peculiarity and the ingenuity of his position consist in the German translation of Horace, which fundamentally differs from other German translations of the time, according to which enlightenment has to do with thinking for oneself through one’s own understanding, and with maturity. But in his interpretation of thinking for oneself through one’s understanding, Kant remained inconsistent and quite often referred to reason instead of understanding. The most plausible solution to this problem, despite some difficulties, can be reached by distinguishing between one’s own understanding and universal human reason.
Abstract
The way Horaceʼs saying “sapere aude” was perceived in the German Enlightenment before Kant shows that in his essay on enlightenment, Kant drew on his time’s notion of the common good. The peculiarity and the ingenuity of his position consist in the German translation of Horace, which fundamentally differs from other German translations of the time, according to which enlightenment has to do with thinking for oneself through one’s own understanding, and with maturity. But in his interpretation of thinking for oneself through one’s understanding, Kant remained inconsistent and quite often referred to reason instead of understanding. The most plausible solution to this problem, despite some difficulties, can be reached by distinguishing between one’s own understanding and universal human reason.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Preface IX
- Abbreviations of Kant’s Works XI
-
Section I: Problems of Reason – Kant’s Philosophy and His Predecessors
- Reason and Experience in Kant: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too vs. Splitting the Difference 1
- Our Difficult Relationship with Truth: Critical Reason in the Real World 23
- Sapere aude: Understanding or Reason? 43
- Kant on Schematism and the Faculties: An Outline Straddling between the First and the Third Critique 57
- Perfection and Reality in The Only Possible Argument 81
- Kant and Hutcheson on the Psychology of Moral Motivation 101
- A Credential for the Moral Law? On the Alleged Coherentism of the Critique of Practical Reason 127
- The Difficulty of Deriving Autonomy from Pure Self-Activity: On Kant’s Solution to the Circularity between Freedom and Morality 135
- Achenwall’s iura connata and Kant’s “Only One Innate Right:” On Kant’s (Partial) Departure from Natural Law Theory 153
- Poetry as Knowledge: On Baumgarten’s and Kant’s Aesthetic Cognitivism 165
- Aesthetic Ideas and Hypotyposis: Artistic Expression without Aesthetic Attributes 195
-
Section II: Problems of Reason – Kantian Heritage
- A Problem of Reason: The Immortality of the Soul in the aetas kantiana 217
- Kant on the Supposed Incapacity to Transgress the Moral Law Freely 231
- Kant’s Doctrine of Right between Conservatives and Radicals 251
- Fichte as a Philosopher of Communication 267
- Intellectual Intuition as New Practical Reason? Hegel’s Critique of Kant’s Ethics Reconsidered 277
- The Origin of the Actual in Hermann Cohen’s Logik 291
- Encounters of Judgement: Gadamer, Arendt, and Kant’s Take on Social Philosophy 307
- On the Finitude of Life: Bernard Williams from a Kantian Standpoint 347
-
Concluding Paper
- Critique in Crisis: Rationality in Kant and Husserl 373
- Notes on Contributors 389
- Index of Persons 393
- Index of Subject 395
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Preface IX
- Abbreviations of Kant’s Works XI
-
Section I: Problems of Reason – Kant’s Philosophy and His Predecessors
- Reason and Experience in Kant: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too vs. Splitting the Difference 1
- Our Difficult Relationship with Truth: Critical Reason in the Real World 23
- Sapere aude: Understanding or Reason? 43
- Kant on Schematism and the Faculties: An Outline Straddling between the First and the Third Critique 57
- Perfection and Reality in The Only Possible Argument 81
- Kant and Hutcheson on the Psychology of Moral Motivation 101
- A Credential for the Moral Law? On the Alleged Coherentism of the Critique of Practical Reason 127
- The Difficulty of Deriving Autonomy from Pure Self-Activity: On Kant’s Solution to the Circularity between Freedom and Morality 135
- Achenwall’s iura connata and Kant’s “Only One Innate Right:” On Kant’s (Partial) Departure from Natural Law Theory 153
- Poetry as Knowledge: On Baumgarten’s and Kant’s Aesthetic Cognitivism 165
- Aesthetic Ideas and Hypotyposis: Artistic Expression without Aesthetic Attributes 195
-
Section II: Problems of Reason – Kantian Heritage
- A Problem of Reason: The Immortality of the Soul in the aetas kantiana 217
- Kant on the Supposed Incapacity to Transgress the Moral Law Freely 231
- Kant’s Doctrine of Right between Conservatives and Radicals 251
- Fichte as a Philosopher of Communication 267
- Intellectual Intuition as New Practical Reason? Hegel’s Critique of Kant’s Ethics Reconsidered 277
- The Origin of the Actual in Hermann Cohen’s Logik 291
- Encounters of Judgement: Gadamer, Arendt, and Kant’s Take on Social Philosophy 307
- On the Finitude of Life: Bernard Williams from a Kantian Standpoint 347
-
Concluding Paper
- Critique in Crisis: Rationality in Kant and Husserl 373
- Notes on Contributors 389
- Index of Persons 393
- Index of Subject 395
