Nineteenth Century Enlightenment from Kant to Nietzsche

Catalog description

In his systematic philosophical works, Kant attempts to resolve the contradictions in early modern philosophy between materialist empiricism and idealist rationalism. In his conception of appearance and reality, Kant seeks to reconcile the antinomies of matter and spirit, determinism and free will, self-interest and morality, secular science and a religion indicated by reason itself. If Kant’s philosophy culminated one stage in the history of Western philosophy that began with Descartes, it started a second stage, in which Kant’s ideas were put to the test in various ways. Hegel, followed by Marx, argues that an expanded, historically based conception of reason can resolve the oppositions generated by Kant’s abstract conceptual analysis. More impressed by Kant’s stress on the limits of reason, Nietzsche argues that ultimate reality can be accessed by self-overcoming, which he calls the super-human. William James takes Kant’s limits of reason as a basis for an alternative to materialist science that justifies an idealist conception of human consciousness and belief in human immortality. Such philosophical perspectives were generally linked to the central questions of social life. Kant establishes moral limits to the freedom of the market of Adam Smith’s laissez-faire capitalism. Hegel provides grounds for what is now called welfare-state capitalism. Marx argues that human freedom and democracy require the egalitarian economics of socialism. By contrast Nietzsche draws from the Darwinian struggle for survival grounds for transcending humanity itself, for the creation of the Superhuman. William James returns to Kant in his essay for a pragmatic spiritualism as an alternative to materialism. This course is the same as PHI 380 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.