Ethical community and history in Kant's philosophy

Author(s)

Nicole Martinazzo

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2024-06-21

Examining board members

Monique Hulshof; François Calori; Ricardo Ribeiro Terra; Bruno Nadai; Vinicius Berlendis de Figueiredo

• Advisor: Monique Hulshof

Abstract

The present thesis seeks to investigate the meaning of Kant's formulation in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, according to which an ethical community must have a political community at its base (RGV 6: 94). This investigation is conducted considering that if it is possible to treat the ethical community as the horizon of moral progress, then the relationship between the ethical community and the political community constitutes another formulation of the problem of the relationship between moral progress and political progress. However, there is a certain gap in this relationship: given that Kant conceives that moral action depends on the agent's choice of a good maxim, how can one understand the relationship between the choice of this maxim and the external progress of institutions? Religion presents a key to understanding this problem, which can be found through a careful analysis of the doctrine of radical evil. This is because Kant conceives that the radicality of evil lies in the fact that it is located at the foundation of all the subject's maxims, that is, in their disposition (Gesinnung). The change in the choice of the subject's maxims involves, from this perspective, a radical transformation of this more fundamental instance. A subject's commitment to a good foundation for their maxims is called moral character. Now, it is at this point that we find the bridge to the political community. If the political community is necessary for the ethical community (understood as the gathering of individuals by simple laws of virtue – and, therefore, individuals with good moral character), it is because it provides conditions that facilitate moral progress, notably external peace and good conditions for social interaction. Added to this is a central idea in Kant's philosophy of history, namely, that morality is only fully realizable collectively. As a result, an articulation of the individual and collective realms of Kantian morality is outlined (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/01544-8 - Ethical community and political community in Kant: a reading from 1780 to 1790
• Grantee: Nicole Martinazzo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate