Late Kant: Towards Another Law of the Earth

by Fenves,Peter

• ISBN13: 9780415246811
• ISBN10: 0415246814
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-09-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Fenves becomes one of the first to thoroughly explore Kant's later writings and give them the detailed scholarly attention they deserve. In his opening chapters, Fenves examines in detail the various essays in which Kant invents, formulates and complicates the thesis of "radical evil"--a thesis which serves as the point of departure for all his later writings.Late Kantthen turns towards the counter-thesis of "radical mean-ness," which states that human beings exist on earth for the sake of another species or race of human beings. The consequences of this startling thesis are that human beings cannot claim possession of the earth, but must rather prepare the earth for its rightful owners.

Author Biography

Peter Fenves is Professor of German, Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies at Northwestern University.

Table of Contents

Note on translation	x
Introduction	1	(7)
Lateness	1	(3)
Inconsistency	4	(2)
A late-coming kind	6	(2)
1 The pleasures of failure: toward an unnumbered "Remark" in the Critique of Judgment	8	(24)
The spirit of Epicurus	8	(6)
"The attainment of every intention"	14	(6)
Whole life	20	(4)
Laughter	24	(5)
The inner "jokester"	29	(3)
2 The sovereign sentence: from the Preface to the first edition of the first Critique to the Doctrine of Right	32	(15)
Infallibility	32	(3)
Echoing the king	35	(3)
"The spectacle of a slaughter-bench"	38	(4)
Colonialism	42	(3)
Another historical sign	45	(2)
3 The other sovereign sentence: "On the Failure of All Philosophical Attempts at Theodicy"	47	(28)
"Without fail"	47	(2)
An inside joke	49	(3)
Laughter	52	(3)
"Authentic interpretation"	55	(4)
Allegorical expression	59	(4)
Leviathan	63	(3)
Sadness	66	(6)
Immanuel	72	(3)
4 Out of the blue: "On the Radical Evil in Human Nature"	75	(17)
Secrecy	75	(3)
Proof by virtue of its absence	78	(5)
The blues	83	(6)
"A multicolored, diverse self"	89	(3)
5 Under the sign of failure: Toward Eternal Peace	92	(22)
Projectiles of peace	92	(4)
Satire	96	(5)
Erasing race	101	(4)
"The Antichrist"	105	(1)
Chance	106	(4)
The remnant race	110	(4)
6 In the name of friendship; or the case for inconsistency	114	(22)
Hypocrisy and hypercritique	114	(3)
The friend vanishes	117	(4)
Keeping track of one's friends	121	(3)
Fraternity	124	(2)
Derrida with Kant	126	(3)
Arendt with Lessing	129	(7)
7 Revolution in the air; or the end of the human regime on earth	136	(26)
The death of cats in Copenhagen	136	(2)
A friendly joke	138	(1)
Electrifying events	139	(4)
"The end of all things"	143	(7)
Arrested thought	150	(4)
Transitions	154	(4)
Going further	158	(4)
Conclusion: making way for another law of the earth	162	(13)
The thesis of radical mean-nest	162	(2)
Consequences	164	(3)
Concession	167	(3)
Another delay	170	(1)
The last laugh	171	(4)
Notes	175	(32)
Bibliography	207	(9)
Sources	216	(1)
Index	217