Preparation for Natural Theology With Kant’s Notes and the Danzig Rational Theology Transcript

by Eberhard, Johann August Eberhard; Fugate, Courtney D.; Hymers, John

• ISBN13: 9781474213837
• ISBN10: 1474213839
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-01-28
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Designed as a textbook for use in courses on natural theology and used by Immanuel Kant as the basis for his Lectures on The Philosophical Doctrine of Religion, Johan August Eberhard's Preparation for Natural Theology (1781) is now available in English for the first time.

With a strong focus on the various intellectual debates and historically significant texts in late renaissance and early modern theology, Preparation for Natural Theology influenced the way Kant thought about practical cognition as well as moral and religious concepts. Access to Eberhard's complete text makes it possible to distinguish where in the lectures Kant is making changes to what Eberhard has written and where he is articulating his own ideas. Identifying new unexplored lines of research, this translation provides a deeper understanding of Kant's explicitly religious doctrines and his central moral writings, such as the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason.

Accompanied by Kant's previously untranslated handwritten notes on Eberhard's text as well as the Danzig transcripts of Kant's course on rational theology, Preparation for Natural Theology features a dual English-German / German-English glossary, a concordance and an introduction situating the book in relation to 18th-century theology and philosophy. This is an essential contribution to twenty-first century Kantian studies.

Author Biography

Johann August Eberhard (1739-1809) was one of the leading German philosophers of the second half of the eighteenth century.

Courtney D. Fugate is Assistant Professor of Civilization Studies at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and post-doctoral research fellow at the FCHI, Emory University, USA. He is co-editor and translator of Baumgarten's 'Metaphysics': A Critical Translation with Kant's Elucidations, Selected Notes and Related Materials (Bloomsbury, 2013).

John Hymers is Associate Professor of Philosophy at La Salle University, Philadelphia, USA. He is co-editor and translator of Baumgarten's 'Metaphysics': A Critical Translation with Kant's Elucidations, Selected Notes and Related Materials (Bloomsbury, 2013).

Table of Contents

Part I Introduction to the Translation
1. Johann August Eberhard (1739-1809): A Biographical Sketch
2. Eberhard's Preparation for Natural Theology
3. Eberhard's Influence on Kant
4. A Note on the Translation

Part II The Translation: Eberhard's Preparation for Natural Theology
A. Preface
B. On the Formation of the Concept of God
i. On the Internal Reality of the Concept of God, or on the Possibility of a Most Prefect Being
ii. On the Errors that Oppose the True Religion
iii. Second Section: On Polytheism
iv. Third Section: On Superstition
v. The Natural History of Religion
C. On the Communication of Religious Knowledge
i. On the Sensuous Manner of Communication
ii. Of the Rational Manner of Communication

Part III Ancillary Materials
Kant's Notes to the Preparation
Glossary
Concordance
Selected Bibliography
Index