Digital Kant-Lecture "Kant’s Philosophy of History as Stoic Consolation"

null, Rachel Zuckert (Northwestern University)

The Digital Kant-Centre NRW  is pleased to invite you to a lecture by Prof. Rachel Zuckert (Northwestern University) with the title “Kant’s Philosophy of History as Stoic Consolation:“ The lecture will take place online (via Webex) on Wednesday, 25 October 2023, from 18:00 – 20:00 CET. 

Please see below for the Webex-link and an abstract of the lecture. 

The talk is part of the lecture series Digital Kant-Lectures, organized by Digital Kant-Centre NRW, which takes place on the last Wednesday of each month via Webex.

Webex-Link: 

https://uni-siegen.webex.com/uni-siegen/j.php?MTID=ma55969351afa759ecfc6f56eb3da5f10

Abstract: 

At least since Pauline Kleingeld’s defining work, scholars recognize that Kant’s aims in his philosophy of history are practical as well as theoretical: not just to describe history, but also to provide a view of it that supports moral action. Often scholars understand this support to be similar to that provided by the postulates of practical reason: the progressive view of history Kant articulates is taken to be a belief necessarily presupposed in moral agency, supporting the more general belief that the agent’s moral ends are realizable. Prompted by Kant’s description of his view as “consoling” (Idee, 8:30), I consider whether his view in Idee may instead be interpreted as a form of Stoic consolation on the model of Seneca’s consolatory writings, with a different practical import: to relieve the moral agent from grief concerning large-scale historical events, thereby freeing her to act effectively within her own sphere.