Kant's Pragmatic Anthropology: Its Origin, Meaning, And Critical Significance

Abstract

OneThe Rise and Origin of Kant's Lectures on Anthropology Kant published the Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View at the end of his teaching career after having lectured on anthropology for twenty-three and one-half years. 1 We know from student manuscripts of his lectures that Kant published pretty much the same material that he had been lecturing on during those years.This agreement between the book and his lectures permits the conjecture that Kant's intentions for the book would be consistent with his intentions for his lectures.2 Fortunately, we have explicit statements about what Kant intended for his lectures on anthropology.Kant began lecturing on pragmatic anthropology in the winter semester of 1772-73, 3 during the eighteenth year of his teaching at Königsberg University.At that time anthropology was not an independent discipline and Kant was one of the first to lecture on it within the well-established faculty of philosophy.4 In a copy of one of his earliest lecture notes that we have, Kant claims that "the knowledge of human beings is called by the general name of anthropology, which is not being lectured on in any other discipline [Akademie]." 5 He lectured, then, on anthropology consistently for twentythree and one-half years until he retired.The lecture proved to be very popular, frequented even by Kant's colleagues.He averaged thirty to fifty students a semester with a high of seventy in 1791-92.6 Kant's interest in anthropology did not suddenly begin in this winter semester, however.Kant also lectured on the theme of anthropology in his metaphysics lectures as early as 1762.7 From the Johann Gottfried von Herder papers, which are the notes that Herder took while he was a student of Kant's from 1762-64, we read "Kant's doctrine. . . .The Metaphysic contains 1. Anthropology, 2. Physics, 3. Ontology, 4. The origin of all things, God, and the world, therefore theology."8 Although by "anthropology" here Kant means little more than empirical psychology, he does call it "anthropology" even then.More decisive, though not the only decisive factor for the formation of Kant's interest in anthropology, were his lectures on physical geography, which he held regularly, mostly in the summer semester, from the beginning of his docent years at Königsberg University in 1755-56.With the exception of one year, winter semester 1758-59, he held this lecture every year inclusive of 1796.