Kant Trouble: Obscurities Of The Enlightened (warwick Studies In European Philosophy)

Kant Trouble offers a highly original and incisive reading of some of the lesser known aspects of Kantian thought. Throughout Morgan challenges the widely held view of Kant as the exponent of concrete and rigid rationality and argues that his airtight 'architectonic' mode of reasoning overlooks certain topics which destabilise it. These include temporary forms of architecture, such as landscape gardening; examples which undermine the autonomy of the Kantian subject, for example, freemasonry; and the concept of radical evil, all of which suggest that Kant's thought was capable of accommodating troubling and subversive themes. Morgan's compelling discussion arrives at a fresh and ground breaking perspective on Kant whereby he is no longer to be regarded as a concrete rationalist, but as a daring thinker, not afraid to entertain ideas highly threatening to his own system and to the humanistic legacy of the enlightenment. "Kant Trouble" offers a highly original and incisive reading of some of the lesser known and less lucid aspects of Kantian thought. Diane Morgan focuses her investigation on a radical reappraisal of Kant's writings on architecture, monarchy and faith in progress. She challenges the widely held view of Kant as the exponent of concrete and rigid rationality, and argues that his airtight "architectonic" mode of reasoning, which Kant identified in "The Critique of Pure Reason," overlooks certain topics which destabilize it. Exploring such topics as temporary forms of architecture and the concept of radical evil, Morgan arrives at a fresh and ground-breaking perspective on Kant not as a concrete rationalist but as a daring thinker--willing to entertain subversive themes that threaten his own system and the humanistic legacy of the Enlightenment 1. Three cases of doubling : Ka, Kant and Kantorowicz -- 2. The architectonic in Kantian philosophy I : of an uncertain affinity -- 3. The architectonic in Kantian philosophy II : Kant, Goethe, Benjamin: beautiful affinities and the architectural -- 4. Devilish dissimulations in human nature : radical ethics and the evil abyss. Diane Morgan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 221-233) And Index. BOOK COVER 1 TITLE 4 COPYRIGHT 5 CONTENTS 8 Humanities