The Meaning and Function of the Concept of Antagonism in Kant’s Philosophy
- DOI
- 10.5922/0207-6918-2026-1-1
- Pages
- 7-39
Abstract
Antagonism, although often neglected, is one of the key categories of Kant’s philosophy. Its formation in Kant’s pre-critical works on natural philosophy owes much to the influence of Newton. Kant overcomes Newton’s static and providential mechanicism with his concept of dynamic development of the universe out of natural causes. He challenges the monistic and harmonious view of preceding metaphysical (Leibnizian) and “mathematical” (Newtonian) doctrines with a pluralistic and antagonistic one, the sole force of gravitation with the dualism of attraction and repulsion. The result is the characteristic Kantian concept of natural history as the development of the universe through the interaction of opposites whereby human history is an extension of natural history. Kant generalised the physical results by elaborating a metaphysical distinction between logical and real opposites. The role of repulsion and attraction as necessary concepts in the consideration of matter is grounded in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. This development was the underlying foundation of the widely known concept of “unsociable sociability” in Kant’s critical philosophy of history and politics.
This concept is arguably a particular case of the general antagonistic worldview and it cannot be dismissed (as does much of the current literature) as a minor and insignificant addition to the Kantian political rationalism and idealism.
Reference
Brading, K. and Stan, M., 2024. Philosophical Mechanics in the Age of Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dmitrieva, N. A., 2014. The “Perpetual Peace” of Immanuel Kant at the Turn of the Centuries and During the First World War. Prepodavatel XXI vek, 2/1, pp. 46-61. (In Rus.)
Eisler, R., 1930. Kant-Lexikon: Nachschlagewerk zu Kants sämtlichen Schriften, Briefen und handschriftlichem Nachlass. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.
Esteves, J., 2018. The Antagonism between Nature and Freedom in Kant’s Philosophy. In: V. L. Waibel, M. Ruffing and D. Wagner, eds. 2018. Natur und Freiheit. Akten des XII. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 1023-1030.
Ferguson, M., 2012. Unsocial Sociability: Perpetual Antagonism in Kant’s Political Thought. In: E. Ellis, ed. 2012. Kant’s Political Theory. University Park: Penn State University Press.
Friedman, M., 1992. Kant and the Exact Sciences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Friedman, M., 2013. Kant’s Construction of Nature: A Reading of the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Henry, J., 2023. Newton’s ‘De Aere et Aethere’ and the Introduction of Interparticulate Forces into His Physics. Annals of Science, 80(3), pp. 232-267.
Howard, S., 2021. Kant on the Fundamental Forces of Matter: Why Attraction and Repulsion? Kantian Review, 26(3), pp. 413—433.
Jacob, M. C., 1976. The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689-1720. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Kant, I., 1992a. Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy. Translated by D. Walford and R. Meerbote. In: I. Kant, 1992. Theoretical Philosophy, 1755-1770. Edited and translated by D. Walford and R. Meerbote. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 203-242.
Kant, I., 1992b. The Employment in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, of Which Sample I Contains the Physical Monadology. Translated by D. Walford and R. Meerbote. In: I. Kant, 1992. Theoretical Philosophy, 1755-1770. Edited by D. Walford and R. Meerbote. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 47-66.
Kant, I., 1996a. On the Common Saying: That May Be Correct in Theory, but It Is of No Use in Practice. Translated by M. J. Gregor. In: I. Kant, 1996. Practical Philosophy. Edited by M. J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 279-309.
Kant, I., 1996b. The Conflict of the Faculties. Translated by George di Giovanni. In: I. Kant, 1996. Religion and Rational Theology. Edited by A. W. Wood and G. Di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 233-328.
Kant, I., 1996c. The Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by M. J. Gregor. In: I. Kant, 1996. Practical Philosophy. Edited by M. J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 365-603.
Kant, I., 1996d. Toward Perpetual Peace. Translated by M. J. Gregor. In: I. Kant, 1996. Practical Philosophy. Edited by M. J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 317-351.
Kant, I., 2002. Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. Translated by M. Friedman. In: I. Kant, 2002. Theoretical Philosophy after 1781. Edited by H. E. Allison and P. Heath. Cambridge University Press, pp. 171-270.
Kant, I., 2007. Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. Translated by A. W. Wood. In: I. Kant, 2007. Anthropology, History, and Education. Edited by G. Zöller and R. B. Louden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 107-120.
Kant, I., 2012a. Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces and Assessment of the Demonstrations That Leibniz and Other Scholars of Mechanics Have Made Use of in This Controversial Subject, Together with Some Prefatory Considerations Pertaining to the Force of Bodies in General. Translated by J. B. Edwards and M. Schönfeld. In: I. Kant, 2012. Natural Science. Edited by E. Watkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-155.
Kant, I., 2012b. Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens or Essay on the Constitution and the Mechanical Origin of the Whole Universe According to Newtonian Principles. Translated by Olaf Reinhardt. In: I. Kant, 2012. Natural Science. Edited by E. Watkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 182-308.
Krouglov, A., 2020a. Discussion about Kant during the Great Patriotic War: The Look 75 Years after the Victory. Part I. Voprosy Filosofii, 5, pp. 192-209. (In Rus.)
Krouglov, A., 2020b. Discussion about Kant during the Great Patriotic War: The Look 75 Years after the Victory. Part II. Voprosy Filosofii, 6, pp. 169-189. (In Rus.)
Kuehn, M., 2001. Kant: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kuteinikov, A. E. and Chaly, V., 2013. Kant’s Political Ideas and Contemporary Theories of International Organization. In: A.N. Salikov, ed. 2013. Kant’s Project of Contemporary Peace in the Context of Current Politics. Kaliningrad: IKBFU Press, pp. 185-194.
Laclau, E., and Mouffe, C., 2001. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Second Edition. New York: Verso.
Loraux, N., 2002. The Divided City: On Memory and Forgetting in Ancient Athens. New York: Zone Books.
Massimi, M., 2011. Kant’s Dynamical Theory of Matter in 1755, and Its Debt to Speculative Newtonian Experimentalism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A, 42(4), pp. 525-543.
McCloughan, M. J. B., 2003. Kant’s Theory of Progress. London: University College London.
Newton, I., 1729. The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Edited by J. Machin. Translated by A. Motte. Vol. 1. London: B. Motte.
Newton, I., 1756. Four Letters from Sir Isaac Newton to Doctor Bentley: Containing Some Arguments in Proof of a Deity. London: R. and J. Dodsley.
Newton, I., 1978. De Aere et Aethere. In: I. Newton, 1978. Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 214-228.
Newton, I., 1979. Opticks: Or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light-Based on the Fourth Edition London, 1730. New York: Dover Publications.
Pozzo, R., 1993. Kant e Weitenkampf: Una fonte ignorata dell’Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels e della prima antinomia della ragion pura. Rivista di Storia della Filosofia, 48(2), pp. 283-323.
Protopopov, Y., 1991. Precritical Kant on the Relations between the Two Kinds of Opposites. Kantian Journal, 1(16), pp. 147-151. (In Rus.)
Ripstein, A., 2021. Kant and the Law of War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Salikov, A. N., 2013. Kant and Contemporary Theory of International Relations. Vestnik IKBFU, 12(12), pp. 97-103. (In Rus.)
Schönfeld, M. and Thompson, M., 2014. Kant’s Philosophical Development. In: E. N. Zalta, ed. 2014. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2014. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/kant-development/ (Accessed 20.02.2025).
Schönfeld, M., 2000. The Philosophy of the Young Kant: The Precritical Project. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Scott, J. C., 1998. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Siemens, H., 2024. Nietzsche and Kant as Thinkers of Antagonism: Towards a Philosophy of Conflict. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Stan, M., 2025. Kant’s Natural Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vinokurov, E. Yu., 2001. Kant’s Political Philosophy in Contemporary Philosophical Discussions on Global Political Order. Dissertation. Kaliningrad: Kaliningrad University. (In Rus.)
Warren, D., 2010. Kant on Attractive and Repulsive Force: The Balancing Argument. In: M. Friedman, M. Domski, and M. Dickson, eds. 2010. Discourse on a New Method: Reinvigorating the Marriage of History and Philosophy of Science. Chicago: Open Court, pp. 193-241.
Watkins, E, ed. 2001. Kant and the Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Watkins, E., 2013. The Early Kant’s (Anti-) Newtonianism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A, 44(3), pp. 429-437.
Willaschek, M., Stolzenberg, J., Mohr, G., and Bacin, S., eds. 2015. Kant-Lexikon. Beriln: De Gruyter.
Williams, H., 1983. Kant’s Political Philosophy. London: Basil Blackwell.
Williams, H., 1992. Kant’s Optimism in His Social and Political Theory. In: H. Williams, ed. 1992. Essays on Kant’s Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wood, A. W., 1991. Unsociable Sociability: The Anthropological Basis of Kantian Ethics. Philosophical Topics, 19(1), pp. 325-351.