Search
Submit an article RU
Kantian Journal

2024 Vol. 43. №1

Back to the list Download the article
ENG
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
RUS
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
Chaly V. A.

Kant and “Seasickness” of Modernity

DOI
10.5922/0207-6918-2024-1-4
Pages
76-102
Kant modernity Gnosticism orientation nihilism category mistake personalism

Abstract

On the eve of the tercentenary of Kant’s birth, just as it was a hundred years ago, Kantianism is simultaneously on the receiving end of the blows of history and attacks by rival philosophical parties, both progressivist and reactionary. The radical wings of both parties perceive modernity as a depressing, nauseating period which must be broken with by moving toward the past or toward the future. One of the most original and profound diagnoses of this attitude was offered by Hans Jonas, who discerned in radical doctrines of a hundred years ago a similarity with the gnosticism of antiquity. Jonas’s diagnosis has not lost its relevance. That is why the central question addressed in this study is as follows: what prescription does the Kantian programme offer for modernity’s “gnostic dizziness?” I maintain that Kant’s critical turn is still an effective strategy by means of which to compensate for the sudden stresses and “gnostic impulses” provoked by the modern worldview revolution, bringing back an “orientation in thinking” which reorients the world process and individual activity. The imperative to always see and respect humanity in a particular individual warns against the “category mistake” committed by modern radicals who ascribe agency (subjectivity) to non-­human abstractions which cannot possess this property. In theory, Kant grounds the view that humanity should resign itself to the fact of its perspective being limited and local. Kantian practical philosophy provides the traveler with a map of regulative ideas and a “moral compass”, along with an explanation of disruptive factors, offering a working explanation of the situation and its possible outcomes. Kant’s “Copernican revolution” brings human beings back into focus and imagination to order, allowing for the hope that new challenges will be successfully met.

Reference

Anon., 1885. Bismarck’s Iron Ring. The New York Times. November 25, sec. Archives. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/1885/11/25/archives/bismarcks-iron-ring.html&gt; [Accessed 11 December 2023].

Anon., 1886. Bismarck’s Ring. Colonist. January 12. Available at: <https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC18860112.2.14&gt; [Accessed 11 December 2023].

Bennett, M. R. and Hacker, P. M. S., 2021. Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.

Bernasconi, R., 2002. Kant as an Unfamiliar Source of Racism. In: J. K. Ward and T. L. Lott, eds. 2002. Philosophers on Race: Critical Essays. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 145-166 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470753514.ch8.

Blumenberg, H., 2011. Paradigms for a Metaphorology. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.

Callon, M., 2001. Actor Network Theory. In: N. J. Smelser and P. B. Baltes, ed. 2001. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Pergamon, pp. 62-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/03168-5.

Chaly, V., 2020. Immanuel Kant — Racist and Colonialist? Kantian Journal, 39(2), pp. 94-98. https://dx.doi.org/10.5922/0207-6918-2020-2-5.

Chaly, V., 2021. Kant’s Menschheit and Its Interpretations. Con-Textos Kantianos. International Journal of Philosophy, 14, pp. 327-343. https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5776039.

Chaly, V., 2022. Towards Kantian Moral Fallibilism: Underdetermination in Deliberation under the First Formula of Categorical Imperative. Moscow University Bulletin. Series 7. Philosophy, 1, pp. 105-114. (In Rus.)

Chaly, V. 2023. Kant and ‘tabula Russia’. Con-Textos Kantianos. International Journal of Philosophy, 18, pp. 153-162. https://doi.org/10.5209/kant.91754.

Chepurin, K. and Dubilet, A., 2019. Russia’s Atopic Nothingness: Ungrounding the World-Historical Whole with Pyotr Chaadaev. Angelaki, 24(6), pp. 135-151. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725x.2019.1684705.

Copernicus, N., 1995. On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres. New York: Prometheus Books.

Culianu, I.P., 1992. The Tree of Gnosis: Gnostic Mythology from Early Christianity to Modern Nihilism. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco.

Eze, E., 1997. The Color of Reason: The Idea of ‘Race’ in Kant’s Anthropology. In: E.C. Eze, ed. 1997. Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 103-140.

Fisette, J. R., 2022. At the Bar of Conscience: A Kantian Argument for Slavery Reparations. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 48(5), pp. 674-702. https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537211001916.

Fogelin, R. J. and Duggan, T. J., 1987. Fallacies. Argumentation, 1(3), pp. 255-262. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00136777.

Gippius, Z. N., 2002. Zhivye litsa [Living Names]. In: Z. Gippius Z. Sobr. soch v 15 t. [Collected Works in 15 Volumes]: Volume 6. Moscow: Russkaja kniga, pp. 5-102. (In Rus.)

Guerrie, V. I., 1871. Otnoshenija Lejbnica k Rossii i Petru Velikomu po neizdannym bumagam Lejbnica v Gannoverskoj biblioteke [Leibniz’s relations to Russia and Peter the Great according to Leibniz’s unpublished papers in the Hanover Library]. Sankt-Peterburg: Pechatnya V. I. Golovina. (In Rus.)

Herskowitz, D. M., 2022. Reading Heidegger against the Grain: Hans Jonas on Existentialism, Gnosticism, and Modern Science. Modern Intellectual History, 19(2), pp. 527-550. https://doi.org/10.1017/S147924432100010X.

Hotam, Y., 2007. Gnosis and Modernity — a Postwar German Intellectual Debate on Secularisation, Religion and ‘Overcoming’ the Past. Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 8(3/4), pp. 591-608.

James, W., 1988. The Meaning of Truth. In: W. James, 1988. Writings 1902-1910. New York, N. Y.: Library of America, pp. 824-978.

Jonas, H., 1934. Gnosis und spätantiker Geist. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Jonas, H., 1952. Gnosticism and Modern Nihilism. Social Research, 19(4), pp. 430-452.

Jonas, H., 2001. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God & the Beginnings of Christianity. Third Edition. Beacon Press.

Kant, I., 1996a. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. In: I. Kant, 1996. Practical Philosophy. Edited by and translated by M. J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 37-108.

Kant, I., 1996b. Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. In: I. Kant, 1996. Religion and Natural Theology. Edited by and translated by A. Wood, G. Di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 39-216.

Kant, I., 1996c. Toward Perpetual Peace. In: I. Kant, 1996. Practical Philosophy. Edited by and translated by M. J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 311-351.

Kant, I., 1998. Critique of Pure Reason. Edited by and translated by P. Guyer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kant, I., 2000. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Edited by P. Guyer, translated by P. Guyer and E. Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kant, I., 2002a. On a Recently Prominent Tone of Superiority in Philosophy. In: I. Kant, 2002. Theoretical Philosophy after 1781. Edited by A. Wood and P. Guyer, translated by P. Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 429-445.

Kant, I., 2002b. Proclamation of the Imminent Conclusion of a Treaty of Perpetual Peace in Philosophy. In: I. Kant, 2002. Theoretical Philosophy after 1781. Edited by and translated by P. Heath and H. Allison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 451-460.

Kant, I., 2007a. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. In: I. Kant, 2007. Anthropology, History, and Education. Edited by and translated by R.B. Louden and G. Zöllner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 227-429.

Kant, I., 2007b. Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. In: I. Kant, 2007. Anthropology, History, and Education. Edited by G. Zöllner and R. B. Louden., translated by A. W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 107-120.

Kant, I., 2007c. Review of J. G. Herder’s Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Humanity. Parts 1 and 2. In: I. Kant, 2007. Anthropology, History, and Education. Edited by G. Zöllner and R. B. Louden., translated by A. W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 121-142.

Kleingeld, P., 2007. Kant’s Second Thoughts on Race. The Philosophical Quarterly, 57(229). pp. 573-592.

Kozyrev, A.P., 2007. Solov’jov i gnostiki [Solovyov and the Gnostics]. Moscow: Izdatel’ Savin S.A. (In Rus.)

Latour, B., 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Leibniz, G. W., Guerie, V. I. 1873. Sbornik pisem i memorialov Lejbnica, otnosjashhihsja k Rossii i Petru Velikomu [A Collection of Leibniz’s Letters and Memorials Related to Russia and Peter the Great]. Saint Petersburg: Tip. Imp. Akad. nauk. (In Rus.)

Lu-Adler, H., 2023. Kant, Race, and Racism: Views from Somewhere. New York, N. Y.: Oxford University Press.

Lübbe, H., 2013. Im Zug der Zeit. Verkürzter Aufenthalt in der Gegenwart. Second Edition. Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer.

Lukacs, G., 1972. History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. New Haven: MIT Press.

Magidor, O., 2022. Category Mistakes. In: E. N. Zalta and U. Nodelman, 2022. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 Edition). Available at: <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/category-mistakes/&gt; [Accessed 11 December 2023].

O’Regan, C., 2001. Gnostic Return in Modernity. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press.

O’Regan, C., 2002. Gnostic Apocalypse: Jacob Boehme’s Haunted Narrative. Albany, N. Y.: SUNY Press.

Plekhanov, G. V., 1956. The Role of the Individual in History. In: G. V. Plekhanov, 1956. Izbrannye filosofskie proizvedeniya: v 5 tomakh. [Selected Philosophical Works in Five Volumes]. Volume 2. Moscow: Gospolitizdat, pp. 300-334. (In Rus.)

Podhajecka, M., 2022. Revising the History of ‘Nitchevo’ with Text Archives. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 57, pp. 279-313. https://doi.org/10.14746/stap.2022.57.12.

Putnam, H., 1981. Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511625398.

Styfhals, W., 2019. No Spiritual Investment in the World: Gnosticism and Postwar German Philosophy. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.

Whitehead, A.N., 1948. Science and the Modern World: Lowell Lectures, 1925. New York, N. Y.: New American Library.

Zhavoronkov, A. G., 2021. Reason as a Privilege of Europeans? Kant and the Problem of Racism. Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, 60, pp. 89-96. https://www.doi.org/10.17223/1998863X/60/9. (In Rus.)