Freedom - Morality- Politics: Practical Philosophy after Kant (1785-1800)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Jörg Noller
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411370158

Contrary to the theoretical debate after Kant’s 'Critique of Pure Reason', the practical debate after Kant’s 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals' and his 'Critique of Practical Reason' has been neglected in scholarship. However, it is especially by modification and transformation of Kant’s practical philosophy that the main ideas of many major philosophers of German Idealism evolved. The research network aims at reconstructing this practical debate both historically and systematically. It aims at analyzing important contributions to this debate by lesser-known philosophers such as Johann Heinrich Abicht, Christoph Gottfried Bardili, Friedrich Ludewig Bouterweck, Leonhard Creuzer, Johann Friedrich Flatt, Karl Heinrich Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich Jakob, Hermann Andreas Pistorius, August Wilhelm Rehberg, Carl Christian Erhard Schmid, Gottlob Ernst Schulze, Christian Wilhelm Snell and Johann August Heinrich Ulrich, but also better known thinkers such as Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Salomon Maimon, Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schiller, the early Hegel and Schelling.The network aims at reconstructing the following three dimensions of the practical debate:(1) Practical freedom and moral imputability:After Kant’s first and second Critique, there arose an intensive debate on how to conceive of freedom of the will given the entire determination of the world by the laws of nature so that the individual imputability of the moral agent can be preserved.(2) Foundation of morality and moral motivation:Here the question arises of how morality can be founded and cognized by pure reason. Also, the debate deals with the question of which kind of moral incentive be most adequate to the specific human condition – be it respect, love or compassion.(3) Political philosophy and philosophy of right:This debate focused on the question of how free agents interact in societies and states according to moral and juridical laws. Also, the debate is interested in the question of how morality and right depend on each other, and how they can be deduced from practical reason.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks