Kant, Practical Belief, and the Regulative Idea of Progress

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter reconstructs in detail Immanuel Kant’s theory of political hope, with emphasis on his writings on practical philosophy, history, anthropology, and politics. It offers a synoptic view of his critical system and foregrounds the role of progress as a postulate of practical reason, as well as Kant’s notion of practical belief. It argues for hope as a phenomenological stance appropriate and indeed necessary for political action, a view supported with reference to Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of the Power of Judgment; from the latter text it draws the idea that one must act in order to be permitted to hope. Finally, it interprets Kant’s less formal writings on practical matters against this background, and puts him in conversation with modern commentators on his work.