Abstract

This study of Kant's thought concentrates on those of his works in which the theme of world-history intersects with the fundamental metaphysical concerns out of which the three critiques were written: the constitution of a world we can know, transcendental freedom and the interrelation among the basic human faculties. Kant's earliest presentation of world-history in the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte is considered in relation to his revised presentation of classical metaphysics in the Nova dilucidatio in order to bring out how the former treatise, as it touches on the nature of man and the end of the world, radicalizes and exceeds the Leibnizian presuppositions of the latter; the grounding of both man and the world can no longer simply be comprehended by the principle of reason in its classical formulation. In the second chapter Kant's "Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltburgerlicher Absicht" is similarly brought into conjunction with the first Critique and in particular with the renovation of Leibnizian metaphysics in the Canon of Pure Reason; a consideration of world-history from a cosmopolitan Absicht is shown to prepare the way for the posting of absolute freedom on which morality rests. The third and final chapter turns to the section of the Streit der Fakultaten devoted to the question of progress towards the best world. Kant's attempt to found a philosophical mode of augury is shown to rest on the thesis of absolute freedom and to lead to the disclosure of a world-history sign whose decisive moment is an extraordinary affect that corresponds to the singular feeling in which such freedom manifests itself. The difficulty of disclosing the past, securing the constancy of progress and thus discovering a truly world-history sign is finally brought into relation to the Platonic provenance of metaphysics and brought back to a peculiar anamnesis that depends upon both transcendence and transgression . Only on the condition that there is uprightness can progress take place and only on the basis of an unforgettable affect can it be secured