Abstract

Modernity, postmodernity and other similar categories risk to be useless for philosophy, because of their confusing polysemy and their too widespread use, that borders on abuse. Nevertheless, they still catch trends and sensibilities somehow legible in our time. New buzz-words playing with the words “modern” or “postmodern” arise in the different fields of art practices, social reflections and political speech. Among these, the “metamodern” underlines the historical need, emerged in the post-colonial contemporary West, to overcome the era of withdrawal represented by the “end of history”, by recovering some of the ethical and political issues that have marked the modern “enthusiasm”. The challenge lies in the possibility of recovering the critical engagement of modernity without basing it on any metaphysical conception of history. Within this challenge, the “Metamodernism” proposes a renewed interpretation of Kant’s philosophy of history that strengthens the finite position of man, whose happiness and accomplishment depend on himself and not on a spiritual progress granted by a safe and proven providence. This appeal to Kant is an interesting way to modernize a thought that too often is reduced to formalism and rationalism and make it useful in view of the challenges of our time.