Abstract

The kantian view of the vocation of man is an important step within the german reflection on man and his role in the world. The historical perspective Kant chooses in his essays of the 1780’s introduces new elements in a wider debate, that begins in the middle of the century and that it is also indipendent from the trascendental revolution. Therefore, the problem that Kant aims at resolving by using the expression Bestimmung des Menschen is one the common attention was paid to long before the publication of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft. In this way, Kant becomes an interprete of a concept that other, precritical philosophers had proposed. The aim of this essay is to show that the genesis of the kantian Bestimmung des Meschen as a precritical influences its reception too. The kantian essays of the 1780’s are read, discussed and accepted by authors, that are not in the same moment or in the same way interested in the trascendentental point of view