May 23 : Pablo Muchnik
(Emerson College)
Kant’s Religious Constructivism
Abstract
In
the Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, the dynamics of progressive
absorption of ecclesiastical faith into the religion of reason is remarkably
similar to Kant’s description of moral progress in his essays on history. The
unfolding of a rational/moral predisposition that we see displayed in the
development of social institutions also shapes and elevates the empirical
content of faith into the universal and necessary patterns of rational
religion. As in the writings on history, we also find here a rich tension
between moral revolution and institutional reform, rupture and continuity. I
will analyze the model underlying both contexts, with an eye to detect whether
in fact religion has an ineliminable role to play in the moral education of the
humankind or is a mere vehicle, a transitional gender that will be ultimately
absorbed in pure morality.
15 hs. Room 452.