Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and Other Writings

by Immanuel Kant, Allen W. Wood (Translation), George di Giovanni (Translation)

Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, a work of major importance in the history of Western religious thought, represents a great philosopher's attempt to spell out the form and content of a type of religion that would be grounded in moral reason and would meet the needs of ethical life. This volume presents it, together with three short essays that illuminate it, in a new translation by Allen Wood and George di Giovanni, with an introduction by Robert Merrihew Adams that locates this essential essay in its historical and philosophical context.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, College, Nonfiction, Theology, German Literature, History

Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2014

About the author

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century philosopher from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He's regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe & of the late Enlightenment. His most important work is The Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics & epistemology, & highlights his own contribution to these areas. Other main works of his maturity are The Critique of Practical Reason, which is about ethics, & The Critique of Judgment, about esthetics & teleology.

Pursuing metaphysics involves asking questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed thru epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources & limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. He asked if an object can be known to have certain properties prior to the experience of that object. He concluded that all objects that the mind can think about must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality–which he concluded that it does–then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. However, it follows from this that it's possible that there are objects of such a nature that the mind cannot think of them, & so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. So the grand questions of speculative metaphysics are off limits, but the sciences are firmly grounded in laws of the mind. Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists & the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired thru experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason. Kant’s thought was very influential in Germany during his lifetime, moving philosophy beyond the debate between the rationalists & empiricists. The philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding Kant's system, thus bringing about various forms of German Idealism. Kant continues to be a major influence on philosophy to this day, influencing both Analytic and Continental philosophy.

Reviews

[Turbulent_Architect · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kant's arguments here are very poor and frankly downright bizarre. He begins by defending a secular equivalent of the doctrine of original sin. He then goes on to argue that this means that we can only strive for moral perfection if we hold fast to the belief that God makes an untarnished prototype of humanity, which we conceive of as his Son, available to us to adopt for our own. Finally, he tries to convince us that we can only maintain our newly adopted disposition by uniting together into moral communities structured like churches. Obviously there's something to all this. Yes, human beings have a strong predisposition toward indifference and selfishness. And yes, it probably helps if we keep each other mutually accountable. But surely you can make these simple points without deploying such a complicated theoretical apparatus? Impenetrably written and terribly argued. No wonder only the first Critique and the Groundwork made it into the philosophical canon.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books about religion within the boundaries of mere reason.

[Levi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The part where Kant had incredibly high expectations for everyone (spoiler alert: that's the whole book!!!!) really resonated with me.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

God is the moral law

[David the Ñoldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

What bumps this from 3 to 4 stars for me is the ease and accessibility of reading one of the most notoriously difficult writers of philosophy. Mind you there are still sections that are difficult, however, overall it is one of Kane’s more easy to understand works IMO.

[Zakarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This nail-biter has it all: chic prose, diabolical beings, and dirty pictures (they're near the end). You will never look at mere reason the same again.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irritating and interesting!

[Davy Bennett]

Shades of Stan Lee in this one.
Will donate.

[Medhat ullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immanuel Kant's "Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason" operates as a rigorous interrogation of the epistemological and moral interplay between religious praxis and rational autonomy. Kant delineates a framework wherein religiosity is decoupled from heteronomous dogmatism, asserting that authentic religiosity is anchored in the a priori structures of moral reason rather than the empirical contingencies of ecclesiastical doctrine.Central to Kant's thesis is the contention that the moral law, as dictated by the categorical imperative, constitutes the transcendental substratum of all legitimate religious expression. Religion, in this Kantian schema, functions not as an antecedent to moral deliberation but as a heuristic vehicle for the amplification of moral praxis within the teleological confines of humanity's ultimate vocation, namely the establishment of an "ethical commonwealth."Kant further critiques the sacerdotal instrumentalization of religion, which he identifies as a pernicious obfuscation of reason’s sovereignty. He posits that ecclesiastical orthodoxy, when unmoored from rational critique, devolves into an apparatus of superstition, undermining the autonomy requisite for genuine moral agency. In this regard, the text advances a paradigm wherein religious faith is reconceptualized as a moral disposition, a rational faith that aligns seamlessly with the dictates of practical reason.Through a dialectical exposition, Kant addresses the necessity of "moral faith" as a regulative ideal, positing that belief in God and immortality serves as a postulate of practical reason—necessary not for metaphysical speculation but for the sustenance of moral commitment. Thus, the noumenal substratum of religion is rendered intelligible only within the parameters of reason’s self-legislation."Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason" articulates a vision of religiosity that eschews external authoritarianism in favor of an immanent rational moral order, where the divine becomes a symbol of the unifying principle of moral perfection, accessible solely through the autonomous exercise of reason.

[Hannah]

Tell me you’re on the spectrum without telling me you’re on the spectrum. Jeeps creeps my man.

[endolorix · Rating 4 out of 5]

dinguerie de s’appeler emmanuel et d’être infiniment plus brillant que macron

[Sam Lieman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best Kant, but still excellent.

"a religion that rashly declares war on reason will not long endure against it"

[Benjamin Geeding]

Deserving of the reputation.