Macquarie University
Browse

Immanuel Kant on toleration

Download (562.15 kB)
thesis
posted on 2022-03-29, 02:49 authored by Andrew McEwen Bain
This thesis provides an account of Kant’s views on toleration, derived from the exegesis of relevant sections of his corpus. It begins by systematically surveying all direct examples of toleration-language in Kant’s works, and analysing these with a view to articulating Kant’s understanding of toleration as it relates to both the moral and political spheres. The thesis then turns to consider how ideas of toleration are used more broadly in his work, in selected texts where explicit toleration-language does not appear but where toleration does figure conceptually or indirectly. Other contemporary readings of Kant on toleration are then evaluated in light of the conclusions reached. Although it is a study of toleration-terminology and related conceptual thinking across all of Kant’s corpus, the thesis primarily concentrates on works produced within the context of the political turmoil in the aftermath of the French Revolution, specifically Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, The Metaphysics of Morals, and Toward Perpetual Peace, alongside with his earlier (1784) essay What is Enlightenment? The thesis argues that it is possible to identify in Kant a constructive concept of toleration, while proposing that any reading of Kant on toleration should be the result of a more systematic and comprehensive study of toleration in his works than some other recent reconstructions in the contemporary literature. It will be suggested that for Kant toleration functions to support and facilitate both personal-moral and political progress along Kantian lines, even though Kant’s conception of toleration contains significant limitations. These conclusions emerge more clearly from some of the works studied than others, but nonetheless are argued to be present in a number of Kant’s writings of the 1780s and 1790s in relation to a variety of moral and political questions.

History

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Kant & the German Terminology of Toleration -- Chapter 3: Toleration-Like Concepts in Kant -- Chapter 4: Evaluating the Secondary Literature on Kant’s View of Toleration -- Chapter 5: Conclusion

Notes

Theoretical thesis. Bibliography: pages 65-71

Awarding Institution

Macquarie University

Degree Type

Thesis MRes

Degree

MRes, Macquarie University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy

Department, Centre or School

Department of Philosophy

Year of Award

2017

Principal Supervisor

Paul Formosa

Rights

Copyright Andrew McEwen Bain 2017 Copyright disclaimer: http://mq.edu.au/library/copyright

Language

English

Extent

1 online resource (71 pages)

Former Identifiers

mq:70752 http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1267394

Usage metrics

    Macquarie University Theses

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC