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Chapter 2 - The evil in human nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2014

Gordon Michalson
Affiliation:
New College, Florida
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Summary

Immanuel Kant's concept of evil is extremely abstract and general, but also in a way extremely simple. We can better understand its distinctiveness if we contrast it with two fairly commonways, both rejected by Kant, in which evil is sometimes conceived so as to make it seem more intelligible than Kant believes it can be. Kant's rigoristic position on human character in the Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason is fairly narrow in scope. In human nature, Kant identifies three original or basic predispositions: animality, humanity, and personality. The predisposition to humanity includes the development of the passions, that is, inclinations which take the form of "mania" because they resist comparison with and limitation by other desires, and consequently resist the influence of reason. Kant views human sociability in the context of human freedom, simply because it provides the historical context in which human reason and freedom have developed.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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