The Correspondence between Pragmatic Anthropology and Kantian Moral Anthro-pology and their Role in the Practical Realization of Kant’s Morality

Document Type : The Quarterly Jornal

Author

Assistant professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

In Kant’s view, moral philosophy needs a supplement through which it can prepare people for acting upon purely moral principles and rules. He refers to this supplement as “moral anthropology” in which he conducts an empirical study of the nature of man, instead of considering pure principles. Although Kant believes that pure morality is fundamental and is, therefore, more important than this supplement, he emphasizes as much that this supplement should be recognized in order to apply the achievements of pure morality in men. In this paper, I draw upon a de-scriptive-analytic method to identify the notion of Kant’s moral anthro-pology in light of his pragmatic anthropology and consider its role in his moral philosophy and the realization of the moral. I conclude that, for Kant, moral anthropology prepares the ground for applying the princi-ples of pure morality in more concrete situations, given one’s missions or considering the ways or obstacles to the realization of morality. In order to account for Kant’s moral anthropology, we need first to consider his pragmatic anthropology. His morality is based on experience and is use-ful for ordinary life, and his moral anthropology creates conditions for people in which they can more easily deploy moral principles in their mundane lives.

Keywords

References

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