Immanuel Kant and Georg Simmel both lived in different cultural atmospheres. While the former is the one who reflects upon the enlightenment era with criticism and hope, the latter evaluates capitalism and the industrial era with apathetic criticism. However, both of them have managed to philosophically grasp the phenomenon of culture in its universality and true meaning. This text aims at identifying the parallels between the spirits of both eras.

The human issue with the concept of finality constitutes a fundamental platform for the philosophical concept of transhumanism. This paper addresses the historical-philosophical perspective of transhumanism with emphasis put on the 18th and 19th centuries, whereby possible anticipatory actions with respect to transhumanist thought are analyzed. In this sense, the need for a philosophical reflection on transhumanism is justified. The main part of this paper is aimed at philosophical and ethical questions related to cryonics as being one of the most (...) dominant and feasible transhumanist practices. The characteristics and critical analysis of cryonics focuses on the problem of understanding death from a philosophical standpoint. (shrink)

The paper deals with Kant’s writing Announcement of the Program of his Lectures for the Winter Semester, 1765–1766. It aims to analyse the text on two levels. The first concentrates on the systematic character of the writing in Kant’s overall heritage. The second aim of the paper is to point out the importance of the writing to Kant’s philosophy of culture and his pedagogical theory.