Heythrop Journal 52 (1):52-75 (2011)
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Abstract |
In this paper I examine the genesis of Kant’s conception of a realm of ends, arguing that
Kant first started to think of morality in terms of striving to be a member of a realm of
ends, understood as an ideal community, in the early 1760s, and that he was influenced in
this by his encounter with the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. In 1766 Kant
published Dreams of a Spirit Seer, a commentary on Swedenborg’s magnum opus,
Heavenly Secrets. Most commentators take Kant’s attitude towards Swedenborg to have
been entirely negative, and argue that, at the most, Kant’s encounter with him had a purely
negative impact on Kant’s development, inducing him to reject certain of his early
metaphysical positions. I argue, in contrast, that Swedenborg had a positive influence on
Kant’s development, particularly on his ethics, for Kant’s conception of a realm of ends is
modeled on Swedenborg’s conception of heaven as a community of spirits governed by
moral laws.
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Keywords | Kant Swedenborg Blake Interaction Leibniz pre-established harmony angels kingdom of ends space precritical |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2010.00614.x |
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Mysticism Without the Mustikos? Some Reflections on Stephen Palmquist’s Mystical Kant.Swami Medhananda - forthcoming - Kantian Review:1-7.
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