The Knowledge of the Human Being in Kant’s Anthropology: Where Subject and Object cross Paths

Abstract

Through reconstructing some of the methodologically distinctive features of Kant’s anthropology, beyond its pragmatic characterization, the paper aims to provide some keys to situating this discipline with respect to the critical-transcendental project. This analysis outlines a particular kind of normativity connected to anthropological research, a normativity to be understood as a regularity that emerges from the observation of the dominant tendencies of human beings in their relationship with their fellow humans. From this derives a peculiar concept of «comparative universality», which underlies an a posteriori objectivity. This meaning of objectivity, admittedly weaker than that deduced a priori, is nevertheless capable of bringing out the need for concrete conditions–though not sufficient in themselves–for achieving the moralization of humankind, a goal that in Kant’s view can only be realized in history by pointing towards a cosmopolitan horizon.