Kant’s geographical theory, which was informed by contemporary travel reports, diaries, and journals, developed before his so-called “critical turn.” There are several reasons to study Kant’s lectures and material on geography. The geography provided Kant with terms, concepts, and metaphors which he employed in order to present or elucidate the critical philosophy. Some of the germs of what would become Kant’s critical philosophy can already be detected in the geography course. Finally, Kant’s geography is also one source of some of (...) the empirical claims in his philosophical works, including the Critique of the Power of Judgment. To give an example of this, I examine his account of the sublime. (shrink)

How serious was Kant about his suggestion, in the first edition Preface to Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (6:10), that he hoped his book would be suitable for use as compulsory reading for a philosophy class that theology students of the future would be required to take in their final year of study? This chapter (of a forthcoming anthology that will include chapters on all of Kant's lecturing activity) begins by sketching the pedagogical themes that develop progressively throughout (...) Religion, becoming more prominent as the text proceeds. I then turn to Kant’s own lectures, especially his Lectures on the Philosophical Doctrine of Religion and relevant passages from the various editions of his Lectures on Metaphysics, with the goal of answering two additional questions. First, do the student notes for lectures delivered prior to 1792 provide evidence that Kant followed his own, subsequently-articulated theory of moral-religious pedagogy when he taught university courses relating to religion and/or theology? And second, do the lectures notes (including those relating to lectures given after 1792) provide any evidence that Kant’s views on moral pedagogy within a religious community predated his writing of Religion? (shrink)