Introduction to Kant's Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View Michel Foucaulttranslated and with an introduction by Arianna BoveThis introduction and commentary to Kant's least discussed work, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, is the dissertation that Michel Foucault presented in 1961 as his doctoral thesis. It has remained unpublished, in any language, until now. In his exegesis and critical interpretation of Kant's Anthropology, Foucault raises the question of the relation between psychology and anthropology, and how they are affected by time. Though a Kantian "critique of the anthropological slumber," Foucault warns against the dangers of treating psychology as a new metaphysics, explores the possibilities of studying man empirically, and reflects on the nature of time, art and technique, self-perception, and language. Extending Kant's suggestion that any empirical knowledge of man is inextricably tied up with language, Foucault asserts that man is a world citizen insofar as he speaks. For both Kant and Foucault, anthropology concerns not the human animal or self-consciousness but, rather, involves the questioning of the limits of human knowledge and concrete existence. This long-unknown text is a valuable contribution not only to a scholarly appreciation of Kant's work but as the first outline of what would later become Foucault's own frame of reference within the history of philosophy. It is thus a definitive statement of Foucault's relation to Kant as well as Foucault's relation to the critical tradition of philosophy. By going to the heart of the debate on structuralist anthropology and the status of the human sciences in relation to finitude, Foucault also creates something of a prologue to his foundational The Order of Things.Michel Foucault (1926--84) is widely considered to be one of the most important academic voices of the twentieth century and has proven influential across disciplines.
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Michel Foucault (1926--84) is widely considered to be one of the most influential academic voices of the twentieth century and has proven influential across disciplines.
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Immersed in the Matrix: Interrogating Kant's Idealism
April 29 2009
By Jomo K
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The Matrix - great movie, right? A visual restatement of Plato's Cave, but set in modern times...where we are all seated in front of a fire and immersed in our own shadows (the matrix) on the wall, or what Schopenhauer called the Veil of Maya. So Kant comes along and says, like Plato, that we can choose to stand, exit the Cave, and be awash in a transcendental, universal truth. Wow! What a promise!
French thinker Michel Foucault, conversely, remains overtly unsure of - or even hostile to - this vague promise of any metaphysical realm that exists "out there;" rather, he is more interested in how we determine Selfhood empirically, that is, via our shared space as "citizens," i.e., through culture, language, etc. As Foucault writes in his commentary to this text, he is seeking to investigate the "self which is object and present only in its phenomenal truth."
Foucault's project in this slim volume, then, is to juxtapose Kant's Idealism with Kant's Anthropology. Although I have read just about everything else both Kant and Foucault have written, I still struggled mightily with this book. Frankly, it was stiff and boring at first. I lost track of what Foucault was trying to accomplish. Yet, I stuck with it, and slowly, the text began to shine. Perhaps: it was not the text that shone, really, but Foucault's project in general - psychology not as some metaphysical, ghostlike object, but rather, as embedded within our empirical, everyday lives.
Logistically, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology was Foucault's "complementary doctoral thesis," and is not well known outside of academic circles. As such, it reads like a doctoral thesis, which is to say, it is not as smooth reading as his other brilliantly accessible texts are, nor is the thesis as clearly developed (and restated) as his other work. Despite some rough translation, a few typos, and some hard to penetrate ideas, the book is well-worth a good read.
If any of this makes sense, then I think you will enjoy this slim but philosophically dense volume. It really is a niche book...and it might even make you rent The Matrix one more time.
A must for any Foucault library!
French thinker Michel Foucault, conversely, remains overtly unsure of - or even hostile to - this vague promise of any metaphysical realm that exists "out there;" rather, he is more interested in how we determine Selfhood empirically, that is, via our shared space as "citizens," i.e., through culture, language, etc. As Foucault writes in his commentary to this text, he is seeking to investigate the "self which is object and present only in its phenomenal truth."
Foucault's project in this slim volume, then, is to juxtapose Kant's Idealism with Kant's Anthropology. Although I have read just about everything else both Kant and Foucault have written, I still struggled mightily with this book. Frankly, it was stiff and boring at first. I lost track of what Foucault was trying to accomplish. Yet, I stuck with it, and slowly, the text began to shine. Perhaps: it was not the text that shone, really, but Foucault's project in general - psychology not as some metaphysical, ghostlike object, but rather, as embedded within our empirical, everyday lives.
Logistically, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology was Foucault's "complementary doctoral thesis," and is not well known outside of academic circles. As such, it reads like a doctoral thesis, which is to say, it is not as smooth reading as his other brilliantly accessible texts are, nor is the thesis as clearly developed (and restated) as his other work. Despite some rough translation, a few typos, and some hard to penetrate ideas, the book is well-worth a good read.
If any of this makes sense, then I think you will enjoy this slim but philosophically dense volume. It really is a niche book...and it might even make you rent The Matrix one more time.
A must for any Foucault library!
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