Monday, July 23, 2012

Kant on Rousseau


I thought of this quote from an essay by Kant called "A Universal History with Cosmopolitan Intent" when reflecting on Durkheim and his sense that we have yet to develop fully the morality proper to our age (and Kyle's gloss on this in his quiz). Kant remarks on how our "civilizational" development has thus far outstripped our moral development and looks forward to universal peace.
Until this last step…is taken, which is the halfway mark in the development of mankind, human nature must suffer the cruelest hardships under the guise of external well-being; and Rousseau was not far wrong in preferring the state of savages, so long, that is, as the last stage to which the human race must climb is not attained.

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