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White Progress: Kant, Race and Teleology
Journal article

White Progress: Kant, Race and Teleology

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how Kant’s conceptualizations of natural history and teleological judgement shape his understanding of human difference and race. I argue that the teleological framework encasing Kant’s racial theory implies constraints on the capacity of non-whites to make moral progress. While commentators tend to approach Kant’s racial theory in relation to his political theory, his late-life cosmopolitanism, and his treatments (or non-treatments) of colonialism, empire and slavery, the problem I focus on here is that race is itself only intelligible in relation to a teleological natural history limiting certain races’ capacities to engage in humanity’s moral vocation.

Authors

Marwah IS

Journal

Kantian Review, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 615–634

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Publication Date

December 19, 2022

DOI

10.1017/s1369415422000334

ISSN

1369-4154

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