Kant from the Perspective of Management: A Reply to Ian Hunter

Abstract

When Kant wrote the "Streit der Fakultaeten" in 1794 (pub!. 1798) he rightly assumed that his readers had a fair idea of his highly differentiated notion of reason. After all, the three Critiques, which had been published by then (1781; 1788; 1790) and were widely read, had as their goal the delimitation of what sort of job different kinds of reason are fit to do. Today, Kant would not be able to make such an assumption, if Ian Hunter's "The Intolerance of Reason" is an indication of current readings. Certainly, the notion of reason that comes across is one that suggests that Kant claims a security of truth as a result of reasoning, a claim theology and other utilitarian faculties cannot and should not make. To be fair to Hunter, this impression is sharpened probably by the fact that "The Intolerance of Reason" is an abbreviated version of Hunter's Hinkley lecture given at John Hopkins University in July 1995.