The Never-ending Conflict: Philosophy and its Critics [or, Kant's "Flip-Flop]

Abstract

Hunter makes several contentious claims during his discussion of Kant's skirmish with the government censor over the publication of Religion within the jimits of Mere Reason. Kant's response to this skirmish resulted in the text The Conflict of the Faculties (1798) in which he presents his views concerning the appropriate relation between the "higher" faculties (religion, law, medicine) and the "lower" faculty (philosophy). Hunter's claims may be summed up by his concluding remarks that Kantian reason is both "far too deeply embedded in the religious and political conflicts of his time" and "far too detached from the real sources of social peace to wear the mantle of reasonableness" (emphasis added). In short, Hunter asserts that the orthodox view of Kantian philosophy as one whIch proclaims a tolerant and enlightened conception of reason, is mistaken. Rather, it is a philosophy of "uncompromising moralism and an intolerant rationalism."