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Metaphysics as Kant’s Coquette: Rousseau’s Influence on Dreams of a Spirit-Seer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2015

Jeremiah Alberg
Jeremiah Alberg*
Affiliation:
International Christian University
*
Email: jlalberg@gmail.com
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Abstract

Kant’s notes known as Remarks in the ‘Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime’ reveal a deep concern with the way in which the human drives to equality and unity lead inevitably to a drive for honour and its attendant delusions. He developed his thinking about these problems in the context of his reading of Rousseau. In his published Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, Kant tries to overcome the influence of the drive for honour by appealing to a metaphysics that is critical of itself. The problem is how to distinguish what is grounded in reason when that reason is so easily influenced by others.

Keywords

drive to equalitydrive to unitydrive to honourgeneral willcoquettemetaphysicsworldKantRousseauR. GirardDreams of a Spirit-Seer

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Articles
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Kantian Review , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , November 2015 , pp. 347 - 371
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2015 

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