Overview

Kant on the Human Animal gives an account of Kant’s understanding of the human animal through examination of a range of published works and lecture transcripts from the 1770s through the 1790s, with particular attention paid to texts concerning anthropology, ethics, and human nature. It is argued that too exclusive a focus on Kant’s view of the moral differences between humans and other animals neglects the substantial role played by animality in Kant’s conception of the human being. Though the possession of reason grants humans access to a practical realm unavailable to other animals, thus establishing a basic tension between humanity and animality, such unique access does not and cannot negate the human’s status as an animal being. Indeed, as analysis of Kant’s anthropology and theory of human nature shows, human animality provides the necessary physiological basis for humanity’s development in the world, whether individually or historically. To become properly human must therefore be seen, as Kant himself does, as the achievement of one particular animal—the “rational animal” that is the human being.

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"""There is a plethora of work on Kant's anthropology, but Baumeister's clear concentration on Kant's concern with human animality and its development across his opus is unprecedented. I believe the care and thoroughness of this exploration is especially important, for it compels Kant scholarship to wrestle with the associated issues in a much more subtle and informed manner than hitherto. For those like myself who have been drawn to considerations of the animal-human boundary and the life sciences in Kant and his epoch, this is a welcome study indeed."" --John Zammito, author of The Gestation of German Biology: Philosophy and Physiology from Stahl to Schelling ""All philosophers are familiar with Kant the philosopher of reason, and many have also come to know Kant the philosopher of humanity. But in recent years scholars have begun to excavate a third Kant: the philosopher of animality. How these three Kants do (or don't) fit together is and may well remain a contested issue. But David Baumeister's Kant on the Human Animal is certainly an excellent primer on this third Kant."" --Robert B. Louden, author of Kant's Impure Ethics: From Rational Beings to Human Beings ""An original and searching exploration of a crucial fault line in Kant's thought, with important implications for the present. Kant on The Human Animal is essential reading both for Kant specialists and for those with a general interest in the philosophic assumptions that underlie our understanding of 'human nature.'"" --Susan Meld Shell, author of Kant and the Limits of Autonomy"

All philosophers are familiar with Kant the philosopher of reason, and many have also come to know Kant the philosopher of humanity. But in recent years scholars have begun to excavate a third Kant: the philosopher of animality. How these three Kants do (or don't) fit together is and may well remain a contested issue. But David Baumeister's Kant on the Human Animal is certainly an excellent primer on this third Kant. --Robert B. Louden, author of Kant's Impure Ethics: From Rational Beings to Human Beings An original and searching exploration of a crucial fault line in Kant's thought, with important implications for the present. Kant on The Human Animal is essential reading both for Kant specialists and for those with a general interest in the philosophic assumptions that underlie our understanding of 'human nature.' --Susan Meld Shell, author of Kant and the Limits of Autonomy There is a plethora of work on Kant's anthropology, but Baumeister's clear concentration on Kant's concern with human animality and its development across his opus is unprecedented. I believe the care and thoroughness of this exploration is especially important, for it compels Kant scholarship to wrestle with the associated issues in a much more subtle and informed manner than hitherto. For those like myself who have been drawn to considerations of the animal-human boundary and the life sciences in Kant and his epoch, this is a welcome study, indeed. --John Zammito, author of The Gestation of German Biology: Philosophy and Physiology from Stahl to Schelling

Author Information

DAVID BAUMEISTER is an assistant professor of philosophy at Seton Hill University.

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