Kant on the History of Humankind: the Invisible Hand of Nature Behind the Progress of the Realization of Freedom

Abstract

In his essay, “Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht” (1784), Kant claims that the history of mankind should reflectively be understood as a process thanks to which the human race ‘as a whole’ gradually approximates its terminus ad quem, i.e., the establishment of “a moral whole” (ein moralisch Ganze). (IaG AA 8:21). In objection to the empirical standpoint adopted by historiographers’ account of natural history, Kant shows that his intention is far from elaborating a “history…written merely empirically” (IaG AA 8:30), i.e., “history which concerns itself with the narration of… appearances” (IaG AA 8:17).