Symbolic Representation in Kants Practical PhilosophyThis is the first book to explore in detail the role that symbolic rep- resentation plays in the architecture of Kants philosophy. Symbolicrepresentation fulfills a crucial function in Kants practical philoso- phy because it serves to mediate between the unconditionality of thecategorical imperative and the inescapable finiteness of the human being. By showing how the nature of symbolic representation affects all areas of the practical philosophy moral philosophy, legal phi- losophy, philosophy of history, and philosophy of religion Heiner Bielefeldt offers a unique perspective on how these various facets of Kants philosophy cohere.Heiner Bielefeldt is Privatdozent at the University of Bremen and Hochschuldozent at the University of Bielefeld.Symbolic Representation in Kants Practical PhilosophyHEINER BIELEFELDTUniversity of BielefeldContentsCitations and Translationspage ixAcknowledgmentsxiiiiintroduction1The Paradox of Liberalism: A Preliminary Observation12The Unconditioned Within the Human Condition43Symbolic Representation in Kants Works5 4Toward a Critical Metaphysics75Overview of the Book10iikants socratic enlightenment1Leaving the State of Tutelage142Philosophy in the Service of Enlightenment17 3The Example of Socrates20 AThe Primacy of the Practical Use of Reason20 BSocratic Midwifery21 COpposition to Sophistry23 4The Critical Method26 5Symbolic Representation of the Unconditioned32iiithe law of freedom1The “Fact of Reason”40 AThe Non-Deducibility of the Fact of Reason42 BThe Obtrusiveness of the Fact of Reason43vviContentsCThe Rationality within the Fact of Reason44 DThe Uniqueness of the Fact of Reason452The Law of Nature as a Symbol of the Moral Law47 3Humanity as an End in Itself534Respect Before the Moral Law585The Symbolic Significance of Nature in Practical Philosophy66ivhow to find orientation in moral practice1Moral Self-Legislation through Maxims68 2The Development of Maxims as a Learning Process713The Highest Good as a Comprehensive Horizon of Meaning784The Fundamental Ends of Morality81 AOnes Own Perfection82 BThe Happiness of Others865Social Duties88 APoliteness as Symbolic Role Playing88 BRespecting and Promoting the Order of Rights93 CToward an Ethical Community94vthe order of rights as a symbol of human dignity 1Preliminary Remark on the Meaning of “Recht”962“The Apple of Gods Eye”97 3Legal Freedom as an Institutionalized Recognition of Autonomy1014Freedom, Equality, Independence104 5The United Lawgiving Will of the People107 6Separation of Powers1107The Need for Political Criticism114vitraces of purposiveness in nature and history 1Mediating between Freedom and Nature1172Critical Teleology1193The Symbolic Significance of the Beautiful in Nature1214Hoping for Progress in History1255“Unsocial Sociability”131Contentsvii6Toward a Rightful Order of Peace135 AFrom the State of Nature to Civil Society136 BFrom Civil Society to a Liberal Republic140 CThe Goal of International and Cosmopolitan Peace1437Limitations of Historical Progress147viisymbolism in the philosophy of religion1Beyond Metaphysical Dogmatism1512Moral Autonomy as the Basis of Religion154 3Recognizing Moral Duties as Divine Commands159 4Traces of Divine Wisdom in Nature1635God as Lawgiver of an Ethical Community1666Critique of the Christian Church170 ACritique of the Bible172 BSymbolic Anthropomorphism173 CMoral Worship177viiiconclusion1Ways of Symbolic Representation1792Purposes of Symbolic Representation1813Epilogue: Modern Liberalism and Kant185Bibliography189Index199iIntroduction1. The Paradox of Liberalism: A Preliminary ObservationSince its origins in early modernity, liberalism has always been a hotly debated issue. One charge frequently raised is that liberalism mirrors a lack of ethical substance in modern society, a society that seemingly loses its normative cohesiveness, and hence can be held together only by a set of abstract procedural rules. By providing such a formal frame- work for a modus vivendi within an “atomized society,” liberalism pur- portedly amounts at best to a minimalist and formalist morality, if notto an ideology of self-centered individuals who are chiefly concerned with their own physical or economic well-being. Thischargeofethicalminimalismandabstractproceduralismoften goes along with the allegation that liberalism also suffers from a lack of genuinely political purposes. Although, as a matter of fact, liberals have certainly been involved in politics, such political activities are said to derive primarily from nonpolitical interests that is, private and economic interests that ultimately prevail over republican com- mitment. From such a point of view, liberalism appears to constitute a bourgeois ideology of “possessive individualism” rather than the joint project of citizens who share some substantial political convictions as the basis of a “strong” participatory democracy. Finally, modern liberal individuals are often po