Comment on Green's Critique of Kant

Submitted by J Kourlas (United States), Aug 21, 2010 at 21:23

I'm not convinced that you are right about Kant's viewpoint on Jews. His criticism of Judaism is not unusual for a Christian. In "Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone" he sees Judaism as a political philosophy, legal in nature, which aims to establish a nation for a specific group of people, the Jews. He holds that an afterlife is a requirement for a religion, thus Judaism is concerned with secular political matters. Right or wrong, he is expressing a disagreement with the doctrine.

He basically disagrees with Judaism. That's not surprising; he is a Christian. Is he anti-Semitic? Manfred Kuehn, in his biography of Kant, doesn't think so. On page 333 Kuehn writes "Kant ... thought highly of Mendelssohn and had defended him against insults, and had many Jewish students whom he considered to be talented and capable. [Marcus] Herz was only the most important of these."

Perhaps I haven't read enough but count me skeptical at this moment. You are right about Luther, of course.

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