Kant or won’t: theory and moral responsibility (The BISA Lecture, December 1995)

Abstract

Theory and morality

All history is the history of human consciousness.

To say such a thing is not merely to take a certain view of the metaphysics of history or of the epistemology of historiography - aligning oneself, perhaps, with R. G. Collingwood.R. G. Collingwood, The Idea of History (Oxford, 1946), p. 305. In An Autobiography (London, 1939), Collingwood said: 'My life's work ... has been in the main an attempt to bring about a rapprochement between philosophy and history' (p. 77). May greater success attend our efforts to reconcile philosophy and international studies! To say such a thing is itself a significant event within the history of human consciousness, an event whose ironical power is centred in the word 'is'. And that is really all I want to talk about this evening. The word 'is' - and the awful moral responsibility which rests on the shoulders of those of us who are masters of the word Is. Let us call ourselves isarchs, the ruling-class of Istopia. Let us call ourselves the Wizards of Is.