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1 results

  • 10 - The Postulates of Pure Practical Reason (CPrR:122–148)

  • Edited by Karl Ameriks
  • Otfried Höffe, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany
  • Book:
    Kant's Moral and Legal Philosophy
    Published online:
    13 November 2009
    Print publication:
    27 April 2009, pp 213-228

  • Summary

    The postulates of the immortality of the soul and the existence of God stand or fall with Immanuel Kant's doctrine of the highest good. The will can only respond to the unconditioned demand to promote the highest good on the assumption that reason holds the highest good to be possible. The claim presupposes three further propositions: that the theoretical concepts of freedom, immortality, the soul and God are pure rational concepts with no corresponding intuitions; that they can therefore contribute nothing to the cognition of these objects; but that they do indeed have objects. What Kant calls rational belief or faith depends upon theoretical philosophy insofar as the latter has to show that the existence of those objects posited by the postulates can indeed be thought. The object of pure practical reason presupposes an author of the world who is characterized by the highest perfection.