Abstract

Professor Kroner presents an aspect of Kant’s thought which receives comparatively little attention in most English works on Kant. His interpretation is that of the so-called Heidleberg school, which lays great emphasis on the moral and religious aspects of Kant’s thought, taking its epistemological aspects as essentially subservient to a wider context which explains their fundamental meaning. The present work is short and synoptic. It presents an overall picture, without arguing details of interpretation. Like most other attempts to arrive at the “ultimate intention” of a philosophical system, Professor Kroner’s interpretation of Kant seems to base itself rather on the cultural, emotional and practical significance of the doctrines he favours than on their claims to objective truth. For example, he tells us that “nature is phenomenal because it is nothing but the material of the moral will…because man as a moral person is never permitted to derive his ultimate ends from nature”. It is difficult to see that this means anything more than: the doctrine that nature is phenomenal is commendable because it has these desirable consequences.