The Human Vocation in German Philosophy: Critical Essays and 18th Century Sources

Cover
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Figure
Dedication
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Note on the Translations and Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Table of Contents for the Academy Edition of Kant’s Writings (AA)
Introduction: Defining the Dynamics of Being: How the Bestimmungsfrage Became a Driving Force in the German Enlightenment and Beyond
	1 “Man” or “Human Being”?
	II Bestimmung as Defi nition: Human Nature
	III Bestimmung as “Vocation” or “Determination”
	IV The Human Being and Humanity as a Whole
	V Initiating the Debate: Spalding
	VI The Existential Potential of the Debate
	VII The Aftermath
Part One Translations
	1 Johann Joachim Spalding: Contemplation on the Vocation of the Human Being (1748)
	2 Thomas Abbt and Moses Mendelssohn: Doubt and Oracle on the Human Vocation, And Excerpts from Their Correspondence (1756–1766)
		Letters Between Moses Mendelssohn and Thomas Abbt, 1756–1766
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, August 13, 1756
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, November 2, 1762
		Th omas Abbt, Rinteln, November 10, 1762
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, February 9, 1764
		Th omas Abbt, Rinteln, February 20, 1764
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, May 1, 1764
		Doubts and Oracle Concerning the Human Vocation Printed in Schinznach, 1763
		Preface
		Notice
		[Thomas Abbt] Doubts Concerning the Human Vocation
		[Moses Mendelssohn] Oracle Concerning the Human Vocation
		Letters after Doubt and Oracle Thomas Abbt, Rinteln, May 21, 1764
		Thomas Abbt, Rinteln, July 8, 1764
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, July 12, 1764
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, July 20, 1764
		Thomas Abbt, Rinteln, November 8, 1764
		Thomas Abbt, Rinteln, March 6, 1765
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, March 26, 1765
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, June 14, 1765
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, July 22, 1766
		Thomas Abbt, Hagenberg, August 28, 1766
		Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, February 16, 1765
Part Two Essays
	3 The Place of the Human Being in the World: Johann Joachim Spalding, Religion, and Philosophy as a Way of Life
		I Philosophy as a Way of Life: Hadot, Foucault, and Spalding’s Ancestors
		II Reassessing Christian Apologetics: Spalding’s Education, Early Readings, and Translations
		III Religion as a Way of Life: Spalding’s Pioneering of a New Area of Inquiry
		IV Conclusion
	4 Between Spalding and Fichte: The Vocation of the Human Being in Mendelssohn and Kant
		I From Spalding’s Vocation of the Human Being to Fichte’s Vocation of the Human Being
		II The Vocation of the Human Being in Mendelssohn
		III The Vocation of the Human Being in Kant
	5 Reinhard Brandt: Excerpt from the Human Vocation in Kant
		I The Word and the Concept “Bestimmung”: In Particular in Kant
		II The Beginning of the Modern Philosophy of Bestimmung
		III Review
	6 Kant on the Human Vocation
		I The Meaning of “Vocation” (Bestimmung)
		II The Predispositions
		III Reason and Irrationality
		IV Morality and Custom
		V Conclusion: The Human Vocation
	7 Understanding the Vocation of the Human Being Through the Kantian Sublime
		I The Concept of Bestimmung in Kant’s Anthropological Writings
		II The Feeling of the Sublime as Orientation Toward the Human Bestimmung
		III The Rational Vocation of Human Beings
		IV The Sublime as the Experience of One’s Rational Vocation
		V The Human Vocation as the Vocation of the Human Species
		VI Conclusion
	8 “It Will be Well”: Isaak Iselin on the Self-realization of Humanity in History
		I Introduction
		II The General Outline and Purpose of Iselin’s History of Humanity
		III Humanity in History
		IV Conclusion
	9 Whose Vocation? Which Man?: A.W. Rehberg on the Vocation of Man and Political Theory
		I The Debate on the Human Vocation
		II The Theory-Practice Debate
		III Conclusion
	10 Religious Anthropology and Pluralism: Herder on the Bildung of Humanity
		I Herder’s Concept of Humanity
		II Biblical Hermeneutics
		III Religious Anthropology
		VI The Bildung of Humanity Through History
		V Conclusion
	11 The Doctrine of Palingenesis in Fichte’s Vocation of the Human Being
		I Scientific versus Popular Presentations
		II Palingenesis as Our Vocation?
		III Palingenesis in Fichte’s Other Berlin Publications
		IV Conclusion
	12 The Vocation of Philosophy: Hegel on “Speculative” Science and the Human Good
		I Spiritual Striving and Reconciliation: Affinities Between Hegel and Spalding
		II Anthropo-Theology in Hegel’s Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of God
		III “Speculative” Science and the Human Good
Bibliography
Index