Dignidade e revolução em Kant: as contradições entre o pensamento progressista e conservador ao longo da obra de Immanuel Kant

Abstract

The present work focuses on the concept of Kantian dignity, mainly considering the relationship between this concept and the historical context of the time when Kant wrote his practical philosophy. The attempt here is to develop a bridge between moral philosophy and law through the cited concept, mainly considering the possibility of presenting Kant's theory from a more emancipatory perspective. In this sense, the work starts from the historical context of the 18th century, especially from three main points: the concept of the subject, the idea of natural rights, and the new view on revolution. These three aspects are presented to verify how Kant understands them in the formulation of his practical theory. This element, in turn, begins to be developed from the second chapter. There, Kant's philosophy is presented from a chronological point of view, following the emergence and constant modification of the concept of dignity throughout the 1780s and 1790s. Here, the goal will be to demonstrate two main points. First, how the initial version of Kant's theory had a clear connection between rights and dignity; and second, how the concept of Würde, in addition to not being incidental in Kantian theory and having a clear meaning, also refers to the modern model of such an idea, rather than the traditional one, as argued by Oliver Sensen in Kant on Human Dignity. It is this emancipatory concept of dignity that allows for the last part of the work, namely the description of the ruptures and continuities of the Kantian concept of revolution, culminating in its negation in the "Metaphysics of Morals." In this last chapter, the thesis will demonstrate how the modern concept of dignity, in line with what Kant accomplishes during the 1780s, allows for an understanding of his philosophy as revolutionary, denying part of the constructions of the author himself during the 1790s. Furthermore, it will be shown here, mainly through Kant's correspondence, how such a conclusion was not presented by the author himself due to the risk of censorship by the conservative Prussian government. Keywords: Dignity; Immanuel Kant; Revolution; Enlightenment