Kant, Human Nature, and Climate Change

Holly Wilson
Alexandria

Professor of Philosophy and Religion

Louisiana State University at Alexandria

Holly Wilson is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Louisiana State University.

Related publication:

Kant’s Pragmatic Anthropology: The Origin, Meaning, and Critical Significance, State University of New York Press. 200 pages. 2006. Paperback edition in 2007.

“Kant, Anthropocentricism, and Animal Welfare,” Con-Textos Kantianos, 18, 77-88. 2023.

“Kant’s Approach to Alterity and Women,” Estudos Kantianos, vol 11, no. 1, 119-128. 2023.

“Libertad y Klugheit [prudencia] en las Lecciones de antropología de Kant” in

Ensayos sobre la antropologia de Immanuel Kant, ed. Nuria Sanchez Madrid and

Carlos Mendiola Mejia. (Guillermo Escolar Editor SL), pp. 109-124. 2021.

“Elucidations of the Sources of Kant’s Anthropology,” in Kant’s Anthropology:

Knowledge, Morals, and Life-Praxis, edited by Robert Louden and Gualtiero

Lorini, pp. 11-28. Palgrave Macmillan. 2018.

“Freedom and Klugheit in Kant’s Anthropology Lectures,” Con-Textos

Kantianos: International Journal of Philosophy, 5

(2017):26-37. 2017.

“Kant’s Anthropology as Klugheitslehre” in Con-textos Kantianos:

International Journal of Philosophy, 3 (2016):122-138. 2016.

"The Green Kant: Kant’s Treatment of Animals” in Environmental

Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, pp. 87-95. 7 th edition. Ed. Louis P. Pojman, Paul Pojman, Katie McShane. United States: Thomson Wadsworth Publ,

2016. Textbook. 2016.

“The Green Kant: Kant’s Treatment of Animals” in Food Ethics, 2 nd

edition. Ed. By Paul Pojman and Katie McShane, pp. 5-

13. Wadsworth Publishing, 2011. Textbook. 2016.

Kant, Human Nature, and Climate change
22.02.2025
Alexandria - 7h
Rio de Janeiro - 10h
Kaliningrad - 15h

This paper will argue why Kant is of great value to the environmental philosophy as it continues to negotiate the possibility of addressing climate change and the threats that it poses.

In contrast to other environmentalists who find ways to value other animals and organisms at the cost of valuing human beings, Kant offers us reasons for valuing human beings not only because of their capacity for morality but also because of their capacity for using reason.

It is because human beings do have reason and can respond to reasons that we can appeal to them morally and appeal to their use of reason in making decisions about how to address the threats of climate change.

Handout

Wilson_Kant,HumanNature,ClimateChange.docx

Kant's Pragmatic Anthropology

Its Origin, Meaning, and Critical Significance

Holly L. Wilson

Buy the book.

The first comprehensive examination in English of Kant’s Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View.

This book offers the first account in English of the origin, meaning, and critical significance of Immanuel Kant's Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Kant's book is not empirical psychology, but rather a type of cosmopolitan philosophy meant to teach students to think for themselves and thus be free to actualize their full human destiny.

Author Holly L. Wilson innovatively explores how the "philosophical anthropology" exhibited in Kant's Anthropology challenges contemporary theories of human nature, including behaviorism and evolutionary theory.

She also details how Kant based his work on the critically grounded faculty of teleological judgment and how this type of philosophy of experience is consistent with Kant's overall critical theory.

The portrait of Kant that emerges is one of a humane teacher who cared about his students and their acquisition of prudence and wisdom.

Holly L. Wilson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

"If you can be anything, be kind" - Stephen Quinn

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