In Kant's Worldview: How Judgment Shapes Human Comprehension, Rudolf
A. Makkreel offers a new interpretation of Immanuel Kant's theory of
judgment that clarifies Kant's well-known suggestion that a genuine
philosophy is guided by a world-concept (Weltbegriff). Makkreel shows
that Kant increasingly expands the role of judgment from its logical and
epistemic tasks to its reflective capacity to evaluate objects and
contextualize them in worldly terms. And Makkreel shows that this final
orientational power of judgment supplements the cognition of the
understanding with the comprehension originally assigned to reason.
To comprehend, according to Kant, is to possess sufficient insight into
situations so as to also achieve some purpose. This requires that reason
be applied with the discernment that reflective judgment makes possible.
Comprehension, practical as well as theoretical, can fill in Kant's
world concept and his sublime evocation of a Weltanschauung with a
more down-to-earth worldview.
Scholars have recently stressed Kant's impure ethics, his nonideal
politics, and his pragmatism. Makkreel complements these efforts by
using Kant's ethical, sociopolitical, religious, and anthropological
writings to provide a more encompassing account of the role of human
beings in the world. The result is a major contribution to our
understanding of Kant and the history of European philosophy.
