ABOUT CONFERENCE
NORMATIVITY AND PRAXIS: THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN KANT'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS, 14-16.05.2025
For Kant, philosophy of religion is a topic of paramount importance. He addresses it particularly in the writing Religion within the Limits of Reason alone (1793), in the spirit of the Enlightenment: Kant vehemently opposes all forms of speculative exuberance, superstition, spiritual fanaticism and revelation-based dogmatism. Instead, Kant attempts to limit religion to that which can be defended by the means of reason. Kant is of the opinion that religious rules and revealed commandments are only philosophically acceptable to the extent that they can be reconciled with the demands of reason and morality. For example, there is no room for belief in miracles (RGV VI.84–89). This immediately raises the question: are philosophical efforts to radically rationalize religions and reduce them to a reasonable moral foundation, beyond all differences, reasonable themselves?
The conference will pursue a number of key scholarly objectives. These objectives are, first and foremost, (1) an examination of Kant's understanding of religion (i.e., the significance of the distinction between “a religion of devine service” and “a purely moral religion” as well as the distinction between “ecclesiastical faith” and “pure religious faith”). For this investigation, it is also important to consider problem (2) of the connection between the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of history in Kant's philosophy (because by linking these issues, it becomes possible to understand human history as a process in which we are dealing with progress). In the hitherto existing reception of Kant's philosophy of religion, (3) the question of the political significance of religion, as expressed in Kant's writings (e.g. his view that “religion is a primary political need” [AA VII, 11]), has been insufficiently considered. One important scholarly topic to be addressed at the planned conference is (4) Habermas's view of the relationship between faith and reason, which is much discussed today. Likewise, one will not be able to overlook (5) the seemingly paradoxical statements of Kant, who on the one hand says: “morality [...] is in need neither of the idea of another being above him [the human being] in order that he recognize his duty, nor, that it observe it, of an incentive other than the law itself” (VI, 3); on the other hand, he says: “Morality [...] inevitably leads to religion” (AA VI, 6). One will also not be able to avoid (6) the extremely difficult questions about the philosophical value of Kant's analyses of Judaism in the Religionsschrift, as well as the questions about the interpretations of Kant's views themselves, and to answer them reliably.
How do we stand today in relation to Kant's position – especially with regard to the discussion about religion in the public space? Since a plurality of religions exists in modern Western societies, which are incompatible with each other but privatized for the sake of freedom from conflict, a requirement of neutrality applies to liberal states. But to what point exactly should the state's requirement of neutrality extend? Does the state merely have to guard against one-sided partisanship, or must it also be secular in an active sense (as we know it from France)? What is Kant's solution, and what can we consider acceptable under present-day conditions?
Answering these questions is important both in terms of a general reflection on the coherence or relevance of Kant's Enlightenment attitude towards religion and with regard to the question of how we stand in relation to religion today and how we see its place in the public sphere.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
- Paul Guyer - Jonathan Nelson Professor emeritus of Humanities and Philosophy, Brown University.
- Christoph Horn - Professor and Director of Practical Philosophy and Ancient Philosophy at the University of Bonn.
- Heiner F. Klemme - Professor of Philosophy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
FEES
The conference is open to active participation (with a paper) and passive participation (without a paper).
A conference fee of:
- 400 zł (90 euro) for faculty and research staff
- 200 zł (45 euro) for students (including Ph.D. students)
should be paid by the7.05.2025 via a bank transfer to the following account:
83 1240 3028 1111 0011 4849 4748
for foreign transfers:
IBAN: PL83 1240 3028 1111 0011 4849 4748
BIC/SWIFT: PKOPPLPW
with the following description: konferencja THE ROLE OF RELIGION
Passive participation in the conference is free of charge.
REGISTRATION
Registration is required for both active participants (with paper) and passive participants. Registration should be done using the registration form.
THE STATUE OF THE CONFERENCE
The Statue of the Conference is available here: https://tinyurl.com/rmr4cku4 (in Polish), https://tinyurl.com/5bxxfwuk (in English).
PAST CONFERENCES
- 2024: Kant and his significance for the present – Kant und seine Bedeutung für die Gegenwart
- 2022: Visions of good life in the Antiquity – physical, spiritual and social. Ancient Medicine and Philosophy
- 2021: Christianity and Democracy / Christentum und Demokratie
- 2019: Celebrating the philosophical and intellectual achievements of Jürgen Habermas / Philosoph und Intellektueller in Zeiten des Umbruchs. Zur Würdigung des Werks von Jürgen Habermas aus Anlass seines 90. Geburtstages
- 2018: Europe as an Idea and as a Viable Project founded on «Logos» / Europa als eine Idee und als ein tragfähiges Projekt gegründet auf «Logos»
- 2017: Früherer und Zeitgenössischer Sinn und Begriff von Weisheit
- 2016: The Idea and the Practice of Republicanism
- 2015: Moral Universalism and Non-ideal Normativity / Nichtideale Normativität
- 2014: Human Rights: from Theoretical Justifications to Dilemmas of Practical Applications
MEDIA
In 2010, prior to the launch of the cyclical conference under the name of 'Normativity & Practice', the Department of Ethics, within the framework of the project The Topicality and Practical Significance of Immanuel Kant's Philosophy of State and Law (project number: N101249434 [2494/B/H03/2008/34]), organised the international conference 'The Topicality of Kant's Philosophy of State and Law', which was thematically related to the conference The Role of Religion in Kant's Political Philosophy and Ethics. On the occasion of the 2010 conference, Ewa Wyrębska, M.A., then a Ph.D. student and assistant at the Department of Ethics at the University of Lodz, interviewed the following speakers of that conference: Prof. Paul Guyer, Prof. Reinharden Brandt, Prof. Bernd Ludwig and Prof. Alessandro Pinzani.