Emmanuel Kant, Anthropology from the Pragmatic Point of...

Emmanuel Kant, Anthropology from the pragmatic point of view (1798) This text is an extract from the Antropologie from the pragmatic point of view of Kant is about the importance of the power of saying  « I  » for the human subject. Indeed, for Kant, this force â€Å"raises Man on top of all other living beings†. This power is the founding of the superiority and of the dignity of Man, it is thanks to consciousness that Man becomes a moral being, in other words a being able to think himself and thus to wonder about the nature and the value of his acts. In the first part, from â€Å"Que l’Homme† [that Man] (line 1) to â€Å"sur la terre† [on earth] (line 2), Kant formulates his thesis while in the second part, from â€Å"il est par la† [it is by that] (line†¦show more content†¦In other words, a unity, which is beyond any possible experiment. We could then establish the fact that this human unity, which distinguishes itself from animals and other living beings, results from self-consciousness. According to Kant, how does Man distinguish himself from the animal? Quite simply by â€Å"son rang et sa dignite† [his rank and his dignity]. Man is different from animal and from the â€Å"chose† [thing] by his self-consciousness. He knows when he makes good and bad acts, he is conscious of his acts in general. Indeed Man cannot live like the animal and satisfy only his vital needs, nor can he live like the thing which does not have any need, Man lives by satisfying his needs and more than his vital needs. Certain needs can appear superfluous like Art, but Hegel in his Esthà ©tique work show that Art is vital for Man’s well being. Moreover Kant said that music was â€Å"the language of emotions†. Man needs to give a reason to his existence as by reflexion or the application moral values which come from reason like being solitary. These moral values are notably found in the Old Testament as in Leviticus 19:18 â€Å"loves your neighbour as yourself†. Kant then says that even if the â€Å"je† is not pronounced, the individual can think. We could notably refer to the cave men who indicated their opinion and their engagement with gestures and signs even if they did not pronounce words having a syntax. The author is then pointing out that all languages, in