Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Vortrag im Rahmen der Tagung "Einlightenment in the World", 30. August 2024
In recent years there has been a rising interest in Kant’s ideas on issues of race, ethnicity and colonialism. Some argue that he was an apologist who facilitated settler colonial projects, while others find enough critical edge in his writings on morality, law, justice and international relations which can be used to develop a critique of racial supremacy, colonial projects, as well as other forms of subjugation between people and nations.
This talk will engage in these debates not by dealing with historical issues but by thinking with Kant about the ongoing conflict in Palestine-Israel. Rather than
judging the situation in Palestine-Israel in the light of Kant’s moral-legal principles, the talk will take the opposite direction: to try to judge Kant in the light of the discussion surrounding Israel-Palestine, thus offering a critique of the universal in the light of the particular. Instead of asking what can we learn from Kant, I will ask what Kant could have learned from us—here and now in Palestine-Israel.
Vortrag im Rahmen der Tagung "Einlightenment in the World", 30. August 2024
In recent years there has been a rising interest in Kant’s ideas on issues of race, ethnicity and colonialism. Some argue that he was an apologist who facilitated settler colonial projects, while others find enough critical edge in his writings on morality, law, justice and international relations which can be used to develop a critique of racial supremacy, colonial projects, as well as other forms of subjugation between people and nations.
This talk will engage in these debates not by dealing with historical issues but by thinking with Kant about the ongoing conflict in Palestine-Israel. Rather than
judging the situation in Palestine-Israel in the light of Kant’s moral-legal principles, the talk will take the opposite direction: to try to judge Kant in the light of the discussion surrounding Israel-Palestine, thus offering a critique of the universal in the light of the particular. Instead of asking what can we learn from Kant, I will ask what Kant could have learned from us—here and now in Palestine-Israel.
