Anthropology—A Legacy from Wolff to Kant?

Abstract

The aim of this essay is not to disagree with critics who assert that there is a strong link between Wolff’s empirical psychology and Kant’s anthropology. The goal of the present work is instead to defend the claim that there is a link between Kant’s anthropology and Wolff’s rational psychology as well. By rational psychology, we do not mean what Kant rejected under this name, nor even the definitions of it given by Wolff, but what he makes of it, whether or not it actually covers the notion that he originally gave it. When one reads Wolff’s texts, one clearly sees that there are common topics between both authors. For instance, the beginning chapter of Kant’s Pragmatic Anthropology must be compared with some passages of the last chapters of Wolff’s Psychologia rationalis. The stress upon wisdom and practical achievement (under certain major changes on the account of wisdom) is a second point of comparison. The animal rationale, which was central before Wolff, continues to inhabit the doctrines of both Wolff and Kant. The idea of destination is not as new in the Aufklärung as one might think: it seems to be an inheritance of Christian Aristotelianism. Nevertheless, the anthropological projects of both authors are quite different. Whereas Wolff wanted to break with pneumatology, which embedded many anatomical points in a form/matter point of view, Kant does not think that the soul/body problem matters much and pursues a different path.