21
Mar 17
In his Academy project, “Mendelssohn and Kant: Forms of Freedom,” Paul Guyer examines the two figures’ intellectual exchange over the course of their careers. Immanuel Kant and Moses Mendelssohn met once and exchanged only a handful of letters. But Kant’s debts to Mendelssohn—and his differences with him—go far beyond what is explicit in Kant’s published works. Guyer focuses on their competing entries to the Berlin Academy competition of 1762, and their works on aesthetics, epistemology, morality, politics, and religion, to explore the complexities of their relationship. Through this he renders a nuanced picture of the legacy of the Enlightenment today.