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Chapter 1 - Anthropology from an Aesthetic Point of View

from Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

John Hoffmann
Affiliation:
Chapman University, California
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Summary

“Anthropology from an Aesthetic Point of View” presents a major reassessment of Kantian anthropology, correcting a tendency, common in Kant scholarship and in broader debates about race, to view Enlightenment race theory solely through the lens of moral or political philosophy. Keeping the practical stakes firmly in the frame, I shift our understanding of Kant’s anthropology away from a moral register and toward an aesthetic one, arguing that the Critique of Judgment predicates the perfection of racialized bodies on their conformity to an ideal form or “shape [Gestalt].” These ideal forms, I contend, then serve as the crux of Kant’s mature race theory and the post-Kantian anthropologies examined in the next chapter.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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