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Philosophy Colloquium Series
January 31 at 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Join Dr. Nicholas Dunn on January 31 as he discusses Hannah Arendt’s critique of Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy. Arendt was a German-American historian and philosopher, and one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century.
The presentation is free and all are welcome to attend.
Abstract
Despite being indebted to Kant’s aesthetics and what she saw as its hidden political philosophy, Hannah Arendt was quite critical of his ethics. When her issues with Kant’s moral philosophy are discussed, the focus is usually on her claim that it is centred on the self and lacks concern for others and the world. But Arendt also claims that there is no room for judgment in the moral sphere. In this essay, I focus on this aspect of her critique, which has been neglected by commentators. Given Arendt’s turn to Kant’s third Critique and her insights into its conception of judgment, I argue that she ought not to have excluded judgment from the realm of morality. Further evidence for this is suggested by her remarks on the trial of Eichmann, where she seems to want to allow a place for judgment in moral reasoning. I conclude by showing that not only did Arendt wrestle with the question of the relationship between morality and judgment, but that her innovative reading of Kant’s theory of reflective judgment should have led her to afford it a prominent role in the practical domain.