Abstract for the Kant in Asia International Conference

at Hong Kong Baptist University

20-23 May 2009

Kiyoshi Himi, ¡§Immanuel Kant's Idea of Moral Community and Albert Schweitzer's Humanitarian Awareness¡¨

Kant elaborated in Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) on his teleological worldview and proposed human beings under moral laws as the final end of creation. Thus he recognized humankind as the top of this world on condition that they are thoroughly loyal to the morality. His next step was to show how humankind should perform the mission with which they are entrusted. He gave the answer in Religion within the Boundaries of mere Reason (1793). He taught in this book that human beings should constitute a moral community through imitating the perfect humanity personified in Jesus Christ. They can thus morally improve each other and fulfill their obligation to the Creator. Albert Schweitzer was much interested in Kant's teachings and highly estimated his idea of moral community (Die Religionsphilosophie Kants, 1899). I try to explain how Schweitzer was stimulated into serious humanitarian awareness by his study of Kant's philosophy.

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