THE UNITY OF REASON Essays on Kant’s Philosophy Dieter Henrich Edited and with an Introduction by Richard L. Velkley ‘Translated by Jeffrey Edwards Louis Hunt Manfred Kuehn Guenter Zoeller Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 1994Copyright® 1994 by the President and Fellows of Harvard Coleg Alleights reserved Printed in the Unite States of America ‘his bok printed on ase paper, andi ining have Been choven fr strength snd durobiy. Library of Congress Caalging-in-Publaion Dat Henrich, Dieter 1927— "The unity of reason: says on Kent’ philosophy /Diter Hentes died with an introduction By Richard L. Vebey ;tranaated by Jefrey Bande.» [tal em Includes bibliographical references ad inde. ISBN 0-674.92905 (alk paper) {Kant Immanuel 1724-1804... Vel, Richard LIL Tile 27OBHBST 1994 193—420 93-34705 ae Contents Introduction: Unity of Reason as Aporetic Ideal Richard L, Velkley 1 On the Unity of Subjectivity Translated by Guenter Zoeller 2. The Concept of Moral Insight and Kant’s Doctrine of the Fact of Reason Translated by Manfred Kuehn 3. Ethics of Autonomy ‘Translated by Louis Hunt 4 Identity and Objectivity: An Inquiry into Kant’s ‘Transcendental Dedu ‘Translated by Jeffrey Edwards Notes Sources Acknowledgments Index 7 55. 89 123 2u 239 243 245,Introduction: Unity of Reason as Aporetic Ideal Richard I. Velkley Dicer tiene is widely known in the English-speaking wold sa leading figure in German philosophy who, as teacher and scholar on both sides of the Atlantic, has sought over three decades to bring the German Idealist tradition into closer relation to the central questions and method ological approaches of Anglo-American philosophy. At the same time, his dense and subtly probing studies of major texts and problems in German Idealism have long been standard works for the interpretation and analysis of Kant, Fichte, Holderlin, and Hegel. Yet until recently very few of Hen- rich’ essays—even of the most frequently cited—have been translated into English. This collection will help to remedy that lack. It will also serve to disclose a principal aspect, indeed the very heart, of Henrich’s philesophi- cal endeavor, which has been little appreciated outside Germany. Since the appearance of his first publications in the early 1950s, Henrich has been ‘engaged in a retrieval of the Idealist philosophies of self-consciousness, employing both close exegesis and systematic argumentation. The true {goal of this retrieval has not been well understood: itis to lead twentieth- century philosophy beyond the Heideggerian critique of Western rational- ism, by establishing the relevance of some crucial insights of post- Cartesian accounts of subjectivity for contemporary life. Only fifteen years ago, such an enterprise would have been incompre- hensible, or at best have seemed parochial, to most Anglo-American aca- demic philosophers. Yet nothing could be more pertinent to the present Philosophical situation, with its numerous controversies about the status of “subjectivity” “autonomy.” “individuality” and other key modem con- ‘cepts. In particular, contemporary Anglo-American thought is raising such