Fourth Lecture |

(In Hebrew)

Dr. Raef Zreik, The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo; Ono Academic College; The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

The last two decades have witnessed growing interest in Kant’s writings on race, ethnicity, and colonialism. Many detect in Kant—and among Enlightenment philosophers in general—apologetic writing that enabled and justified slavery and the colonial project. Others wonder how it is possible that the writings of a philosopher who espoused equality and human dignity, and believed that human beings should be seen as an end and not a means, would form the foundation for the support of colonialism, racism, and a hierarchy between nations. They add that that in fact one can find in Kant’s writings a rhetoric that can do just the opposite: develop an anticolonial discourse that espouses equality among human beings and nations. The lecture will address these arguments in relation to Israel-Palestine. Among other things we will ask not only what we can learn from Kant but also what Kant could have learned from a visit here today.

In celebration of Immanuel Kant's 300th birthday

The 14th Series of The Spinoza Center

Produced by Prof. Pini Ifergan, Dr. Dror Yinon

This year, 2024, is the 300^th birthday of Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest philosophers of the modern era and of Western philosophy in general. It is hard to find an intellectual discipline or an aspect of modern daily life untouched by Kant’s philosophy: the place of human beings in the world and the rational imperatives that bind them shape their scientific activity, moral consciousness, and aesthetic appreciation of the natural environment and the art they create. Kant, perhaps more than any other philosopher, is identified with the Enlightenment, and alongside it has been subject in recent years to reexamination and sharp criticism of its failures, as its problematic aspects are exposed along with disappointment over its unrealized promises of progress, of a steady march toward the improvement of humankind.

As in many places worldwide, the Spinoza Center at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute will mark the event with a series of lectures on various aspects of Kant’s philosophy that may enrich thinking about current social and political issues.