ABSTRACT

Kant’s late essay ‘The End of All Things’ (1794) establishes a distinctly modern field of inquiry that has fittingly been called ‘philosophical eschatology’ by asking, ‘why do human beings expect an end of the world at all?’ (AA 8:330) Interpretation of the essay’s purpose and argument have usually taken one of two routes: Kant is either understood as writing an esoteric political critique under the guise of the philosophy of religion, or as being focused largely on problems related to the immortality of the soul as a postulate of pure practical reason. In contrast, I argue that the essay presents the end of all things as a cosmological idea of reason. In this essay I trace Kant’s idea of an end as its preconditions are established through the three Critiques, and finally made explicit in his late work.

摘要

康德晚间的论文《万物的终结》（1794年）建立了一个截然不同的现代研究领域，恰好被称为“哲学末世论”，他问道：“人类为什么要指望世界的尽头？” （AA 8：330）解释这篇文章的目的和论点通常采取以下两种途径之一：康德被理解为以宗教哲学为幌子撰写深奥的政治评论，或者主要关注与宗教有关的问题。灵魂的永生作为纯实际理性的假设。相比之下，我认为本文将万物的终结表示为理性的宇宙观。在本文中，我追溯了康德的终结思想，因为它的先决条件是通过三个批判确立的，并最终在他的后期工作中予以明确。