La réponse de Kant au vicaire savoyard : la méthodologie transcendantale
The concept of “discipline” occurring in the title of the first section of the CPR’s Transcendental Methodology belongs in truth to Kant’s theory of education. Yet it is a fact that one of the main differences between the pedagogy of Rousseau’s Émile and Kant’ theory of education lies in the absence of discipline in Rousseau. The latter relies for the child’s development on “nature,” without other forms of constraint. Therefore, if in the famous “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar” of the Émile, Rousseau grounds the certainty of the three ideas 1- immortality of the soul, 2- freedom of the will and 3- existence of God, on a “natural sentiment,” rejecting the reasoning of the philosophers, Kant recognizes for his part the rational character of these ideas treated in the Transcendental Dialectic and, rather than abandoning reason outright, he urges it to respect its limits and to bend to a “discipline.” In fact, dialectical illusion is according to Kant “natural” to reason, and only a critique – as a product of high culture – can restrain reason in its theoretical claims.
Kant Rousseau Discipline Nature Education Metaphysics