Anthropology


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Immanuel Kant gave a series of lectures on anthropology 1772-1773, 1795-1796 at the University of Königsberg, which was founded in 1544. His lectures dealt with recognizing the internal and external in man, cognition, sensuousness, the five senses, as well as the soul and the mind. They were gathered together and published in 1798 and then published in English in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy in 1867, volumes 9-16. Therefore, several texts will be used for this book. I was able to find sections 1-37 and then section 43, and sections 47-57. It seems that sections 38-42, 44-46 are not available. This is book one of his longer works.

My favorite quotes

If someone has purposely caused a disaster, and it is questionable whether he is at all, or in what degree he is to be, blamed for it, and whether or not he was insane at the time of the commission of the deed, the court should not refer him to the medical facility – the court itself being incompetent to decide upon such a case – but to the philosophical faculty. On this ground the question whether the accused was in the possession of all the faculties of his understanding and judgment, is altogether of a psychological nature….

Helmont says, that, after having taken a certain dose of “napell” – a poisonous root, he felt as if he thought in his stomach. Many people have experimented with opium to such an extent that they finally felt their minds weaken when they neglected to use this stimulant of their brain.

(Summary by Craig Campbell)

Links to texts:
Sections 1-2
Sections 3-4
Sections 5-7
Section 8
Sections 9-10
Sections 11-13
Sections 14-15
Sections 16-19
Section 20
Sections 21-22
Sections 23-26 (5 hr 2 min)

Chapters

Concerning self consciousness and egoism 12:25 Read by Larry Wilson
Concerning voluntary consciousness, self-observation, and representation 18:25 Read by Larry Wilson
Concerning the perspicuity and obscurity in the consciousness of our representa… 8:50 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning sensuousness as opposed to the understanding 8:56 Read by Craig Campbell
Apology for sensuousness and sensuous justified 10:16 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning our power of doing in regard to the faculty of cognition in general 7:58 Read by VivianWeaver
Concerning artificial play and moral semblance 12:32 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning the five senses 10:08 Read by sgrace
Concerning the faculty of cognition and the internal sense 14:45 Read by VivianWeaver
Concerning the causes of the decrease or increase of our sensuous perceptions i… 8:28 Read by sgrace
Concerning the stoppage, weakening, and total loss of our sensuous faculty 5:55 Read by VivianWeaver
Concerning imagination 7:24 Read by Anna Simon
Concerning certain bodily means of exciting or soothing the power of imagination 18:16 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning the sensuous power of productive imagination according to its differ… 18:34 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning the means of arousing and tempering the play of the power of imagina… 5:28 Read by Amy Gramour
Concerning the faculty of the power of imagination to represent the past and ma… 9:51 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning the faculty of prevision and the gift of prophecy 11:32 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning involuntary imaginations in a healthy condition, or dreams 3:36 Read by Amy Gramour
Concerning the designatory faculty and signs 17:38 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning the Weaknesses and Diseases of the Soul in regard to its Faculty of … 17:09 Read by Craig Campbell
Mental Diverrsion (distractio) 11:26 Read by Craig Campbell
Dull (hebes) 6:07 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning the diseases of the mind and delirious raving 17:26 Read by Craig Campbell
Desultory remarks 9:34 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning talent, wit, and the specific distinction between comparing and argu… 12:42 Read by Craig Campbell
Concerning sagacity and genius 17:35 Read by Anna Simon