From Kant to Humboldt: A ‘Reform’ of Humanity’s Way of Thinking and Spiritual Education

Abstract: This chapter resorts to the image of the tower and the dwelling (“Transcendental Doctrine of Method”) with the aim first of underscoring Kant’s idea of speculative philosophy, the utility of which is to prevent errors and not to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, and second of illustrating Wilhelm von Humboldt’s position within the discussion of the time. I claim that the significance of transcendental philosophy lies for Humboldt in its being a theory capable of unifying empirical sciences and an instrument for the construction of knowledge. The last part of the chapter is dedicated to the difference between Kant’s and Humboldt’s conception of happiness and argues that the distance between the two philosophers can be measured by Humboldt’s proximity to the corresponding idea of Aristotle.