William Levine

Aufenthalt

Oktober 2021 – Juli 2022

Forschungsthema

»Radical Kantianism and the Ideal of Emancipation in Modern Germany«

Projektbeschreibung

The book manuscript »Radical Kantianism and the Ideal of Emancipation« uncovers a tradition of 19th and 20th century Kantian political thought that argued for robust ideals of social and economic emancipation to be achieved through collective exertions of popular agency and social reform. I trace the history of radical Kantianism from its germs in Kant’s political thought to its reception and reinvention in successive crisis moments in Germany: from the early 19th century to its socialist revival post-1848, to its key role in debates within the early Social Democratic Party of Germany, and finally into World War I and the early Weimar Republic. Although the reception of Kant’s political thought, especially in the Anglo-American world, has largely been mediated by its reception among liberal thinkers like John Rawls, »Radical Kantianism« reconstructs the neglected ways that the tradition enjoyed a robust reception among a variety of socialist thinkers, including figures such as Hermann Cohen, Paul Natorp, and Karl Vorländer. As contemporary political theorists continue to interrogate the resources and possibilities of Kant’s ideals for liberal thought, recovering the history of Kantian socialism can deepen and enrich key debates in ethics, the theory of ideals, and social transformation.

Wissenschaftliches Profil

William Levine hat 2019 an der University of Chicago mit einer Arbeit über »The Movement is Everything: Radical Kantianism and the Ideal of Emancipation in Modern German Political Thought« promoviert. Von 2019 bis 2021 war er Early Career Fellow am Lichtenberg-Kolleg der Universität Göttingen.

Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl)

• »Heinrich Heine’s Critique of the Present: Poetry, Revolution, and the Rights of Life«, in: Political Theory Bd. 49 (4) (2021), S. 314–338..

Forschungskontext

William Levine folgt einer Einladung von Rainer Forst, Professor für Politische Theorie an der Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main, und dem an der Universität angesiedelten Justitia Centre for Advanced Studies, das von der Alfons und Gertrud Kassel Stiftung gefördert wird.