Filosofia in senso cosmico e destinazione dell'uomo

Abstract

Conceived by Kant as a spontaneous self-legislating activity, reason produces drives, norms and desires in which man, as a rational being, is a participant, but over which, as a finite being, he can neither fully exercise his cognitive power nor exercise his will to the very end. The expression “human reason” thus describes the condition in which we never find ourselves at home; or, rather, we live in our own house as guests who are not always at ease. That is to say, reason puts us in an embarrassing situation (Verlegenheit), because it reminds us that the space in which we think we can move so easily, and in which we trust we are well acclimatized in virtue of our knowledge and our skills, is but a small portion of the real breadth of the world we live in.