A imortalidade da alma na filosofia crítica de Kant: um estudo a partir de seu confronto com o Fédon de Mendelssohn

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the particular way in which Kant conceives the issue of the soul’s immortality in his critical philosophy. In order to do that, the focus is set on a confrontation with the rational-theoretical proofs present in Mendelssohn’s Phaedon, since this work is a remarkable reference in the defense of the soul’s immortality during the German Aufklärung. This confrontation allows us to verify that Mendelssohn’s argument of the simplicity of the soul constitutes a transcendental paralogism, and his defense of the incorruptibility of the soul fails when measured by the critical condition of a schematized use of the pure concepts of the understanding. Finally, Kant’s caution against the speculative use of reason beyond the limits of possible experience appears as a part of his undertaking of philosophically grounding a morality which is both autonomous and completely active in human life. Following the perspective opened by the moral law, the duration of the soul is explained as a necessary and firm postulate of pure practical reason.