Beatrix Himmelmann

The question of meaning in life is as relevant and central as ever - in spite of all attempts at declaring it senseless. It does not disappear. But how should we deal with this question today? The collection presents a wide range of approaches, discussing subjectivist and objectivist answers, confronting concepts of meaning with notions of happiness and morality, and considering the idea of human life's meaning both sub specie aeternitatis and in view of the world's finitude and contingency. The volume assembles contributions from leading scholars in the field.

The Proceedings present the contributions to the 13th International Kant Congress which was held at the University of Oslo, August 6-9, 2019. The congress, which hosted speakers from more than thirty countries and five continents, was dedicated to the topic of the court of reason. The idea that reason stands before itself as a tribunal characterizes the whole of Kant's critical project. Without such a court, reason falls into conflict with itself. With such a court in place, however, it may succeed in establishing the possibility and limits of metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, law and science. The idea of reason being its own judge is not only pivotal to a proper understanding of Kant's philosophy, but can also shed light on the burgeoning fields of meta-philosophy and philosophical methodology. The 2019 Kant Congress put special emphasis on Kant's methodology, his account of conceptual critique, and the relevance of his ideas to current issues in especially political philosophy and the philosophy of law. Additional sections discussed a wide range of topics in Kant's philosophy. The Proceedings will provide anyone who is interested in exploring the variety of present-day work on Kant and Kantian themes with a wealth of fruitful inspiration.

Can and Should Human Beings Be Translated ‘Back Into Nature’? Nietzsche sets himself a “strange and insane task,” viz. “to translate the human being back into nature.” He claims that we are in dire need of arranging our lives more appropriate to nature into which we belong. Nietzsche considers it crucial to recognise the will to power as the one principle that guides all living things and thus also us humans. He traces this principle in the seemingly most spiritual human achievements. In some late texts, however, Nietzsche experiments with the idea of an attitude towards life that subverts the will to power. He illustrates it by introducing the “psychological type” of Jesus of Nazareth. According to Nietzsche’s Antichrist, his life is based on “love without exceptions or rejections, without distance.” I argue that neither the conception of the will to power nor the idea of amor fati is suited for translating human beings back into nature. Also, it is questionable whether we should even wish for any such translation.