Kant and modernity between gnosticism and radical Enlightment: The Davos debate between Cassirer and Heidegger

Abstract

The Davos debate held in 1929 around the relevance of Kant’s oeuvre can be under- stood as the confrontation around the possible destiny of the Enlightenment move- ment itself. We will try to show that Heidegger’s interpretation of critical finitude as the expansion of self-affection of consciousness to the whole of Experience can be understood as a radical weakening of the self-determination duty of the modern Man and the definitive invalidation of the modern emancipatory project through the instrumentalization of the work of its main figure, Kant. By contrast, the radi- calisation of the Kantian interrogation “Was ist Mensch?” and its expansion through- out a multiplication of aprioristic symbolic horizons by Cassirer corresponds to a drastic attempt to fulfil the critical project. The vital dynamics of form-giving in all its complexity and richness must correspond to the actualization of the Kantian project, allowing to conceive the application of the transcendental to contemporary topics, such as expression, the body (Leib), political irrationalism or the ante-cate- gorical representation.