Conjectural Beginning of Human History
Kant’s three Critiques transformed the landscape of Western philosophy so thoroughly that virtually every philosopher since has had to position himself in relation to them. Conjectural Beginning of Human History (1786) reconstructs the fall philosophically: the transition from instinct to reason was humanity’s liberation and its catastrophe simultaneously — freedom is the source of both human dignity and human misery. A companion essay, On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy (1791), argues that no theoretical argument can vindicate God’s ways, and turns to Job as the model: not a man who defended God with clever arguments, but one who maintained his moral integrity and spoke honestly in the face of suffering.