The Kantian Solution

This chapter turns to the execution of Kantian theodicy. Concentrating on the external obstacles to realising the highest good, it surveys the various theological commitments Kant regards as concomitants of hoping for their removal. Of especial importance is Kant’s socio-historical theodicy, which exploits a notion of purposiveness to explain how human social dynamics facilitate an imminent, historical progression towards the realisation of the good. Attention to the content of Kantian theodicy, however, shows how it not only reintroduces central elements of its Leibnizian predecessor, albeit within a radically altered epistemic framework, but involves a structural invocation of divine freedom that reveals fundamental continuities with Kant’s own pre-critical theodicy. This invocation in fact leads to a paradox at the heart of Kantian theodicy: echoing the dialectical contradiction between motivation and execution that afflicted Leibnizian theodicy, the finite, practical perspective that motivates Kantian theodicy proves impossible to maintain in light of the divine, infinite perspective integral to its execution. With this paradox in mind, we can ask whether Kant’s own critical, ‘authentic’ theodicy in fact survives the critique launched in On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy .