KANT AND THE «SPIRIT OF EPICURUS» (IN KANT’S PRE-CRITICAL AND CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY)

In the first part of the article, the relation of the ethics of Epicurus to Kant's practical philosophy is considered. Analyzing the principles on which the notion of the supreme good of the ancients was built, Kant paid special attention to the Epicureans. His choice was not accidental, since it was they who tried to combine virtue and happiness in their doctrine of the highest good, without considering them as two different elements. Developing his theory, Kant often compares his position with that of Epicureans and in some ways even relies on its achievements. However, despite the fact that his system has some similarities with Epicureanism, he disagrees on fundamental questions with it, and the conclusions of Kant and Epicurus are ultimately diametrically opposed. In the second part of the article, the presence of the "spirit of Epicurus" in critical philosophy as a question posed by P. Fenves and E. K. Adler is considered. On the one hand, from its inception, Kant's thought is engaged with the spirit of Epicurus (P. Fenves); on the other hand, Kant's thought "rediscovers" Epicureanism for us, because Kant transforms the question of the reception of Epicureanism in general (A.C. Adler). How is Kant's statement connected with this, that if the sensational principles of Epicurus were "his maxims of the speculative use of reason, he showed in this more of a true philosophical spirit than any other ancient sage"? For P. Fenves, the spirit manifested in this case by Epicurus can be called the "prolepsis of the critical mind" and, since it is just the Geist that directs our ability of judgment, it is a philosophical spirit in general. Speaking of Kant's debt to Epicureanism, A.C. Adler compares the general concept of cognitive anticipation by Kant, on the one hand, and the concept expressed by the term προλήψειςby Epicures, on the other hand, as the only philosophical doctrine of the ancients that is used in the "Transcendental Analytic" of "Critiques of the Pure Reason". Further, in view of the fact that apparently Kant’s understanding of prolepsis is the result of a misinterpretation based on Cicero, we consider the question of how Epicurus, which is an archetype of dogmatic empiricism, could anticipate - already with its own concept of anticipation - the principle of Kant's critical revolution?

προλήψεις, Epicurus, the spirit of Epicurus, atomism, Kant, moral law, practical reason, supreme good, προλήψεις, anticipation, P. Fenves, A.C. Adler

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