Kant’s Answer to the Question “What is Stupidity?”

Abstract

Kant defines stupidity as the lack of the power of judgement, an autonomous cognitive power which in his system consists in the ability to apply theory into practice. The philosopher determines this power as an innate quality, a “particular talent” which, in contrast to theory, cannot be learnt. Thus, stupidity is not tantamount to the lack of education or knowledge. The author discusses Kant’s Essay on the Maladies of the Head as a text considered to be the analysis of this affliction, but which actually is the classification of mental diseases (the cases of the Polish ‘prophet’ Jan Pawlikowicz Zdomozyrskich Komarnicki and the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg). The text also analyzes other articles and statements of the philosopher concerning the same topic and presents the consequences resulting from the above mentioned notion of stupidity in the perspective of Kant’s three Critiques. The conclusion arises that stupidity is not a curable phenomenon, thus the problem always remains valid, posing a challenge to the Enlightenment project based on mental maturity.