Kant on the Five Intellectual Virtues

The thesis of this paper can be outlined thus: Kant was not only acquainted with the exposition of the intellectual virtues presented by Aristotle in Eth. Nic. VI or in Eth. Eud. V, he also used it for establishing the true nature and foundation of logic. Given that Aristotle’s theory of the intellectual virtues is at the basis of all introductions to logic, this paper is primarily concerned with Kant’s manuscripts, lecture-transcripts and printed works in order to reconstruct the history of the problem of how to introduce logic. Traditionally, to introduce logic means to answer questions about its nature, subject, goal, and division, a series of issues that had been thoroughly investigated by many Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers. Kant’s thoughts on them date back to his earliest reflections and lecture-transcripts; they are taken up in the Critique of Pure Reason; and they find definitive systematization in the published version of his logic, which appeared in 1800. Following a few preliminary methodological considerations, the second part of the essay deals with the occurrences of Aristotle’s intellectual virtues in Kant’s writings. The third part is dedicated to the impact of Jacopo Zabarella’s “pure Aristotelianism” on early modern German philosophy and the way it was transmitted to Kant. The fourth and the fifth parts consider the solutions offered by Zabarella and Kant concerning the nature of logic with respect to the intellectual virtues. Finally, the sixth part concludes with some general remarks about Kant’s debt to Aristotelianism.