This essay focuses on Kant’s image and interpretation of decadence in his philosophy of history.
Compared to progress, decadence is an older and wider category, with a very insidious metaphysical
background. Just because Kant is by definition the philosopher of progress, the topics
related to decadence are for him a valuable tool for identifying and criticizing the purposes of
conservatism. On the border between philosophy of history, political philosophy and philosophy
of religion, what Kant repeatedly argues is that the issue of the inescapable decay of the
world is one of the ways in which conservatives oppose the French revolution. Kant’s refutation
of this narrative strategy is therefore not an obvious defense of Enlightenment, but a political
and moral struggle against paternalistic and despotic power.
