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Full Idea
Reason, in a creature, is a faculty which enables that creature to extend far beyond the limits of natural instinct the rules and intentions it follows in using its various powers, and the range of its project is unbounded.
Gist of Idea
Reason enables the unbounded extension of our rules and intentions
Source
Immanuel Kant (Idea for a Universal History [1784], 2nd)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Political Writings', ed/tr. Reiss,Hans [CUP 1996], p.42
A Reaction
I'm inclined to identify the mind's creation of universals as the source of this power, rather than reason. Generalisations are infinitely extensible. Cantor's infinities are a nice example. Can't ideas be extended irrationally?
| 21053 | The manifest will in the world of phenomena has to conform to the laws of nature [Kant] |
| 21054 | Reason enables the unbounded extension of our rules and intentions [Kant] |
| 21055 | Our aim is a constitution which combines maximum freedom with strong restraint [Kant] |
| 21056 | The vitality of business needs maximum freedom (while avoiding harm to others) [Kant] |
| 21057 | The highest ideal of social progress is a universal cosmopolitan existence [Kant] |