Prudential Reason in Kant’s Anthropology

Anthropology should have a prudential or pragmatic orientation, according to Kant, a thought emphasized in the title of his 1798 “textbook,” Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. According to the Parow notes (1772-73) of an early lecture course on anthropology, Kant described prudence as “the capacity to choose the best means to our happiness,”[25:413] a description that fits well with his suggestion in the Groundwork that prudence is “skill in the choice of means to one’s own greatest well-being” or happiness, or “the insight to unite all [one’s own] purposes to his own enduring advantage”.[G 4:416] 2 While Kant is quick to contend that the prudent pursuit of well-being or happiness is not the only or the most dignified purpose of practical reason (this esteemed place is reserved for morality), he insists that, in a finite rational agent,