In the fall semester of 1772/73 at Königsberg's Albertus U., Kant, professor of logic & metaphysics, began lectures on anthropology, continued until 1776, shortly before retirement from public life. His lecture notes & papers were 1st published in 1798, 8 years after publication of the Critique of Judgment, the 3rd Critique. This edition of the Anthropology is a translation of the text found in vol. 7 of Kants gesammelte Schriften (ed. Oswald Külpe).
Kant describes the Anthropology as a systematic doctrine of the knowledge of humankind (He doesn't yet distinguish between the academic discipline of anthropology as we understand it & the philosophical). His lectures stressed the pragmatic approach to the subject because he intended to establish pragmatic anthropology as an academic discipline. He differentiates the physiological knowledge of the species—the investigation of "what Nature makes of man"—from the pragmatic—"what man as a free being makes of himself, what he can make of himself & what he ought to make of himself." He believed that anthropology teaches the knowledge of humankind & makes us familiar with what is pragmatic, not speculative, in relation to humanity. He shows us as world citizens within a cosmic context.
"Kant’s allusions to such issues as sensation, imagination, judgment, (esthetic) taste, emotion, passion, moral character & the character of the human species in regard to the ideal of a cosmopolitan society make this work an important resource for English readers who seek to grasp the connections among Kant’s metaphysics of nature, metaphysics of morals, & political theory. The notes of the editor & translator, which incorporate material from Ernst Cassirer’s edition & from Kant’s marginalia in the original manuscript, shed considerable light on the text."--Library Journal (edited)