Abstract

The paper analyzes the main theoretical junctures present in the prolusion to the course of Logic and Metaphysics that, in 1765, Kant addressed to his students. The intent of the paper is to show how, at this stage, not only aesthetic themes anticipating future critical speculation make their appearance but also original motifs, the sign of a decidedly unique intellectual moment in the evolution of the philosopher’s thought. Thus, alongside the centrality assumed by experience in the metaphysical method and together with the search for foundational principles of ethics, there emerges a strong interest in feeling, which, different from the faculty that will be dealt with in the Critique of Judgment, appears at this stage as the ability to orient oneself in the historical and social world in order to find rules that will direct its actions and improve its behavior. In an unprecedented interweaving of research and teaching, a young and committed Kant thus comes to light, searching for new ways of thinking and teaching philosophy, convinced that both need to be reformed to contribute to the renewal of morals that the «civilization of manners» deeply needs