Gospodari i robovi: kritika zasnovana na klasi, rasi i rodu
Masters and Slaves: A Critique Based on Class, Race, and Gender

Author(s): Đorđe Hristov, Adriana Zaharijević, Zona Zarić
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Class; Race; Gender
Summary/Abstract: Immanuel Kant (Immanuel Kant) in one sentence formulates the "most difficult problem" that, according to him, humanity faces: "If he lives with other members of his race, man is an animal that must have a master [einen Herrn nöthig hat]" (Kant 1923a: 23). The problem consists in the fact that the master himself is a man, which leads to the endless regression of the "search for the master". For Kant, however, it is an axiom that man must have a master, because the idea of ​​mastery is inseparable from the question of man's social existence, and therefore from the question of the nature of the human being. While Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) in the natural state still saw in man an independent animal that does not know social connections, as a result of which there is no master in that state, according to Kant, man is always already social in character, which makes the problem of mastery implicit in every project of criticism of social relations. If this is taken into account, an important question arises — how can criticism respond to Kant's enlightening appeal that commands us to dare to leave the state of self-inflicted immaturity (Kant 1923b: 35), if social life cannot be ordered and conducted in the absence of a master. That this problem is one of the most difficult faced by humanity is seen in the fact that the figure of the master, as well as the closely related figure of the slave, will play a central role in the history of modern criticism. While for ancient thinkers the figure of the master was self-evident, because slavery was considered a consequence of the natural difference between people, Enlightenment thought will pose this question in such a way that it remains unresolved even today, following Kant's prediction.

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