Finitude Quote by Robert B. Louden

““Even after human beings have reached adulthood and developmental maturity, there remain hindrances in human nature that make it difficult for them to act from moral principle. One of most fundamental challenges is the fact that the developmentally mature human mind is still a finite intelligence rather than an infinite intelligence. The adult human mind is equipped only with ‘a discursive, image-dependent understanding’ (CU V 408): in order to think abstractly, we need images. The finitude of the human condition thus poses a permanent challenge to the task of grasping ideas of pure reason such as a priori moral norms or the concept of a morally perfect will. Kant’s basic response to this challenge of human finitude is to articulate various strategies for representing moral concepts analogically and symbolically through images. As he remarks in Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, ‘for the human being the invisible needs to be represented through something visible (sensible)’ (Religion VI 192).””

— Robert B. Louden