Oldal 101 [101]
OCR
in the 18" century (until Lavoisier), and as I said it was widely known and accepted. It may seem comical (as seen from today), but it was a huge breakthrough (as seen by them) compared to what had come before. I mention all of this to demonstrate that to interpret thoughts out of context or to use today’s standards from a distance of more than two hundred fifty years to pass judgment leads to misunderstandings or even to inanity, the signs of which are most present in the Anglo-Saxon world. As for the label of racist, to return to the point, it is best to return to Kant himself. He himself writes the following (in contrast to his early view), which we can even see as refuting his earlier stance: “essential qualities are common to all people as to human being” (Ibid p.99.). As to genera (yévoc). Nothing more needs to be said. He was never really interested in differentiation of races when discussing the alien. Additionally, there are still today several theories about human races. Sometimes four, six or even nine are proposed. It is completely pointless. Importantly, the morphology in each case focuses on external features. It considers skin color (this is the first, and of course it is the most immediate, because it is noticed first), then the shape of the face and head, and then of the rest of the body. External markers are the deciding factors then and now for the superficial person. Think of Arthur Schopenhauer, who also follows an external typing in his metaphysics of love. When he examines what makes one fall in love with another, with a woman in this case, he concentrates on external traits. These are what Schopenhauer examines in his The Metaphysics of Sexual Love (in his day this work was read in great secrecy in cadet schools). After age and health, the first of the external signs, he said, is that the shape of the “skeleton” (Skelett) catches the man’s attention, as he says: beyond anxiety and illness, nothing repulses aman as much as a crooked figure. (Schopenhauer 1958. p.543., Schopenhauer 1844. II.p.638.) He also considers large breasts, which he imagines a man is attracted to (!) because it ,promises abundant nourishment for the foetus”. (Ibid) Moreover, he thinks bone structure is also the determining factor in the beauty of the
