ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1, we introduce the conversion puzzle as it arises in Immanuel Kant’s Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793). While in recent years much attention has been paid to the Religion’s account of radical evil, considerably less has been said about Kant’s account of conversion. In this opening chapter, we both address this gap and lay the foundation for the book’s larger narrative by outlining the three conversion models that Kant explores in the early pages of the Religion, what we call the (1) Spontaneous Choice, (2) Rational Affirmation, and (3) Grace models. Conversion by Spontaneous Choice involves a non-rational decision to adopt a new foundational value; Rational Affirmation involves making explicit some aspect of a person’s value profile that has hitherto been implicit; and Grace involves having one’s foundational value transformed by an external source (God or otherwise). Though Kant appears to embrace something like the latter, we argue that his reference to divine help is merely a stand-in for mystery. This means that despite insisting that it must be possible for an agent to radically transform, Kant is at a loss to explain how it happens. Kant’s inability to answer this question, combined with its urgency, sets in motion a serious and lively debate among his philosophical heirs.
