Kant's universal human reason. A polyphonic, functional, and open concept

This paper aims to investigate Kant’s concept of ‘universal human reason’ (allgemeine Menschenvernunft) by delving into his both published and unpublished writings. Relying on Georg Friedrich Meier’s logical and anthropological views, Kant developed a model of reason which met the Enlightenment’s demands for increasing knowledge and fight against prejudices, without however succumbing to the perversion of absolute truth. Reason can be found in everybody since it is non-exclusive, but everybody has access to it only in part since human beings unavoidably follow, without however being aware of it, preconceptions and private views. Insofar, Kantian reason requires both autonomy and communication, and is of persistent cultural and theoretical validity, as is proved by Hannah Arendt’s thought.