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[Kant and the smallpox inoculation]
1Doctorante en philosophie, université Bordeaux-Montaigne Bordeaux France.
Abstract:
Smallpox was an endemic, very contagious disease which caused a high mortality rate during the age of enlightenment. In order to counter act this epidemic, smallpox inoculation was developed. This technique consisted in the inoculation of infected pus taken from a sick person into a healthy one in order to prevent the risks of natural smallpox infection. It was in this context that a German doctor in charge of inoculation wrote to Kant twice in 1799, and again in 1800, to ask him if inoculation was morally permissible. Kant wrote a draft of an answer, but it was never completed or published during his lifetime. These drafts provide elements of an answer that he nevertheless refused to give explicitly in the Doctrine of Virtue (1797) where the question of the morality of inoculation remained unanswered.
Insights
Smallpox inoculation, a method to prevent smallpox infection, was examined for its moral permissibility. Immanuel Kant
Area of Science:
- Medical History
- Philosophy of Ethics
Background:
- Smallpox was a highly contagious and fatal disease during the Enlightenment.
- Smallpox inoculation involved introducing infected pus into a healthy individual to confer immunity.
- The moral permissibility of inoculation was debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore Immanuel Kant's views on the morality of smallpox inoculation.
- To analyze Kant's unpublished drafts addressing the ethical question of inoculation.
Main Methods:
- Examination of Kant's correspondence with a German doctor regarding inoculation.
- Analysis of Kant's unfinished draft responses to the ethical inquiry.
- Review of Kant's published work, Doctrine of Virtue (1797).
Main Results:
- Kant received inquiries about the morality of smallpox inoculation in 1799 and 1800.
- Kant drafted responses but never completed or published them.
- The ethical question of inoculation remained explicitly unanswered in Kant's Doctrine of Virtue.
Conclusions:
- Kant's unpublished drafts offer insights into his ethical considerations on inoculation.
- The philosophical debate on the ethics of inoculation, as approached by Kant, remained unresolved in his published works.
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