Job’s Loneliness. Theodicy and its Failure in Kant’s Thought

Abstract

The article considers the failure of the Kantian project of a rational theodicy based on practical, i.e. moral, reason. The analysis, starting from the difficulties encountered by Kant with the concept of the highest good as the first attempt to solve the problem of theodicy, illustrates how in the essay dedicated precisely to the failure of rational theodicies (1791) the figure of Job represents the definitive crisis of the initial Kantian project and its outcome in Job’s solitude and his sincerity with himself.