Kant's Moral Catechism Revisited

This paper examines a controversial element of Kant's pedagogy: his 'moral catechism'. The few commentators who have examined it have focused on its content; this paper examines its method. I argue that Kant means for it to precede a Socratic approach precisely to steer the student away from adopting dogmatic doubt, which Kant thinks is a possible danger of a premature use of the Socratic method. The method of the catechism serves to inculcate in the student two convictions about the very faculty of reason: that it is efficacious and trustworthy, and that its use in morality (what Kant calls 'practical reason') holds primacy over its use in theory ('theoretical reason'). Only when these convictions are instilled does Kant think it is safe to then adopt a Socratic approach in moral education.