Abstract

There is renewed interest in future making across the social sciences. These discussions refer to Kant; however, his anthropology is not in the focus. The paper seeks to fill this gap and sketch the contours of Kantian foresight in his anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. It characterizes Kantian future making as consolatory foresight, a philosophical version of backcasting avant la lettre, which is critical of foresight as empirical anticipation only. The paper discusses this philosophical approach to foresight with a view to the capabilities approach, a major current in the contemporary social sciences and source of alternative views on development and progress.