Editor's introduction

Der Streit der Fakultäten first appeared in the autumn of 1798, published by Friedrich Nicolovius in Königsberg.

The Conflict of the Faculties brings together three different essays Kant had written at various times. Sometime between June and October 1794, Kant wrote an essay on the prerogatives of the philosophical faculty in relation to the theological faculty of the university. Clearly it was at least partly an attempt to justify the manner in which he had circumvented the censors in publishing the Religion (see the Translator's Introduction to that work). After Wöllner's letter of reproof and Kant's subsequent promise not to lecture or publish on religious subjects (see General Introduction and below, AK 7:5–11), the liberal theologian C. F. Stäudlin in Göttingen offered the philosopher the opportunity to publish this new essay free of the Prussian censorship (AK 11:488). But Kant regarded this as a violation of his promise to the king, and therefore felt duty bound to decline Stäudlin's invitation (AK 11:513–15).

After the death of King Frederick William II, however, Kant chose to regard himself as released from his promise and free to publish his essay on the relation of the philosophical and theological faculties. But he expanded the scope of his original essay to include the relation of the “lower” faculty (of philosophy) to all three of the university's “higher” faculties (of theology, law, and medicine). Based on his account of freedom of expression given in “What Is Enlightenment?” (1784), Kant maintains that the three “higher” faculties have duties to the state.