Kant, History, and the Idea of Moral Development

I Kant defends a teleological view of history. While granting that knowledge of the general direction of history as a whole is impossible, he argues that we do have reason to assume, as a regulative principle, that history is characterized by the development of the rational potential of humankind. On his view, this rational development manifests itself in progress not only in the arts and sciences, but also in politics, education, religion, and morality. Moral development is to culminate in the "moralization" of humanity and the transformation of society into a "moral whole."