Immanuel Kant By: Jürgen (a.k.a. Tom Blair). Biographical Information Born: April 22, 1724. He lived his entire life in and around Königsberg in East.

Immanuel KantImmanuel KantBy: Jürgen (a.k.a. Tom Blair)By: Jürgen (a.k.a. Tom Blair)

Biographical InformationBiographical Information Born: April 22, 1724. Born: April 22, 1724. He lived his entire life in and around He lived his entire life in and around

Königsberg in East Prussia (Now Königsberg in East Prussia (Now Kaliningrad, Russia) – never traveled Kaliningrad, Russia) – never traveled more than 50 miles from his birthplace.more than 50 miles from his birthplace.

Biographical InformationBiographical Information

19th Century Present

Biographical InformationBiographical InformationKant’s Father was an immigrant from Scotland and his mother was a local girl. He grew up working class (his father was a leather worker) and was religiously trained in Pietism.

Pietism – a movement within Lutheranism that stressed:

-A deeply personal religious experience-Strong commitment to religious practice-Most important thing; one’s relationship to God-Truth is known in one’s heart not one’s mind – anti-intellectual

This movement dominated Prussian Universities during the 18th Century

Biographical InformationBiographical Information

Kant worked his way through the university by tutoring and he also received some financial aid from Pietists. He was a Non-traditional student; got his degree at age 31. Over 25 years later he would produce his major contribution to Western Philosophy – A late bloomer one could say . . .

He was quite regular in is habitual walk. It is said that the townsfolk could set their clocks according to his daily constitutional at 3:30pm.

He missed his walk only once when he was engrossedin reading Rousseau’s Émile one day.

A street in Kaliningrad is named Philosophengang (philosopher’s walk) in his honor

Died: February 12, 1804Died: February 12, 1804

Contribution to Western Contribution to Western CivilizationCivilization

His most famous work is called Critique of Pure Reason and was published in 1781.

This work resulted in what is called “The Copernican Revolution in Philosophy” – in the preface to the 2nd Edition of that work Kant compared his work to Copernicus’: just as Copernicus turned astronomy around making the Earth revolve around the sun, Kant turns Epistemology around making the mind the source of knowledge.


He worked on it for 8 years before it was published after being awoken from his “dogmatic slumbers” by Scottish Philosopher David Hume.


He worked on it for 8 years before it was published after being awoken from his “dogmatic slumbers” by Scottish Philosopher David Hume.

Hume killed Empiricism (the assertion that Knowledge comes by sense experience) by his attack on causality. Kant saw that the argument was overwhelming but was not prepared to accept its implications.


Kant’s answer:

Space & Time are intuitions of the understanding which are a necessary precondition for any experience to take place.


Kant’s answer:


Further, All experiences are given structure so they can be understood by the mind under four concepts; Quantity, Quality, Modality, and Relation.


Kant’s answer:


Further, All experiences are given structure so they can be understood by the mind under four concepts; Quantity, Quality, Modality, and Relation.

Part of what this means is that the mind is active and brings something to the process of knowing. TheseIntuitions and concepts interpret experience.


There is a synthesis of the Rational and Empirical theories of knowledge here in which, to an extent, the object is created by the subject.



On the downside our knowledge of the world can only be of sense experiences or “Phenomena”. The actual world consisting of “things-in-themselves” or “Noumena” we can have no knowledge.



On the downside our knowledge of the world can only be of sense experiences or “Phenomena”. The actual world consisting of “things-in-themselves” or “Noumena” we can have no knowledge.

Regarding this, Kant writes, “I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge, in order to make roomfor faith.”


Kant is also a leading proponent of duty-based ethics – as opposed to utilitarian views. He is known for his formulation of the Categorical Imperative as the one supreme moral law:


Kant is also a leading proponent of duty-based ethics – as opposed to utilitarian views. He is known for his formulation of the Categorical Imperative as the one supreme moral law:

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can

at the same time will that it should become a

universal law.

InfluenceInfluence

Bertrand Russell calls Kant the founder of German Idealism – an emphasis on mind as opposed to matter leading eventually to an assertion that only mind exists. Kant did not do this but he opened the door to this for those who followed him.

InfluenceInfluence


Hegel and Marx (and others) were committed to this Ideal view and brought about great social changes in the world because of it.

InfluenceInfluence


Hegel and Marx (and others) were committed to this Ideal view and brought about great social changes in the world because of it.

Kant’s essay, Toward Perpetual Peace, was the Inspiration for the League of Nations and the UnitedNations and continues to be cited by Social & Political Philosophers to this day.

LessonsLessons

Kant shows us that someone from a small town, who lives a quiet and uneventful life can have a profound influence on world events because of their thoughts.

LessonsLessons


Lectures on Ethics would be a good place to start for anyone who desires to read Kant. I’ve found this to be his most accessible work.

LessonsLessons


Lectures on Ethics would be a good place to start for anyone who desires to read Kant. I’ve found this to be his most accessible work.

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder would be a goodbook to begin reading for a general overview ofPhilosophy.

Works Cited/Consulted

Central Readings in the History of Modern Philosophy 2nd Edition. Ed. Robert Cummins and David Owen. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing Company., 1999.

Kant, Immanuel. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point Of View. Trans. Victor Lyle Dowdell. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. Norman Kemp Smith. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2003

Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. James W. Ellington. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993

Kant, Immanuel. Lectures on Ethics. Trans. Louis Infield. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1963

Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual Peace and Other Essays. Trans. Ted Humphrey. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1983

Lavine, T. Z. From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest. New York: Bantam Books, 1984

Morris,Tom. Philosophy for Dummies. New York: IDG Books Worldwide, 1999

Russell, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy. London: Folio Society, 2004

Strathern, Paul. Kant in 90 Minutes. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996

The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy 2nd Edition. Ed. Robert Audi. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press., 1999.

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Ed. Ted Honderich. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press., 2005.

Immanuel Kant By: Jürgen (a.k.a. Tom Blair). Biographical Information Born: April 22, 1724. He lived his entire life in and around Königsberg in East.

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