Kant
Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in the East Prussian town of Königsberg and lived there practically all his life. He came from a deeply pious Lutheran family, and his own religious convictions formed a significant background to his philosophy. Like Berkeley, he felt it was essential to preserve the foundations of Christian belief.Kant became Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Königsberg in 1770 and taught there for most of his life. He was also greatly interested in science and published works on astronomy and geophysics. His three most significant works were published later in life. The Critique of Pure Reason came out in 1781, followed in 1788 by the Critique of Practical Reason and in 1790 by the Critique of Judgment. The Critique of Pure Reason is one of the most important works in the whole of philosophy. Unfortunately it is also one of the most unreadable - Kant himself described it as dry and obscure. Kant had generally been an outgoing and friendly man but towards the end of his life his mental faculties and his sight deteriorated badly. He died a shadow of his former self, aged 80. One of his most quoted sayings is carved on his gravestone in Königsberg: "Two thi
For Kant, the law of morals is just as absolute and just as universal as the law of causality. That cannot be proved by reason either, but it is nevertheless absolute and unalterable. When Kant describes the law of morals, he is describing the human conscience. We cannot prove what our conscience tells us, but we know it nonetheless. For Hume it was neither our reason nor our experience that determined the difference between right and wrong. It was simply our sentiments. This was too tenuous a basis for Kant, who had always felt that the difference between right and wrong was a matter of reason, not sentiment. In this he agreed with the rationalists, who said the ability to distinguish between right and wrong is inherent in human reason. Everybody knows what is right or wrong, not because we have learned it but because it is born in the mind. According to Kant, everybody has "practical reason", that is, the intelligence that gives us the capacity to discern what is right or wrong in every case.
Some topics in this essay:
According Kant,
IDEAS Kant,
Pure Reason,
Perpetual Peace,
East Prussian,
University Königsberg,
moral law,
Immanuel Kant,
World War,
practical reason,
categorical imperative,
League Nations,
,
moral law categorical,
attributes reason,
imperative act,
imperative means,
law categorical,
league nations,
according kant,
critique pure reason,
categorical imperative act,
pure reason,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 1179
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
More Essays on Kant Professional Papers: |
CUSTOMER SERVICES
|
|
Saved Papers
You haven't saved any papers.
|