Kant

=__Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)__= = =

=Major Works=


 * (1746) //[|Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces]// (//Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte//)
 * (1755) //[|A New Explanation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Knowledge]// (//Neue Erhellung der ersten Grundsätze metaphysischer Erkenntnisse//; Doctoral Thesis: //Principiorum primorum cognitionis metaphysicae nova dilucidatio//)
 * (1755) //[|Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven]// (//Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels//)]]
 * (1762) //[|The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures]// (//Die falsche Spitzfindigkeit der vier syllogistischen Figuren//)
 * (1763) //[|The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God]// (//Der einzig mögliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseins Gottes//)
 * (1763) //[|Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy]// (//Versuch den Begriff der negativen Größen in die Weltweisheit einzuführen//)
 * (1764) //[|Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime]// (//Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen//)
 * (1764) //[|Essay on the Illness of the Head]// (//Über die Krankheit des Kopfes//)
 * (1764) //[|Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality]// (the //Prize Essay//) (//Untersuchungen über die Deutlichkeit der Grundsätze der natürlichen Theologie und der Moral//)
 * (1766) //[|Dreams of a Spirit Seer]// (//On Emmanuel Swedenborg//) (//Träume eines Geistersehers//)
 * (1770) //[|Inaugural Dissertation]// (//De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis//)
 * (1775) //[|On the Different Races of Man]// (//Über die verschiedenen Rassen der Menschen//)
 * (1781) First edition of the //[|Critique of Pure Reason]// [|[2]] (//Kritik der reinen Vernunft// [|[3]])
 * (1783) //[|Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics]// [|[4]] (//Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik//)
 * (1784) "[|An Answer To The Question: What Is Enlightenment?]" (//Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?// [|[5]])
 * (1784) //[|Idea For A Universal History With A Cosmopolitan Purpose]// (//Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht//)
 * (1785) //[|Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals]// (//Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten//)
 * (1786) //[|Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science]// (//Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft//)
 * (1787) Second edition of the //[|Critique of Pure Reason]// [|[6]] (//Kritik der reinen Vernunft// [|[7]])
 * (1788) //[|Critique of Practical Reason]// [|[8]] (//Kritik der praktischen Vernunft// [|[9]])
 * (1790) //[|Critique of Judgment]// (//Kritik der Urteilskraft// [|[10]])
 * (1790) //[|The Science of Right]// [|[11]]
 * (1793) //[|Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone]// (//Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft//) [|[12]]
 * (1795) //[|Perpetual Peace]// [|[13]] (//Zum ewigen Frieden// [|[14]])
 * (1797) //[|Metaphysics of Morals]// (//Metaphysik der Sitten//)
 * (1798) //[|Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View]// (//Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht//)
 * (1798) //[|The Contest of Faculties]// [|[15]] (//Der Streit der Fakultäten// [|[16]])
 * (1800) //[|Logic]// (//Logik//)
 * (1803) //[|On Pedagogy]// (//Über Pädagogik// [|[17]])
 * (1804) //[|Opus Postumum]//

=Biography=

Born in 1724 in Königsberg, Kant was brought up in that town in a financially humble and devoutly pietistic family (and he continued to possess throughout his life a pietistic nature). He attended a pietistic grade school (Collegium Friedericianum) in Königsberg and in 1740 he entered the University of Königsberg. At the University he was introduced to the rationalist philosophy of [|Leibniz] and Christian Wolff and the physics of [|Newton]. Here he wrote his first work in 1746, //Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces//--a scientific paper that reflected strongly the intellectual legacy of Leibniz.

After graduation he became a private tutor--until 1755 when he returned to the University of Königsberg as a private lecturer. This was a position he would hold for the next fifteen years. During this period his teaching repertoire at the university was vast and varied--though primarily focused on science it included also mathematics and philosophy (especially metaphysics). In keeping with the German intellectual temperament of his times, his work during this period was strongly shaped by Leibniz' writings. But Kant also had a deep respect for the works of Newton, whose writings were just being introduced to the university at Königsberg.

This was a very formative time for Kant, who struggled to accommodate the rationalism of Leibniz with the empiricism of Newton. This was a very active time for him in terms of writing. But it was also a time in which he found himself having an increasingly difficult time staying with Leibniz' ideology. He certainly agreed with the importance of a system of logic that could demonstrate a mathematical precision about it (as per Leibniz). But he was beginning to wonder how this could be connected with the empirical world "out there."

Thus in 1764 he published //Inquiry into the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morals//, in which he stated his concern about how one could connect the pure world of mathematics, which rested within the human mind, with the "practical" world of physical life, especially human life as it faced the complexities of actual existence. He saw a danger in rationalist thought becoming secluded within the confines of its "pure" intellectual world--unable to offer "practical" wisdom for life.

Also he was having second thoughts about the logical method that Leibniz and Wolff (in particular the latter) had built much of their logical "demonstrations" on: the principal of contradiction. Kant was beginning to view this with the skepticism of a classic anti-scholastic (such as Ockham)--for it seemed fallacious to Kant to build a logical system of "truths" on the assertion that the opposite of a proposition proven to be false must automatically be true.

It seemed to him also equally weak to build a proof for the existence of God on the logic of the popular ontological argument--which the rationalists employed regularly. In his //The Only Possible Ground of Proof for a Demonstration of God's Existence// (1763) he questioned very strongly how simply the fact that we can hold in our minds the idea of God (as the greatest of all conceivable ideas) therefore proves the existence of God--the essence of the ontological argument once put forth by Anselm (in the late 1000s).

Gradually Kant's critical facilities were being fine-tuned in a way that stood him apart from the intellectual currents of his time. Finally (to use his own words), it was [|Hume] who "awoke him from his intellectual slumber"--forcing him to admit to the lack of a proper demonstration within contemporary philosophical circles of the connection between the world "out there" and the world within the human mind. He became determined himself to try to build such a demonstration.

At about this time (1770) he was admitted as a full member of the university faculty, teaching logic and metaphysics--a vocation he would stay with until just a few years before his death in 1804.

During the first ten years of this period (1770-1780) he was focused on developing his critical system of thought. No serious publication occurred during this time. But during the next ten years (1780-1790) he was ready to publish. In 1781 his Critique of Pure Reason was published; in 1785 he published Metaphysics of Morals; three years later (1788) he came out with his Critique of Practical Reason.

But it was not just in the realm of philosophy, metaphysics, theology ethics that he poured forth an enormous productivity. He was also interested in science and the philosophy of science. He was was also interested in history and the philosophy of history.

His last years were focused on an effort to write a great integrative work, one which he hoped would establish a definitive metaphysics for an emerging modern world-view. Though what we have of that work is voluminous--it is merely fragmentary and quite undisciplined as a philosophy. Clearly he intended a major work to emerge from his notes. But time overtook him. He died in 1804 at 80 years of age.

Source: http://www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/kant2.htm

=Timeline of Kant's Life=


 * 1724** April 22, born in Koumlnigsburg, East Prussia, to a family of the pietist sect.


 * 1734** Enters the Collegium Fredericianum to study theology, excells in the classics.


 * 1740** Enters the University of Konigsburg and studies mathematics and physics.


 * 1746** Finishes study at the university and spends the next nine years employed as a private tutor. His father dies.


 * 1755** Earns his masters degree and lectures at the university for the next fifteen years as a //Privatdozent//.


 * 1766** Earns the post of the under-librarian.


 * 1770** Finally promoted to professorship of logic and metaphysics.


 * 1781** Publishes //Critique of Pure Reason//.


 * 1783** Publishes //Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics//.


 * 1785** Publishes //Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals//.


 * 1788** Publishes //Critique of Practical Reason//.


 * 1790** Publishes //Critique of Judgement//.


 * 1792** Is embroiled with the Government review regarding his religious doctrines and prohibited from lecturing or writing on religious subjects by the king Frederick William II.


 * 1793** Publishes //Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone//.


 * 1794** Withdraws from society but continues his lectures.


 * 1795** Reduces his lectures to one each week.


 * 1797** Retires from his post at the university. The death of King Frederick William II removes the ban on his religious writing and lecturing. Publishes //Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals//.


 * 1798** Publishes //Anthropology, Considered from a Pragmatic Viewpoint//.


 * 1804** Dies in Konigsburg on February 12 having never travelled more than forty miles from his home town.

Source: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/kant.html

=Kant's Philosophy and Influences=

Kant attributed much of his philosophical development to David Hume, saying "[he] interrupted my dogmatic slumbers and gave my speculations in the field of philosophy a quite new direction". Hume was a skeptic, and believed that all or some human knowledge is impossible. Since humans cannot observe the world perfectly then its best to suspend belief than to rely mostly on reason.

From this, Kant believed that in philosophy, there had to be the recognition that the observation of the external world was biased depending on the observer and their position. This is Kant's focus in philosophical observations.

Summary of Kant's Arguments on the Enlightenment
1. Men are unable and unwilling to make use of their own understanding without direction from others. 2. This inabilityto use one's own reason is referred to as tutelage, and man's unwillingness to free oneself of this tutelage makes the condition self-incurred. 3. All that is necessary for Enlightenment to occur is freedom, however, in every aspect of life in the state there is restriction. 4. Enlightenment should be pursued in all affairs except for those that directly affect the interests of the community (i.e. paying taxes)

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