Western Philosophy 18th-century philosophy
Immanuel Kant
Name	Immanuel Kant
Birth	April 22, 1724 Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia
Death	February 12, 1804 (aged 79) Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia
School/tradition	Kantianism, enlightenment philosophy
Main interests	Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics
Notable ideas	Categorical imperative, Transcendental Idealism, Synthetic a priori, Noumenon, Sapere aude, Nebular hypothesis
Influenced by	Wolff, Tetens, Hutcheson, Empiricus, Montaigne, Hume, Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Rousseau, Newton, Emanuel Swedenborg
Influenced	Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Peirce, Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Sartre, Cassirer, Habermas, Rawls, Chomsky, Nozick, Karl Popper, Kierkegaard, Jung, Searle, Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, Giovanni Gentile, Karl Jaspers, Hayek, Bergson, Ørsted, A.J. Ayer, Emerson, Weininger
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Immanuel Kant IPA: [I:manuəl kant] (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Enlightenment. He is widely regarded as the most important figure in philosophy after Aristotle. (Redirected from 18th century philosophy) 17th-century Western philosophy is conventionally seen as being dominated by the coming of symbolic mathematics and rationalism to philosophy, many of the most noted philosophers were also mathematicians. ... Image File history File links Kant_2. ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... Anthem Preußenlied, Heil dir im Siegerkranz (both unofficial) The Kingdom of Prussia at its greatest extent, at the time of the formation of the German Empire, 1871 Capital Berlin Government Monarchy King  - 1701 — 1713 Frederick I (first)  - 1888 — 1918 William II (last) Prime minister  - 1848 Adolf Heinrich von Arnim... is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... Anthem Preußenlied, Heil dir im Siegerkranz (both unofficial) The Kingdom of Prussia at its greatest extent, at the time of the formation of the German Empire, 1871 Capital Berlin Government Monarchy King  - 1701 — 1713 Frederick I (first)  - 1888 — 1918 William II (last) Prime minister  - 1848 Adolf Heinrich von Arnim... Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; Italian: ; German: ; Spanish: ; Swedish: ) was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. ... Theory of knowledge redirects here: for other uses, see theory of knowledge (disambiguation) According to Plato, knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief. ... Plato (Left) and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome) Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of reality, being, and the world. ... For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and of modern deontological ethics. ... Transcendental idealism is a doctrine founded by 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. ... The terms analytic and synthetic are philosophical terms, used by philosophers to divide propositions into two types: analytic propositions and synthetic propositions. ... The noumenon (plural: noumena) classically refers to an object of human inquiry, understanding or cognition. ... A planetary disk forming in the Orion Nebula In this artists conception, of a planet spins through a clearing in a nearby stars dusty, planet-forming disc In cosmogony, the nebular hypothesis is the currently accepted argument about how Earths Solar System formed. ... Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf; also known as Wolfius) (January 24, 1679 - April 9, 1754) was a German philosopher. ... Johannes Nikolaus Tetens (16 September 1736 - 17 August 1807) was a German philosopher, statistician and scientist. ... Francis Hutcheson (August 8, 1694–August 8, 1746) was an Irish philosopher and one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... Sextus Empiricus (fl. ... Michel Eyquem de Montaigne-Delecroix (IPA pronunciation: []) (February 28, 1533–September 13, 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. ... This article is about the philosopher. ... Descartes redirects here. ... Malebranche redirects here. ... Leibniz redirects here. ... Baruch de Spinoza (‎, Portuguese: , Basque: , Latin: ) (November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. ... For other persons named John Locke, see John Locke (disambiguation). ... For the second husband of Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, see George Berkeley (MP). ... Rousseau redirects here. ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... Emanuel Swedenborg, 75, holding the manuscript of Apocalypsis Revelata (1766). ... Johann Gottlieb Fichte (May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (January 27, 1775 – August 20, 1854), later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (IPA: ) (August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher and, with Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, one of the representatives of German idealism. ... Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (IPA: ) was a nineteenth-century German philologist and philosopher. ... Charles Sanders Peirce (IPA: /pɝs/), (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, physicist, and philosopher, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859 – April 26, 1938) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) (IPA ) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 in Vienna, Austria – April 29, 1951 in Cambridge, England) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking ideas to philosophy, primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Ernst Cassirer (July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German-Jewish philosopher. ... Jürgen Habermas (IPA: ; born June 18, 1929) is a German philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and American pragmatism. ... John Rawls (February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American philosopher, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, and The Law of Peoples. ... Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer. ... Robert Nozick (November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher and Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. ... Sir Karl Raimund Popper CH FRS FBA (July 28, 1902 â€“ September 17, 1994) was an Austrian and British[1] philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. ... Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (IPA: , but usually Anglicized as ;  ) 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. ... Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of the neopsychoanalytic school of psychology. ... John Searle is a philosopher at UC Berkeley. ... Michel Foucault (pronounced ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher, historian and sociologist. ... Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) was a German Jewish political theorist. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Giovanni Gentile (IPA:) (May 30, 1875 - April 15, 1944) was an Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian-born British economist and political philosopher known for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. ... Henri-Louis Bergson (October 18, 1859–January 4, 1941) was a major French philosopher, influential in the first half of the 20th century. ... The oersted is the CGS unit of magnetic induction. ... Alfred Jules Ayer (October 29, 1910 - June 27, 1989), better known as simply A. J. Ayer (and called Freddie by friends), was a British philosopher. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Otto Weininger (April 3, 1880 – October 4, 1903) was an Austrian philosopher. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Kant may refer to: Immanuel Kant, philosopher Eva Kant, fictional character from comics. ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800 in the Gregorian calendar. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Anthem Preußenlied, Heil dir im Siegerkranz (both unofficial) The Kingdom of Prussia at its greatest extent, at the time of the formation of the German Empire, 1871 Capital Berlin Government Monarchy King  - 1701 — 1713 Frederick I (first)  - 1888 — 1918 William II (last) Prime minister  - 1848 Adolf Heinrich von Arnim... Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... Kaliningrad (Russian: ; Lithuanian: Karaliaučius; German  , Polish: Królewiec; briefly Russified as Kyonigsberg), is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; Italian: ; German: ; Spanish: ; Swedish: ) was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. ... For other uses, see Aristotle (disambiguation). ...

Biography

Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Königsberg, as the fourth of eleven children (five of them reached adulthood). He was baptized as 'Emanuel' but later changed his name to 'Immanuel'^[1] after he learned Hebrew. He spent his entire life in and around his hometown, the capital of East Prussia at that time, never traveling more than a hundred miles from Königsberg.^[2] His father Johann Georg Kant (1682–1746) was a German craftsman from Memel, at the time Prussia's most northeastern city (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). His mother Anna Regina Porter (1697–1737), born in Nuremberg, was the daughter of a Scottish saddle and harness maker. In his youth, Kant was a solid, albeit unspectacular, student. He was raised in a Pietist household that stressed intense religious devotion, personal humility, and a literal interpretation of the Bible. Consequently, Kant received a stern education — strict, punitive, and disciplinary — that favored Latin and religious instruction over mathematics and science.^[3] Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... For other uses, see Prussia (disambiguation). ... Location Ethnographic region Lithuania minor County KlaipÄ—da County Municipality Geographic coordinate system Number of elderates 1 General Information Capital of KlaipÄ—da County KlaipÄ—da city municipality Population 187,316 in 2006 (3rd) First mentioned 1252 Granted city rights 1254 or 1258 (Lübeck); 1475 (Kulm) KlaipÄ—da ( (help... Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late-17th century to the mid-18th century. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ...

The Young Scholar

Kant showed great application to study early in his life. He was first sent to Collegium Fredericianum and then enrolled in the University of Königsberg in 1740, at the age of 16.^[4] He studied the philosophy of Leibniz and Wolff under Martin Knutsen, a rationalist who was also familiar with the developments of British philosophy and science and who introduced Kant to the new mathematical physics of Newton. Knutsen warded Kant off the theory of preset harmony, regarded as "the pillow for the lazy mind". He also warded the young scholar off idealism, negatively regarded by the whole philosophy of the 18-th century, and even after the creation of the theory of transcendental idealism Kant refuted idealism in the second part of his major work, "Critique of Pure Reason". His father's stroke and subsequent death in 1746 interrupted his studies. Kant became a private tutor in the smaller towns surrounding Königsberg, but continued his scholarly research. 1749 saw the publication of his first philosophical work, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces. Kant published several more works on scientific topics, becoming a university lecturer in 1755. The subject he lectured was "Metaphysics", and he had been lecturing it for almost 40 years, even after his break-off with metaphysics. The textbook for the course was written by A.G. Baumgarten, the author of the term "aesthetics" in its modern meaning. The inscription upon Kants tomb in Kaliningrad. ... Leibniz redirects here. ... Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf; also known as Wolfius) (January 24, 1679 - April 9, 1754) was a German philosopher. ... In epistemology and in its broadest sense, rationalism is any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification (Lacey 286). ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte) is Immanuel Kants first published work. ...

In the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte (1755), Kant laid out the Nebular Hypothesis, in which he deduced that the Solar System formed from a large cloud of gas, a nebula. He thus attempted to explain the order of the solar system, seen previously by Newton as being imposed from the beginning by God. Kant also correctly deduced that the Milky Way was a large disk of stars, which he theorized also formed from a (much larger) spinning cloud of gas. He further suggested the possibility that other nebulae might also be similarly large and distant disks of stars. These postulations opened new horizons for astronomy: for the first time extending astronomy beyond the solar system to galactic and extragalactic realms.^{[citation needed]} A planetary disk forming in the Orion Nebula In this artists conception, of a planet spins through a clearing in a nearby stars dusty, planet-forming disc In cosmogony, the nebular hypothesis is the currently accepted argument about how Earths Solar System formed. ... For other uses, see Newton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Milky Way (disambiguation). ...

From this point on, Kant turned increasingly to philosophical issues, although he would continue to write on the sciences throughout his life. In the early 1760s, Kant produced a series of important works in philosophy. The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures, a work in logic, was published in 1762. Two more works appeared the following year: Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy and The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God. In 1764, Kant wrote Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and then was second to Moses Mendelssohn in a Berlin Academy prize competition with his Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality (often referred to as "the Prize Essay"). In 1770, at the age of 45, Kant was finally appointed Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Königsberg. Kant wrote his Inaugural Dissertation in defense of this appointment. This work saw the emergence of several central themes of his mature work, including the distinction between the faculties of intellectual thought and sensible receptivity. Not to observe this distinction would mean to commit the error of subreption, and, as he says in the last chapter of the dissertation, only in avoidance of this error metaphysics will flourish. The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures Proved (Die falsche Spitzfindigkeit der vier syllogistischen Figuren erwiesen) was an essay published by Immanuel Kant in 1762. ... The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God is a book by Immanuel Kant, published in 1763. ... Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen) is a 1764 book by Immanuel Kant. ... Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohns glasses, in the Berlin Jewish Museum Moses Mendelssohn (Dessau, September 6, 1729 – January 4, 1786 in Berlin) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, (the Jewish enlightenment) is indebted. ...

The Silent Decade

At the age of 46, Kant was an established scholar and an increasingly influential philosopher. Much was expected of him. In response to a letter from his student, Markus Herz, Kant came to recognize that in the Inaugural Dissertation, he had failed to account for the relation and connection between our sensible and intellectual faculties. He also credited David Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumber" (circa 1770). Kant would not publish another work in philosophy for the next eleven years. Marcus (Markus) Herz (January 17, 1747, Berlin - January 19, 1803, Berlin) was a German physician and lecturer on philosophy. ... This article is about the philosopher. ...

Immanuel Kant

Kant spent his silent decade working on a solution to the problems posed. Though fond of company and conversation with others, Kant isolated himself, despite friends' attempts to bring him out of his isolation. In 1778, in response to one of these offers by a former pupil, Kant wrote "Any change makes me apprehensive, even if it offers the greatest promise of improving my condition, and I am persuaded by this natural instinct of mine that I must take heed if I wish that the threads which the Fates spin so thin and weak in my case to be spun to any length. My great thanks, to my well-wishers and friends, who think so kindly of me as to undertake my welfare, but at the same time a most humble request to protect me in my current condition from any disturbance."^[5]

When Kant emerged from his silence in 1781, the result was the Critique of Pure Reason. Although now uniformly recognized as one of the greatest works in the history of philosophy, this Critique was largely ignored upon its initial publication. The book was long, over 800 pages in the original German edition, and written in a dry, scholastic style. It received few reviews, and these granted no significance to the work. Its density made it, as Johann Gottfried Herder put it in a letter to Johann Georg Hamann, a "tough nut to crack," obscured by "…all this heavy gossamer."^[6] This is in stark contrast, however, to the praise Kant received for earlier works such as the aforementioned "Prize Essay" and other shorter works that precede the first Critique. These well-received and readable tracts include one on the earthquake in Lisbon which was so popular that it was sold by the page.^[7] Prior to the critical turn, his books sold well, and by the time he published Observations On the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime in 1764 he had become a popular author of some note.^[8] Kant was disappointed with the first Critique's reception. Recognizing the need to clarify the original treatise, Kant wrote the Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics in 1783 as a summary of its main views. He also encouraged his friend, Johann Schultz, to publish a brief commentary on the Critique of Pure Reason. Title page of the 1781 edition. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Johann Georg Hamann Johann Georg Hamann (August 27, 1730 - June 21, 1788) was an important philosopher of the German (Counter-)Enlightenment and Sturm und Drang movement. ... This 1755 copper engraving shows the ruins of Lisbon in flames and a tsunami overwhelming the ships in the harbor. ... The Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics is one of the shorter works by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. ... Johann Heinrich Schultz is credited with the discovery that certain silver salts, most notably silver chloride and silver nitrate, darken in the presence of light. ...

Kant's reputation gradually rose through the 1780s, sparked by a series of important works: the 1784 essay, "Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?"; 1785's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (his first work on moral philosophy); and, from 1786, Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. But Kant's fame ultimately arrived from an unexpected source. In 1786, Karl Reinhold began to publish a series of public letters on the Kantian philosophy. In these letters, Reinhold framed Kant's philosophy as a response to the central intellectual controversy of the era: the Pantheism Dispute. Friedrich Jacobi had accused the recently deceased G. E. Lessing (a distinguished dramatist and philosophical essayist) of Spinozism. Such a charge, tantamount to atheism, was vigorously denied by Lessing's friend Moses Mendelssohn, and a bitter public dispute arose between them. The controversy gradually escalated into a general debate over the values of the Enlightenment and of reason itself. Reinhold maintained in his letters that Kant's Critique of Pure Reason could settle this dispute by defending the authority and bounds of reason. Reinhold's letters were widely read and made Kant the most famous philosopher of his era. The first page of the 1799 version Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment? (German: Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?) is the title of a 1784 essay by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, 1785) is a work by Immanuel Kant meant to establish the fundamental rational and a priori basis for morality. ... Immanuel Kants Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), in German Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft. ... Karl Leonhard Reinhold (October 26, 1757 - April 10, 1823) was an Austrian philosopher. ... Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (January 25, 1743 - March 10, 1819), was a German philosopher who made his mark on philosophy by coining the term nihilism and promoting it as the prime fault of Enlightenment thought and Kantianism. ... Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781), writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic, was one of the most outstanding German representatives of the Enlightenment era. ... Spinozism is the pantheistic philosophical system of Benedict de Spinoza, which defines God as a singular self-subsistent substance, and both matter and thought attributes of such. ... Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohns glasses, in the Berlin Jewish Museum Moses Mendelssohn (Dessau, September 6, 1729 – January 4, 1786 in Berlin) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, (the Jewish enlightenment) is indebted. ... Title page of the 1781 edition. ...

Kant's later work

Kant published a second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft) in 1787, heavily revising the first parts of the book. Most of his subsequent work focused on other areas of philosophy. He continued to develop his moral philosophy, notably in 1788's Critique of Practical Reason (known as the second Critique) and 1797’s Metaphysics of Morals. The 1790 Critique of Judgment (the third Critique) applied the Kantian system to aesthetics and teleology. He also wrote a number of semi-popular essays on history, religion, politics and other topics. These works were well received by Kant's contemporaries and confirmed his preeminent status in eighteenth century philosophy. There were several journals devoted solely to defending and criticizing the Kantian philosophy. But despite his success, philosophical trends were moving in another direction. Many of Kant's most important disciples (including Reinhold, Beck and Fichte) transformed the Kantian position into increasingly radical forms of idealism. This marked the emergence of German Idealism. Kant opposed these developments and publicly denounced Fichte in an open letter^[9] in 1799. It was one of his final philosophical acts. Kant's health, long poor, took a turn for the worse and he died at Konigsberg on 12 February 1804 uttering "Genug" [enough] before expiring.^[10] His unfinished final work, the fragmentary Opus Postumum, was (as its title suggests) published posthumously. Title page of the 1781 edition. ... cover of 1898 English edition of the Critique of Practical Reason The Critique of Practical Reason (Kritik der praktischen Vernunft) is the second of Immanuel Kants three critiques, first published in 1788. ... 1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Metaphysics of Morals (Die Metaphysik der Sitten, 1797) is a major work of moral philosophy by Immanuel Kant. ... The Critique of Judgement (Kritik der Urteilskraft, 1790), also known as the third critique, is a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant. ... Teleology (Greek: telos: end, purpose) is the philosophical study of design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in nature or human creations. ... Karl Leonhard Reinhold (October 26, 1757 - April 10, 1823) was in Austrian philosopher. ... Jakob Sigismund Beck (1761-1840), German philosopher, was born at Danzig in 1761. ... Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (May 19, 1762 - January 27, 1814) has significance in the history of Western philosophy as one of the progenitors of German idealism and as a follower of Kant. ... German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ...

A variety of popular beliefs have arisen concerning Kant's life. It is often held, for instance, that Kant was a late bloomer, that he only became an important philosopher in his mid-50s after rejecting his earlier views. While it is true that Kant wrote his greatest works relatively late in life, there is a tendency to underestimate the value of his earlier works. Recent Kant scholarship has devoted more attention to these "pre-critical" writings and has recognized a degree of continuity with his mature work.^{[citations needed]}

Many of the common myths concerning Kant's personal mannerisms are enumerated, explained, and refuted in Goldwaite's translator's introduction to Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime.^[11] It is often held that Kant lived a very strict and predictable life, leading to the oft-repeated story that neighbors would set their clocks by his daily walks.^[12] Again, this is only partly true. While still young, Kant was a very gregarious socialite and he remained fond of dinner parties through most of his life. He got up at 5 am, and after the cup of tea and the pipe of tobacco had started to work till 9.00 am. Since 9 till 11 he had been lecturing. At 1 pm his servant called him for dinner, which Kant preferred to hold with his friends. Long talks on political issues often continued till evening. He also enjoyed to visit his friends. In the evenings he enjoyed to walk and look over the domes of the cathedrals. Kant's poetry was much admired, and handwritten manuscripts circulated among his friends and associates. He never married. Only later in his life, under the influence of his friend, the English merchant Joseph Green, did Kant adopt a more regulated lifestyle.^[13] Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen) is a 1764 book by Immanuel Kant. ...

Among the most serious problems for him were the problems of flats, neighbours of his flats. He was quite unlucky with them. One of his neighbours, for example, had the cock, which started to crow just during the work of the philosopher. Kant asked the neighbour to slay the cock, but was absolutely unsuccessful and was to change the flat in 1777.

Kant's philosophy

Kant defined the Enlightenment in the essay "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?" as an age shaped by the motto, "Dare to know" (Latin: Sapere aude). This involved thinking autonomously, free of the dictates of external authority. Kant's work reconciled many of the differences between the Rationalist and Empiricist traditions of the 18th century. He had a decisive impact on the Romantic and German Idealist philosophies of the 19th century. His work has also been a starting point for many 20th century philosophers. The first page of the 1799 version Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment? (German: Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?) is the title of a 1784 essay by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. ... This article is about authority as a concept. ... In epistemology and in its broadest sense, rationalism is any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification (Lacey 286). ... In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience, especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas. ... Romantics redirects here. ... German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ...

Kant asserted that, because of the limitations of reason, no one could really know if there is a God and an afterlife, and conversely that no one could really know that there was not a God and an afterlife. For the sake of society and morality, Kant asserted, people are reasonably justified in believing in them, even though they could never know for sure whether they are real or not. Kant explained:

The sense of an enlightened approach and the critical method required that "If one cannot prove that a thing is, he may try to prove that it is not. And if he succeeds in doing neither (as often occurs), he may still ask whether it is in his interest to accept one or the other of the alternatives hypothetically, from the theoretical or the practical point of view. …Hence the question no longer is as to whether perpetual peace is a real thing or not a real thing, or as to whether we may not be deceiving ourselves when we adopt the former alternative, but we must act on the supposition of its being real."^[15] The presupposition of God, soul, and freedom was then a practical concern, for "Morality, by itself, constitutes a system, but happiness does not, unless it is distributed in exact proportion to morality. This, however, is possible in an intelligible world only under a wise author and ruler. Reason compels us to admit such a ruler, together with life in such a world, which we must consider as future life, or else all moral laws are to be considered as idle dreams… ."^[16] The world is, in a philosophical sense, everything that is seen and percieved by human intellect and human senses, even though some branches of philosophy may refer to different worlds, making a reference to the different realms of philosophy (such as the mathematical world, the intelligible world, the world of... Perpetual Peace is one of Immanuel Kants political writings that outline what is needed for prevention of furure wars and injustices. ...

The two interconnected foundations of what Kant called his "critical philosophy" of the "Copernican revolution" which he claimed to have wrought in philosophy were his epistemology of Transcendental Idealism and his moral philosophy of the autonomy of practical reason. These placed the active, rational human subject at the center of the cognitive and moral worlds. With regard to knowledge, Kant argued that the rational order of the world as known by science could never be accounted for merely by the fortuitous accumulation of sense perceptions. It was instead the product of the rule-based activity of "synthesis." This consisted of conceptual unification and integration carried out by the mind through concepts or the "categories of the understanding" operating on the perceptual manifold within space and time, which are not concepts,^[17] but forms of sensibility that are a priori necessary conditions for any possible experience. Thus the objective order of nature and the causal necessity that operates within it are dependent upon the mind. There is wide disagreement among Kant scholars on the correct interpretation of this train of thought. The 'two-world' interpretation regards Kant's position as a statement of epistemological limitation, that we are never able to transcend the bounds of our own mind, meaning that we cannot access the "thing-in-itself". Kant however also speaks of the thing in itself or transcendental object as a product of the (human) understanding as it attempts to conceive of objects in abstraction from the conditions of sensibility. Following this thought, some interpreters have argued that the thing in itself does not represent a separate ontological domain but simply a way of considering objects by means of the understanding alone — this is known as the two-aspect view. With regard to morality, Kant argued that the source of the good lies not in anything outside the human subject, either in nature or given by God, but rather only the good will itself. A good will is one that acts from duty in accordance with the universal moral law that the autonomous human being freely gives itself. This law obliges one to treat humanity — understood as rational agency, and represented through oneself as well as others — as an end in itself rather than (merely) as means. Attributed to Immanuel Kant, the critical philosophy movement sees the primary task of philosophy as criticism rather than justification of knowledge; criticism, for Kant, meant judging as to the possibilities of knowledge before advancing to knowledge itself (from the Greek kritike (techne), or art of judgment). The initial, and perhaps... The Copernican principle is the philosophical statement that no special observers should be proposed. ... Theory of knowledge redirects here: for other uses, see theory of knowledge (disambiguation) According to Plato, knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief. ... Transcendental idealism is a doctrine founded by 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ... Subject (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... A concept is an abstract, universal psychical entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events or relations. ... In special relativity and general relativity, time and three-dimensional space are treated together as a single four-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold called spacetime. ... The terms a priori and a posteriori are used in philosophy to distinguish between two different types of propositional knowledge. ... In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a noumenon or thing in itself (German Ding an sich) is an unknowable, undescribable reality that, in some way, lies behind observed phenomena. ... Morality (from the Latin manner, character, proper behavior) has three principal meanings. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article is about modern humans. ... This article is about the physical universe. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

These ideas have largely framed or influenced all subsequent philosophical discussion and analysis. The specifics of Kant's account generated immediate and lasting controversy. Nevertheless, his theses -- that the mind itself necessarily makes a constitutive contribution to its knowledge, that this contribution is transcendental rather than psychological, that philosophy involves self-critical activity, that morality is rooted in human freedom, and that to act autonomously is to act according to rational moral principles -- have all had a lasting effect on subsequent philosophy. For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Knowledge (disambiguation). ...

Kant's theory of perception

Main articles: The Critique of Pure Reason and Transcendental Doctrine of Elements

Kant defines his theory of perception in his influential 1781 work The Critique of Pure Reason, which has often been cited as the most significant volume of metaphysics and epistemology in modern philosophy. Kant maintains that our understanding of the external world has its foundations not merely in experience, but in both experience and a priori concepts – thus offering a non-empiricist critique of rationalist philosophy, which is what he and others referred to as his "Copernican revolution."^[18] The Critique of Pure Reason is widely regarded as the philosopher Immanuel Kants major work, first published in 1781, with a second edition in 1787. ... The Critique of Pure Reason is widely regarded as the philosopher Immanuel Kants major work, first published in 1781, with a second edition in 1787. ... The terms a priori and a posteriori are used in philosophy to distinguish between two different types of propositional knowledge. ... A concept is an abstract, universal psychical entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events or relations. ...

Before discussing his theory, it is necessary to explain Kant's distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions.

1. Analytic proposition: a proposition whose predicate concept is contained in its subject concept; e.g., "All bachelors are unmarried," or, "All bodies take up space."
2. Synthetic proposition: a proposition whose predicate concept is not contained in its subject concept ; e.g., "All bachelors are happy," or, "All bodies have mass."

Analytic propositions are true by nature of the meaning of the words involved in the sentence - we require no further knowledge than a grasp of the language to understand this proposition. On the other hand, synthetic statements are those that tell us something about the world. Synthetic statements are true or false because their meaning transcends the content of the language used. In this instance, mass is not a necessary predicate to the body; until we are told the heaviness of the body we do not know that it has mass. In this case, experience of the body is required before its heaviness becomes clear. Before Kant's first Critique, empiricists (cf. Hume) and rationalists (cf. Leibniz) assumed that all synthetic statements required experience in order to be known. In traditional grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies). ... Hume is the name of several people: Most likely it refers to: David Hume, (1711-76) 18th-century Scottish philosopher It can also refer to: Alexander Hamilton Hume (1797-1873) Australian explorer Allan Octavian Hume, English ornithologist Basil Cardinal Hume, former Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Brit Hume, journalist best known... Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (July 1, 1646 in Leipzig - November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ...

For more details on this topic, see Analytic-synthetic distinction.

Kant, however, contests this: he claims that elementary mathematics, like arithmetic, is synthetic a priori. Here Kant includes a priori and a posteriori concepts into his argument, and posits that it is in fact possible to have knowledge of the world that is not derived from empirical experience. Thus does Kant develop his arguments for transcendental idealism. He justifies this by arguing that experience depends on certain necessary conditions - which he calls a priori forms - and that these conditions hold true for the world. In so doing, his main claims in the " Transcendental Aesthetic" are that mathematic judgments are synthetic a priori and in addition, Space and Time are transcendentally ideal and at the same time are necessary conditions for experience. Th analytic-synthetic distinction (or dichotomy) is a conceptual distinction, used primarily in philosophy to distinguish propositions into two types: analytic propositions and synthetic propositions. ... A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. ... Transcendental idealism is a doctrine founded by 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. ... This article discusses only the formal meanings of necessary and sufficient causal meanings see causation. ... The Critique of Pure Reason is widely regarded as the philosopher Immanuel Kants major work, first published in 1781, with a second edition in 1787. ... This article is about the idea of space. ... Look up time in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

For more details on this topic, see A priori and a posteriori (philosophy).

This is quite naturally confusing, yet Kant's idea is that since his first claim — about mathematic judgments — is true, then it will follow that his claims about space and time are true as well. The next paragraph deals with the notion of mathematic judgments being synthetic a priori, skip to the paragraph afterward to read more about perception and Kant. The terms a priori and a posteriori are used in philosophy to distinguish between two different types of propositional knowledge. ...

Once we have grasped the concepts of addition, subtraction or the functions of basic arithmetic, we do not need any empirical experience to know that 100 + 100 = 200, and in this way it would appear that arithmetic is in fact analytic. However, that it is analytic can be disproved thus: if the numbers five and seven in the calculation 5 + 7 = 12 are examined, there is nothing to be found in them by which the number 12 can be inferred. Such it is that "5 + 7" and "the cube root of 1,728" or "12" are not analytic because their reference is the same but their sense is not - meaning that the mathematic judgment "5 + 7 = 12" tells us something new about the world. It is self-evident, and undeniably a priori, but at the same time it is synthetic. And so Kant proves a proposition can be synthetic and known a priori.

For more details on this topic, see Sense and Reference.

Kant asserts that perception is based both upon experience of external objects and a priori knowledge. The external world, he writes, provides those things which we sense. It is our mind, though, that processes this information about the world and gives it order, allowing us to comprehend it. Our mind supplies the conditions of space and time to experienced objects. According to the "transcendental unity of apperception", the concepts of the mind (Understanding) and the intuitions which garner information from phenomena (Sensibility) are synthesized by comprehension. Without the concepts, intuitions are nondescript; without the intuitions, concepts are meaningless — thus the famous quotation, "Intuitions without concepts are blind; concepts without intuitions are empty."^[19] The distinction between Sinn and Bedeutung (usually but not always translated sense and reference, respectively) was an innovation of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege in his 1892 paper Ãœber Sinn und Bedeutung (On Sense and Reference), which is still widely read today. ...

Kant’s Categories of the Understanding

See also: Category (Kant)

Immanuel Kant deemed it obvious that we have some objective knowledge of the world, such as, say, Newtonian physics. But this knowledge relies on synthetic a priori laws of nature, like causality and substance. The problem, then, is how this is possible. Kant’s solution was to reason that the subject must supply laws that make experience of objects possible, and that these laws are the synthetic a priori laws of nature which we can know all objects are subject to prior to experiencing them. So to deduce all these laws, Kant examined experience in general, dissecting in it what is supplied by the mind from what is supplied by the given intuitions. This which has just been explicated is commonly called a transcendental reduction.^[20] In Kants philosophy, a category is a pure concept of the understanding. ...

To begin with, Kant’s distinction between the a posteriori being contingent and particular knowledge, and the a priori being universal and necessary knowledge, must be kept in mind. For if we merely connect two intuitions together in a perceiving subject, the knowledge will always be subjective because it is derived a posteriori, when what is desired is for the knowledge to be objective, that is, for the two intuitions to refer to the object and hold good of it necessarily universally for anyone at anytime, not just the perceiving subject in its current condition. Now what is equivalent to objective knowledge but the a priori, that is to say, universal and necessary knowledge? Nothing, and hence before knowledge can be objective, it must be incorporated under an a priori category of the understanding. ^[20][21]

For example, say a subject says “the sun shines on the stone, the stone grows warm”, which is all he perceives in perception. His judgment is contingent and holds no necessity. But if he says “the sunshine causes the stone to warm”, he subsumes the perception under the category of causality, which is not found in the perception, and necessarily synthesizes the concept sunshine with the concept heat, producing a necessarily universally true judgment.^[20]

To explain the categories in more detail, they are the preconditions of the construction of objects in the mind. Indeed, to even think of the sun and stone presupposes the category of subsistence, that is, substance. For the categories synthesize the random data of the sensory manifold into intelligible objects. This means that the categories are also the most abstract things one can say of any object whatsoever, and hence one can have an a priori cognition of the totality of all objects of experience if one can list all of them. To do this, Kant formulates another transcendental reduction.^[20]

Judgments are for Kant the preconditions of any thought. Man thinks via judgments, so all possible judgments must be listed and the perceptions connected within them put aside, so the moments the understanding is involved in constructing judgments can be examined. For the categories are equivalent to these moments, in that they are concepts of intuitions in general, so far as they are determined by these moments universally and necessarily. Thus by listing all the moments, one can deduce from them all of the categories.^[20]

One may now ask: how many possible judgments are there? Kant believed that all the possible propositions within Aristotle’s syllogistic logic are equivalent to all possible judgments, and that all the logical operators within the propositions are equivalent to the moments of the understanding within judgments. Thus he listed Aristotle’s system in four groups of three: quantity (universal, particular, singular), quality (affirmative, negative, infinite), relation (categorical, hypothetical, disjunctive) and modality (problematic, assertoric, apodeictic). The parallelism with Kant’s categories is obvious: quantity (unity, plurality, totality), quality (reality, negation, limitation), relation (substance, cause, community) and modality (possibility, existence, necessity).^[20]

The fundamental building blocks of experience, i.e. objective knowledge, are now in place. First there is the sensibility, which supplies the mind with intuitions, and then there is the understanding, which produces judgments of these intuitions and can subsume them under categories. These categories lift the intuitions up out of the subject’s current state of consciousness and place them within consciousness in general, producing universally necessary knowledge. For the categories are innate in any rational being, so any intuition thought within a category in one mind will necessarily be subsumed and understood identically in any mind.^[20]

Kant’s Schema

See also: Schema (Kant)

Kant ran into a problem with his theory that the mind plays a part in producing objective knowledge. Intuitions and categories are entirely disparate, so how can they interact? Kant’s solution is the schema: a priori principles by which the transcendental imagination connects concepts with intuitions through time. All the principles are temporally bound, for if a concept is purely a priori, as the categories are, then they must apply for all times. Hence there are principles such as substance is that which endures through time, and the cause must always be prior to the effect.^[20][22] In Kantian philosophy, a schema (plural: schemata) is the reference of a category or pure, non-empirical concept to an empirical sense impression . ...

Moral philosophy

Immanuel Kant

Kant developed his moral philosophy in three works: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785),^[23] Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and Metaphysics of Morals (1797) . Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (550x730, 196 KB) Immanuel Kant Source - University of Texas Library Original source - Hundred Greatest Men, The. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (550x730, 196 KB) Immanuel Kant Source - University of Texas Library Original source - Hundred Greatest Men, The. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... cover of 1898 English edition of the Critique of Practical Reason The Critique of Practical Reason (Kritik der praktischen Vernunft) is the second of Immanuel Kants three critiques, first published in 1788. ... The Metaphysics of Morals (Die Metaphysik der Sitten, 1797) is a major work of moral philosophy by Immanuel Kant. ...

In the Groundwork, Kant's method involves trying to convert our everyday, obvious, rational^[24] knowledge of morality into philosophical knowledge. The latter two works followed a method of using "practical reason", which is based only upon things about which reason can tell us, and not deriving any principles from experience, to reach conclusions which are able to be applied to the world of experience (in the second part of The Metaphysic of Morals).

Kant is known for his theory that there is a single moral obligation, which he called the "Categorical Imperative", and is derived from the concept of duty. Kant defines the demands of the moral law as "categorical imperatives." Categorical imperatives are principles that are intrinsically valid; they are good in and of themselves; they must be obeyed in all situations and circumstances if our behavior is to observe the moral law. It is from the Categorical Imperative that all other moral obligations are generated, and by which all moral obligations can be tested. Kant also stated that the moral means and ends can be applied to the categorical imperative, that rational beings can pursue certain "ends" using the appropriate "means." Ends that are based on physical needs or wants will always give for merely hypothetical imperatives. The categorical imperative, however, may be based only on something that is an "end in itself". That is, an end that is a means only to itself and not to some other need, desire, or purpose.^[25] He believed that the moral law is a principle of reason itself, and is not based on contingent facts about the world, such as what would make us happy, but to act upon the moral law which has no other motive than "worthiness of being happy"^[26]. Accordingly, he believed that moral obligation applies to all and only rational agents.^[27] The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and of modern deontological ethics. ... Duty is a term loosely appliedDuty to any action (or course of action) whichDutyDuty is regarded as morally incumbent, apart from personal likes and dislikes or any external compulsion. ... For other uses, see Reason (disambiguation). ...

A categorical imperative is an unconditional obligation; that is, it has the force of an obligation regardless of our will or desires (Contrast this with hypothetical imperative)^[28] In Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785) Kant enumerated three formulations of the categorical imperative which he believed to be roughly equivalent^[29]: A hypothetical imperative, originally introduced in the philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant, is a commandment of reason that applies only conditionally: if A, then B, where A is a condition or goal, and B is an action. ...

Kant believed that if an action is not done with the motive of duty, then it is without moral value. He thought that every action should have pure intention behind it; otherwise it was meaningless. He didn't necessarily believe that the final result was the most important aspect of an action, but that how the person felt while carrying out the action was the time at which value was set to the result.

In Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, Kant also posited the "counter-utilitarian idea that there is a difference between preferences and values and that considerations of individual rights temper calculations of aggregate utility", a concept that is an axiom in economics: ^[30] Utilitarianism is a suggested theoretical framework for morality, law and politics, based on quantitative maximisation of some definition of utility for society or humanity. ...

"Everything has either a price or a dignity. Whatever has a price can be replaced by something else as its equivalent; on the other hand, whatever is above all price, and therefore admits of no equivalent, has a dignity. But that which constitutes the condition under which alone something can be an end in itself does not have mere relative worth, i.e., price, but an intrinsic worth, i.e., a dignity." (p. 53, italics in original).

The first formulation

The first formulation (Formula of Universal Law) of the moral imperative "requires that the maxims be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature" (436).^[29] This formulation in principle has as its supreme law "Always act according to that maxim whose universality as a law you can at the same time will", and is the "only condition under which a will can never come into conflict with itself…"^[31] This page is under modification. ...

One interpretation of the first formulation is called the "universalizability test."^[32] An agent's maxim, according to Kant, is his "subjective principle of human actions" — that is, what the agent believes is his reason to act.^[33] The universalizability test has five steps:

1. Find the agent's maxim. The maxim is an action paired with its motivation. Example: "I will lie for personal benefit." Lying is the action, the motivation is to get what you desire. Paired together they form the maxim.
2. Imagine a possible world in which everyone in a similar position to the real-world agent followed that maxim.
3. Decide whether any contradictions or irrationalities arise in the possible world as a result of following the maxim.
4. If a contradiction or irrationality arises, acting on that maxim is not allowed in the real world.
5. If there is no contradiction, then acting on that maxim is permissible, and in some instances required.

(For a modern parallel, see John Rawls' hypothetical situation, the original position.) John Rawls (February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American philosopher, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, and The Law of Peoples. ... The original position is a hypothetical situation created by American philosopher John Rawls as a thought experiment to replace the imagery of a savage state of nature of prior political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes. ...

The second formulation

The second formulation (Formula of the End in Itself) says that "the rational being, as by its nature an end and thus as an end in itself, must serve in every maxim as the condition restricting all merely relative and arbitrary ends."^[29] The principle is "Act with reference to every rational being (whether yourself or another) so that it is an end in itself in your maxim…", meaning the rational being is "the basis of all maxims of action" and "must be treated never as a mere means but as the supreme limiting condition in the use of all means, i.e., as an end at the same time."^[34]

The third formulation

The third formulation (Formula of Autonomy) is a synthesis of the first two and is the basis for the "complete determination of all maxims". It says "that all maxims which stem from autonomous legislation ought to harmonize with a possible realm of ends as with a realm of nature."^[29] In principle, "So act as if your maxims should serve at the same time as the universal law (of all rational beings)", meaning that we should so act that we may think of ourselves as "a member in the universal realm of ends", legislating universal laws through our maxims, in a "possible realm of ends."^[35] (See also Kingdom of Ends) A legislature is a governmental deliberative assembly with the power to adopt laws. ... The Kingdom of Ends is a thought experiment in the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. ...

Idea of God

Kant stated the practical necessity for a belief in God in his Critique of Pure Reason. As an idea of pure reason, "we do not have the slightest ground to assume in an absolute manner… the object of this idea…"^[36], but adds that the idea of God cannot be separated from the relation of happiness with morality as the "ideal of the supreme good." The foundation of this connection is an intelligible moral world, and "is necessary from the practical point of view"^[37]. Later, in the Logic, § 3 (1800) he argued that the idea of God can only be proved through the moral law and only with practical intent, that is, "the intent so as to act as if there be a God" (trans. Hartmann and Schwartz). See Argument from morality for more details. Title page of the 1781 edition. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Idea of freedom

In the Critique of Pure Reason^[38] Kant distinguishes between the transcendental idea of freedom, which as a psychological concept is "mainly empirical" and refers to "the question whether we must admit a power of spontaneously beginning a series of successive things or states" as a real ground of necessity in regard to causality^[39], and the practical concept of freedom as the independence of our will from the "coercion" or "necessitation through sensuous impulses." Kant finds it a source of difficulty that the practical concept of freedom is founded on the transcendental idea of freedom^[40], but for the sake of practical interests uses the practical meaning, taking "no account of… its transcendental meaning", which he feels was properly "disposed of" in the Third Antinomy, and as an element in the question of the freedom of the will is for philosophy "a real stumbling-block" that has "embarrassed speculative reason"^[39].

Kant calls practical "everything that is possible through freedom", and the pure practical laws that are never given through sensuous conditions but are held analogously with the universal law of causality are moral laws. Reason can give us only the "pragmatic laws of free action through the senses", but pure practical laws given by reason a priori^[41] dictate "what ought to be done"^[42][43].