Immanuel Kant

Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804), German philosopher, founder of critical philosophy. Though originally influenced by the rationalism of Leibniz, Kant was awakened from his “dogmatic slumber” by the work of skeptic David Hume and thus led to greatness as a metaphysician. In Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Kant proposed that objective reality (the phenomenal world) can be known only because the mind imposes its own structure (time and space) on it. Things beyond experience (noumena) cannot be known, though we may presume to know them. The questions of the existence of God, immortality, freedom—all metaphysical questions—cannot be answered by scientific means, and thus cannot be proved or disproved. But, according to Kant in Critique of Practical Reason (1788), their existence must be presumed for the sake of morality. Kant's absolute moral law states, “Act as if the maxim from which you act were to become through your will a universal law.” In Critique of Judgment (1790), beauty and purpose form the bridge between the sensible and the intelligible worlds that he sharply divided in his first 2 Critiques. Kant's influence is extensive, particularly in Germany. G.W.F. Hegel, F.W.J. von Schelling, and J.G. Fichte, influenced by Kant, developed German idealism; Ernst Cassirer of the physical sciences and Heinrich Rickert of the historical and cultural sciences applied neo-Kantian insights to their studies. Kant influenced the theology of F.D.E. Schleiermacher, the pragmatism of U.S. philosophers William James and John Dewey, and Gestalt psychology.

See also: Metaphysics; Philosophy.