Summary of Immanuel Kants Life Essay - 1100 Words

Summary of Immanuel Kants Life Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) spent all of his life in Kà ¶nigsberg, a small German town on the Baltic Sea in East Prussia. (After World War II, Germanys border was pushed west, so Kà ¶nigsberg is now called Kaliningrad and is part of Russia.) At the age of fifty-five, Kant appeared to be a washout. He had taught at Kà ¶nigsberg University for over twenty years, yet had not published any works of significance. During the last twenty-five years of his life, however, Kant left a mark on the history of philosophy that is rivaled only by such towering giants as Plato and Aristotle. Kants three major works are often considered to be the starting points for different branches of modern†¦show more content†¦The central metaphor of the Enlightenment was a notion of the light of reason dispelling the darkness of mythology and misunderstanding. Enlightenment thinkers like Kant felt that history had placed them in the unique position of being able to provide clear reasons and arguments for their beliefs. The ideas of earlier generations, they thought, had been determined by myths and traditions; their own ideas were based on reason. (According to this way of thinking, the French monarchys claims to power were based on tradition; reason prescribed a republican government like that created by the revolution.) Kants philosophical goal was to use logical analysis to understand reason itself. Before we go about analyzing our world, Kant argued, we must understand the mental tools we will be using. In the Critique of Pure Reason Kant set about developing a comprehensive picture of how our mind--our reason-- receives and processes information. Kant later said that the great Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-76) had inspired him to undertake this project. Hume, Kant said, awoke him from an intellectual slumber. The idea that so inspired Kant was Humes analysis of cause-and-effect relationships. When we talk about events in the world, Hume noted, we say that one thing causes another. But nothing in our perceptions tells us that anything causes anything else. All we knowShow MoreRelatedThe Comparable And Contrastable Philosophies Of Kierkegaard And Kant Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesThe Comparable and Contrastable Philosophies of Kierkegaard and Kant In this paper, I will investigate the comparable and contrasting views of Soren Kierkegaard and Immanuel Kant. Their extraordinary journeys towards the meaning of morality and ethics is riveting, spiritual, universal, and in many ways, incredibly different. 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