David Halberstam
American writer, journalist, historian
Immanuel Kant
German philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
Immanuel Kant was a prominent German philosopher who made significant contributions to various fields, including epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. His comprehensive and systematic works have greatly influenced modern Western philosophy, earning him the titles of “father of modern ethics,” “father of modern aesthetics,” and “father of modern philosophy.”
Table of Contents
About the Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kantwas a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Konigsberg, Kant’s comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential and controversial figures in modern Western philosophy, being called the “father of modern ethics”, the “father of modern aesthetics”, and for bringing together rationalism and empiricism earned the title of “father of modern philosophy”.
In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, Kant argued that space and time are mere “forms of intuition” that structure all experience and that the objects of experience are mere “appearances”. The nature of things as they are in themselves is unknowable to us. In an attempt to counter the philosophical doctrine of skepticism, he wrote the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), his best-known work. Kant drew a parallel to the Copernican Revolution in his proposal to think of the objects of experience as conforming to our spatial and temporal forms of intuition and the categories of our understanding, so that we have a priori cognition of those objects. These claims have proved especially influential in the social sciences, particularly sociology and anthropology, which regard human activities as pre-oriented by cultural norms.
Kant believed that reason is the source of morality, and that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment. Kant’s religious views were deeply connected to his moral theory. Their exact nature remains in dispute. He hoped that perpetual peace could be secured through an international federation of republican states and international cooperation. His cosmopolitan reputation is called into question by his promulgation of scientific racism for much of his career, although he altered his views on the subject in the last decade of his life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Königsberg, which is now Kaliningrad, Russia.
Immanuel Kant’s best-known work is the Critique of Pure Reason, which he wrote in an attempt to counter philosophical skepticism. He also made significant contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.
Immanuel Kant’s theory of transcendental idealism argued that space and time are mere ,forms of intuition, that structure all experience, and that the objects of experience are mere ,appearances, rather than things as they are in themselves, which are unknowable to us.
Immanuel Kant’s claims about the nature of knowledge and experience have proved especially influential in the social sciences, particularly sociology and anthropology, which regard human activities as pre-oriented by cultural norms.
Immanuel Kant believed that reason is the source of morality, and that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment. His religious views were also deeply connected to his moral theory.
Immanuel Kant’s cosmopolitan reputation has been called into question by his promulgation of scientific racism for much of his career, although he altered his views on the subject in the last decade of his life.
Immanuel Kant hoped that perpetual peace could be secured through an international federation of republican states and international cooperation, which has had a lasting impact on political philosophy and international relations.
37 Quotes by Immanuel Kant
- 1.
So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 2.
All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 3.
It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 4.
Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 5.
Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 6.
What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 7.
Ingratitude is the essence of vileness.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 8.
But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 9.
Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 10.
He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 11.
To be is to do.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 12.
It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge that begins with experience.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 13.
From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 14.
Religion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 15.
In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 16.
May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 17.
Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 18.
All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 19.
A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 20.
Intuition and concepts constitute… the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 21.
Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 22.
Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 23.
It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 24.
Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 25.
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 26.
I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 27.
Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‘War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.’
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 28.
The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 29.
By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 30.
If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 31.
All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 32.
Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 33.
Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 34.
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 35.
Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 36.
Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment
- 37.
Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.
Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804) of the Enlightenment