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Immanuel Kant

Introduction

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22nd, 1974 in Konigsberg, Prussia. Kant distinguished himself as a precedent setting German philosopher. His body of work in the spheres of aesthetics, ethics and epistemology persuaded immense influences in succeeding philosophy, more so, within the dimensions of 'Idealism' and 'Kantianism'. Kant is considered as the most primary scholar of the 'Enlightenment' and arguably the greatest philosophers ever. Kant incorporated preceding philosophies, including concepts of rationalism, iterated by Descartes and empiricism presented by Bacon (Bird, pp. 1). Kant's successive works brought about a new era in the progression and perception of philosophical thinking.

This paper is an attempt to discuss the philosophical works of Immanuel Kant. The paper would discuss brief history of the great philosopher. Further discussions would be presented to understand Kant's contribution in shaping the discipline of philosophy.

Discussion

Early Life

Immanuel Kant spent his entire life in a secluded province in Prussia. His father was of Scottish descend. His mother was German. Both his parents were members of the Lutheran church. Kant was the fourth of nine children of his parents'. He was the first among them to attain education. Kant's early school years helped him acquire lifelong passion for the Latin classics. At the age of 16, Kant got admitted in the University of Konigsberg. He studied in the discipline of Theology. Kant loved physics and mathematics. He was especially fascinated with the works of Sir Isaac Newton. At the age of 20, Kant started work on his book, 'Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces'. The book primarily dealt with the subjects of kinetic forces (Bird, pp. 1).

After death of his father in 1746, Kant supported himself through profession of tutoring. Through this profession he was introduced to the affluent societies of his province. Later on, Kant acquired a position of lecturer in the university. During this tenure, Kant wrote three critical dissertations. These works give an indication of Kant's future inclination towards ethics, aesthetics and philosophy. Further, an ardent student of the sciences his work extracted a lot from scientific developments of the time. Kant's earlier publications were greatly influenced by science, such as, his theories explaining the formation of the solar system. Laplace, a renowned scientist, inferred from Kant's works and formulated a theorem, now known as the Kant-Laplace hypothesis (Bird, pp. 2). Kant's other dissertations included 'The Employment in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry'. This work was a spectacular contrast of Newton's scientific works and philosophical teachings of those times, iterated by Leibniz and Baumgartner. Kant's third dissertation was titled, 'New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition'. In the work Kant analyzed the 'principle of sufficient reason' presented by Wolff. This assertion states that 'there is sufficient reason why it should be rather than not be' (Bird, pp. 2-3). During his tenure as a lecturer, Kant broadened his horizons of teaching. He expanded from discourses in physics and mathematics and onto metaphysics, logic and moral philosophy.

Critic of Leibnizian ...