Immanuel Kant: Life, Enlightenment, and Philosophical Context
Immanuel Kant: Life and Context
Context: Kant lived in Prussia during the Age of Enlightenment, of which he was a leading figure. In Germany, the Enlightenment began somewhat later and was directly influenced by France. It was fundamentally a movement driven by Frederick II’s modernization of Prussia. Legislation aimed to introduce Enlightenment ideas and reform education. The Enlightenment’s trust in reason didn’t equate to rationalism but transcended the differences between rationalism and empiricism. Kant didn’t question the source of knowledge but rather reason’s ability to process it. This capacity is critical, analytical, self-critical, secularizing, and free. Hence, true religion is rational, a form of deism. Kant was born and lived in Königsberg (1724-1804), the capital of East Prussia, and was educated in Pietism (a more tolerant variety of Protestantism that promotes individual religious experience). He maintained solid moral values throughout his life, which was very methodical, and devoted himself to teaching and writing. His liberal ideals led him to defend American independence and the French Revolution.
Context of Kant: Kant was an 18th-century thinker of the Enlightenment. Born in 1724 and died in 1804, the Enlightenment was a cultural, philosophical, political, and religious movement that shaped Kant’s work. This movement represents humanity’s efforts to emerge from the ‘minors’ in which it had lived (Sapere aude: dare to think for yourself). It was characterized by a belief in autonomous reason to clarify past obscurantism and an ideal of progress in science, exemplified by Newtonian physics. This scientific progress aimed to end human misery, both material and moral. The secularization of thought freed it from subjection to religious dogma, confining religious principles ‘within the bounds of reason.’ The movement championed human dignity as an end in itself.
The Enlightenment developed differently in each European country. In the British Isles, it followed the liberalism of Locke. In France, it was the century of Voltaire, Rousseau, enlightened despotism, the Encyclopédie, and the French Revolution. In Germany, it involved Emperor Frederick William I, Frederick the Great, and Frederick William II. The rise of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the old regime classes (aristocracy, clergy, artisans, and peasants) led to capitalist liberalism. Contractarian theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau continued to evolve. Philosophically, Kant represents the overcoming of the two preceding philosophical systems: rationalism, developed mainly on the European continent with Descartes in France and Leibniz and Wolff in Germany, and empiricism of the British Isles with Berkeley and Hume, Hobbes and Locke as well.