Immanuel Kant: Life, Enlightenment Philosophy, and Political Thought
Immanuel Kant
Life and Historical Context
Born in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1724 to a bourgeois family, Kant died in 1804. His life was shaped by Pietism, Rationalism, Empiricism, science, physics, Newton, and the Enlightenment. The 18th century was marked by the rise of the bourgeoisie, the decline of the old classist social order, agricultural and early industrial economies, commercial and naval expansion, and crises leading to uprisings like the French Revolution (1789). Political reforms aimed to reduce the power of nobles and the church, sometimes through enlightened despotism.
Key Enlightenment Ideas
Women’s Status: Women were denied civil and political rights, considered passive citizens. Thinkers like Condorcet and Gouges challenged this, but Kant viewed women as dependent.
Cultural Enlightenment: Spanning from England’s Glorious Revolution (1688) to the French Revolution, it promoted scientific and critical rationalist spirit, emphasizing truth, knowledge, reason, order, and goodness. Common criticism targeted absolutism and religious privileges, advocating freedom in all areas. Philosophers were not just thinkers but also businessmen and citizens. Progress was linked to education, leading to the rise of compulsory public education and freedom of speech.
State and Religion: The Enlightenment promoted religious tolerance and peace, challenging the Church’s power. It sought rational and social explanations for the world, leading to social contract theories and human rights. Capitalism didn’t support a particular religion, favoring rational principles over miracles or mysteries.
Bourgeois Values: New values based on science and knowledge challenged traditional privileges and promoted education for both boys and girls, although with a discriminatory approach towards girls.
Kant’s Philosophy
Enlightenment Philosophy: Kant’s philosophy was empirical, critical, independent, freedom-oriented, and based on the idea of progress. His rationalism combined general metaphysical principles with empirical experience. Critical rationality was applied to reason itself, emphasizing its autonomy and separation from religion.
Reason and Autonomy: Kant advocated for the autonomy of reason, where reason is its own judge. Freedom of thought and speech were essential for public reason. Liberty led to human independence and social progress.
Nature and History: Kant accepted Newton’s model of the physical world, governed by laws, but saw human action as free. He believed nature had a secret plan for human history, leading to objective goodness, social order, and eternal peace.
Political Thought
Social Contract and the State: Kant rejected hereditary rights, favoring a social contract as the basis of the state’s legitimacy. The state’s purpose was to establish a legal framework, ensuring rights for all by limiting individual freedom. The best state was a constitutional republic with a separation of powers.
Rule of Law: The state transitions from a natural state of chaos to a civil society through a contract, establishing laws and a constitution. The objective is to create a just legal framework, reducing individual freedom to ensure rights for all.
Characteristics of a Just State:
- Division of powers: Legislative and executive branches.
- Principle of freedom: Individuals can pursue happiness in their own way.
- Relative equality: Citizens have rights, including property rights.
- Principle of representation: Citizens participate in legislation.
Kant’s Critique of Reason
Theoretical Reason: Focused on scientific and metaphysical knowledge, examining the limits of reason. It deals with how things are, as seen in physics and mathematics.
Practical Reason: Concerned with morals, ethics, politics, and religion, examining how things should be. It deals with freedom and moral imperatives.
What is Enlightenment?
Kant defined enlightenment as humanity’s emergence from self-imposed immaturity, encouraging the use of one’s own reason (Sapere Aude). Enlightenment requires freedom, especially the public use of reason.