Kant’s Philosophy: Reason, Ethics, and Historical Context

Posted on Nov 22, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Kant’s Core Philosophical Ideas

What is Man?

  1. What do I know? Science. In the Critique of Pure Reason (CPR) – 1781
    1. Prologue: Trials are divided into: transcendental aesthetic, transcendental analytic, and transcendental dialectic. We grasp phenomena through senses (sensitivity) and transcendental conditions (pure intuitions of space and time). Understanding categorizes concepts (categories). Science is based on a priori synthetic judgments (universal and necessary, not empirical).
    2. These judgments are the foundation of mathematics (geometry and arithmetic) and physics.
    3. We can only know phenomena, not noumena (things-in-themselves) or transcendental ideas (God, Soul, World).
  2. What should I do? Ethics. In the Critique of Practical Reason (CPrR) – 1788 and Metaphysics of Morals – 1785
    1. Metaphysics of Morals (1785): Distinguishes material (heteronomous, empirical) and formal (a priori, universal, rational) ethics. Morality must be a priori, following a standard: acting out of respect for duty.
    2. Chapter 1: Good will is the only good. Actions have moral value when done out of respect for duty. Morality lies in a subjective maxim (a priori principle). Duty is the need for action out of respect for the law. Respect for the dignity of others is the basis of human rights. The categorical imperative: Act so that your maxim can become a universal law.
    3. Chapter 2: The categorical imperative is difficult to follow. Practical reason sets out principles: maxims (subjective), hypothetical imperatives (conditional), and categorical imperatives (unconditional moral laws).
    4. Chapter 3: The categorical imperative is a synthetic a priori truth. Freedom is possible only in rational beings. Good will follows laws because it is free.
    5. CPrR (1788): Discusses three postulates: freedom, immortality of the soul, and God (unprovable but necessary).
  3. What can I hope for? Religion. In the Critique of Judgment (CJ) – 1790
    1. CJ (1790): Explores the feeling of the sublime in nature. Philosophy of history: the development of mankind towards progress through reason.

Historical and Philosophical Context

Marco Historical

Kant’s thinking is part of the 18th-century Enlightenment. He shared ideals of tolerance, equality, freedom, and progress. He supported the American and French Revolutions and was aware of the Industrial Revolution. In politics, he noted enlightened despotism (e.g., Frederick the Great of Prussia). In science, he was influenced by Newton’s physics.

Philosophical Context

Kant’s philosophy is a synthesis of rationalism (Descartes, Leibniz, Wolff) and empiricism (Berkeley, Hume, Hobbes, Locke). Rationalists believed knowledge comes from reason; empiricists believed it comes from experience. Kant sought to overcome the limitations of both.

Influences

  • German Rationalism (Wolff): Sought rational knowledge of all existence.
  • Empiricism (Hume): Realized the limits of reason and the importance of experience, but rejected skepticism.
  • Science (Newton, Descartes): Mechanistic thinking.
  • Pure Reason (Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes): Belief in knowing reality itself, but limited by Hume.
  • Ethics: Formal ethics, challenging previous ethical systems. Happiness is not the primary aim (unlike Aristotle and Hume).

Impact

  • German Idealism (Fichte): Expanded on Kant’s rationalism, downplaying empiricism.
  • Schopenhauer: Developed the concept of the will.
  • Nietzsche: Objected to Kant’s ethics of duty.
  • Ortega y Gasset: Neo-Kantian, critical of Kant’s pure reason.
  • Wittgenstein: Explored the limits of language and thought, influenced by Kant.
  • Max Scheler: Proposed a material ethics of values, opposing Kant’s formalism.
  • Sartre: Proposed a formal ethics of freedom.
  • Kant’s defense of freedom, human dignity, and the limits of science remains relevant today.