Emmanuel Kant

Emmanuel Kant ( German Immanuel in ) is a German Philosophe . It was born the April 22nd 1724 with Königsberg, capital of the Eastern Prussia, and died there the February 12th 1804.

Biography

Emmanuel Kant is born in 1724 with Königsberg in Eastern Prussia (currently Kaliningrad in Russia) in a modest milieu and particularly piles. He first of all attends a college directed by Pasteur pietist then starts academic works. He studies the Physique, the Natural science, the Mathématiques and the Philosophie.

In 1747, the death of his/her father obliges it to stop his studies to engage like tutor. As of 1755, it starts to teach at the university of Königsberg, first of all as “a Privatdozent” (teacher paid by its pupils), then, starting from 1770, as a full professor. Kant was the first large philosopher to give a regular university education. Its courses, just like its publications at this period, are very diversified: mathematics, logic, Geography, Theology, Pedagogy, Right, Anthropology, Metaphysical…

One has little precise information on the life of Kant, if not that it devoted it very whole to the study and teaching: “I am by taste a researcher”, writes it, “I feel all thirst to know and avid concern to progress. ”

In 1781 appears the first edition of the Critique of the pure reason . This work, fruit eleven year old of work, does not meet the success hoped by its author. One second edition will see the day in 1787. In 1788 is published the Critique reason practices and, in 1790, the Critique of faculty to judge . All its other major works ( Bases of the metaphysics of manners and Towards perpetual peace inter alia) are written at this period.

Its legendary sedentariness (it almost never left its city) did not prevent it however from being attentive with the movements of the world, as its many publications testify some which cover varied and contemporary subjects of its time. It also received very often many friends with dining.

Professor become famous, even if it were not always included/understood its contemporaries, it dies in 1804 with Königsberg.

An anecdote tells that its daily walk was not, during all its life, disturbed that twice: the first when he discovered social contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau; the second, when it went ahead of of the mail carrying of the news of the French revolution.

Philosophy

General division

The three large branches of Kantian philosophy are the following ones: theoretical philosophy (developed especially in the Critical of the pure reason ), practical philosophy (exposed in the Critique of the reason practices ' and the Fondements of the metaphysics of manners ) and esthetics (in the Critique of faculty to judge ). the purpose of

  • theoretical philosophy is to answer the question " what can I know? " . It thus does not try to know a particular object (like Nature for physics or living it for biology) but to limit and determine the range of our cognitive faculties i.e. of the reason in Kantian language (cf the title Critique of the pure reason ).

  • practical philosophy has as an aim the question " what do I have to make? " and it comprises moral philosophy as well as the philosophy of the right or than political philosophy. Practical philosophy is also interested in the " question; what can I hope? ". It tries to show that even if that is indémontrable, it should be believed if one does not want to sap morals that the heart is immortal and that God will punish and reward the men according to their life on ground.
  • esthetics has the aim of determining the nature and the range exact of the faculty to judge, which is with the base of the esthetic judgment and which has a mediating function between theoretical and practical philosophy.

Stakes of the criticism

The stakes of Kantian philosophy are multiple because Kant contributed important shares as well in Théorie of knowledge, as in ethical, Métaphysique or political Philosophie.

Its first great contribution was to have founded the Théorie of knowledge as such: it made of it a discipline independent as well of the Métaphysique as of the Psychologie. In addition, Kant seeks to develop an ethical philosophical deeply new which is the base of what is called deontologic ethics, centered on the concept of Owe.

Lastly, it exposed a theory Esthétique which is the base of the modern esthetic reflection.

There exists in an undeniable way before and after Kant in these three fields. Even if the number of the philosophers having begun again its theses is not very important (the German Idéalisme for example took again only some fundamental theses of Kant), Kant founded the modern framework of our thought in the field Esthétique, moral and of the Théorie of knowledge.

The Theory of knowledge

See also: Critical of the pure reason

Kant wrote the Critique pure reason after a reading of David Hume which awoke it its dogmatic sleep . David Hume, indeed, definitively called into question the bases of the Metaphysics of Leibniz - Wolf whose Kant itself had been a follower. Hume is one of the hardest critics of metaphysics and Kant will join it in many points. If metaphysics is related to a theory of knowledge, at Kant, it is initially because the mode of knowledge which is employed there is entirely a priori , i.e. metaphysics undertakes its research apart from any experiment. The great task of Kant will be initially to whether wonder such knowledge a priori are possible, then of refonder the Métaphysique by fixing terminals to him, after the crisis which it passed through because of criticisms of Hume.

Kant will then leave in the Critique the pure reason another report: the Métaphysique is a battle field . These words appear in the beginning of the foreword of the first edition of the Critique of the pure reason . The Raison is indeed torn by the opposition between Scepticisme (Hume for example) and Dogmatisme (Plato, Leibniz, Wolf): The goal of Kant is to propose an alternative. It thus should well be seen that Kant will always take very with serious the Métaphysique and will try to give him a new dignity.

Other philosophers had obviously already noted the crisis of the Métaphysique such Hume which it first had rejected the dogmatic metaphysics of the XVIIe century and whose critics announce in a very precise way the remarks of Kant. But none had tried, like Kant, to reconcile criticisms and the " adeptes" metaphysics. It is even one of the great characteristics of the Kantian thought which it always tried to reconcile of the philosophical tendencies opposite at base. And according to Heidegger, ( Kant and the problem of metaphysics ), Kant is the first which is not satisfied to reject the traditional Metaphysics but which includes its philosophical work like a recasting of the Métaphysique. Kantian work would not be, starting from the Critique of the pure reason anything else that the attempt at refonder Metaphysics.

Origin of the errors of Metaphysics

The interest of the philosophy of Kant undoubtedly comes owing to the fact that he wants to include/understand the origin of the errors of Metaphysics. One century before Nietzsche (and within a relatively different framework it is true), Kant undertakes a genealogy of metaphysics.

The difficulties encountered by the Raison are due to its nature: the reason tests in itself the desire to know object S being in-outside Expérience, namely God, the Liberté and the heart. It is an inevitable desire by which it generates itself of the discrepancies and the Sophisme S metaphysics. It raises questions which exceed its range and which it cannot answer. The reason indeed thinks that it can know objects transcending the experiment, which Kant calls of noumenes, of the purely understandable, suprasensible entities. However, it can actually know only sensitive objects, given in space and time, i.e. Phénomène S.

However, according to Kant, nothing can remove this movement of illusion in its root: one can become aware of it to preserve some as much as possible and philosophy must try to limit and correct the errors of the reason. But one cannot destroy them without destroying the reason itself.

Solution with the crisis of Metaphysics

To limit the claims of the reason: such is in the content the solution which Kant wants to bring to the crisis of the Métaphysique. It is necessary that the reason learns that certain questions exceed its capacities.

This limitation is not possible that by a criticism reason by itself supplements. It is necessary to undertake a criticism of the reason by the reason: here is the true direction of the Critical title of pure reason . The term of criticism as for him returns to the Greek word krinein . Krinein originally means to judge a business, to judge with the legal direction. The reason will thus organize a lawsuit of its own claims to know objects located across the Expérience. The Critique of the pure reason is a court which will have to limit the claims of the reason.

  • the tendency which pushes the reason to know the phenomena, tendency empirist;

  • the tendency by which the reason rises above the empirical objects, dogmatic tendency.

Critical inversion

See also: Criticisme

Which will be the exact method of Kant to allow a recasting of metaphysics? Kant is very clear on this subject: it is necessary to carry out a revolution in our design of the knowledge. It is an epistemological upheaval which will be necessary to transform and give new bases to the Métaphysique. Of what does consist it? It is about the famous revolution copernic ienne.

For Kant, the scientific knowledge (and he thinks by there of the Physique and the Mathématiques of the XVIIIe century) are partly the result of the cognitive activity of the subject. In other words, mathematical and physical knowledge is made possible by the knowing subject. They are thus not the fruit of a simple observation in which the subject would be passive. And when Kant known as: “it is the knowing subject which constitutes the objects”, he understands by there the fact that the subject constitutes the objects of knowledge (equations or of the experiments for example) and not of the material objects like chairs, tables etc The revolution copernician is called thus because Copernic is the first to have shown that it is the ground which turns around the sun and not the opposite. In the same way, Kant wants to render comprehensible to us that the true “center” of knowledge is the subject and not a reality compared to which we would be passive. It is not thus any more the object which obliges the subject to conform to its rules, it is the subject which gives them his to the object to know it.

Kant hopes to deliver with the revolution copernician a satisfactory explanation of the nature of the scientific knowledge: he wants to deliver a epistemological Paradigme describing in a correct way the gasoline of the scientific knowledge.

This new explanation must make it possible to leave metaphysics its crisis by delivering a model to him right of what constitutes the scientific knowledge. The revolution copernician thus has a quite precise function compared to the general project of recasting of Metaphysics, it is the key.

Going beyond of Metaphysics

The most important result of the Révolution copernician is that it limits the claims of the Raison. The Sujet Transcendantal constitutes certainly formal knowledge, but any empirical science must also rest on the Expérience. The empirical human knowledge cannot thus exceed the experiment. A metaphysics can be only one knowledge which takes into account only what is formal in knowledge. It keeps its statute of science thus a priori, but it can nothing learn to us on the concrete object experiment. Within the limits of the experiment, reports/ratios of cause-effect can be sure and certain, because the concept of causality comes from the human reason and is thus a priori. Kant rejects by there criticisms of the empirists like Hume against science, and consequently occasion it destroys the idea that the Man can reach an absolute knowledge of the things: one can know world only what our understanding enables us to include/understand " we know a priori things only what we-mêmes" put we at it;. From there the difference between rises what Kant calls " noumène" (the thing en-soi, unknowable) and " phénomène" (the thing such as I see it by my cognitive capacities and which only is object of science).

The Moral : such is the single use of Metaphysics. It is an idea that Kant will always defend in spite of the modifications which it could make to its philosophy. The three fundamental concepts of Metaphysics are the heart, the Liberté and God. However, the demonstration of the existence of these objects is impossible for us because our knowledge is limited by the experiment. But, at the same time, it is impossible to show that they do not exist. Kant thus defends a metaphysical Agnosticisme: one can actually neither reject nor to approve his assertions.

But Kant is also of opinion that morals is impossible without the concepts of God and the heart (it is only in the Critique of the reason practices and in the “dialectical one” of the practical reason which he will affirm that freedom is one of the bases of morals).

Its reasoning is relatively simple. In the world that we know, the malicious man can be happy and the man good unhappy. The risk is whereas that which acts morally despairs to act morally. To act morally, it is necessary thus which I postulate that God exists, that it punishes or rewards in a way proportional in beyond. I must thus postulate moreover that my heart is immortal.

Practical philosophy

See also: Critique of the reason practices

The practical philosophy of Kant is exposed mainly in the Fondements of the metaphysics of manners and in the Critique of the reason practices. It is a resumption of the final theses of the Critique of the pure reason but it appreciably inflects the Kantian theses especially with regard to the function of freedom in morals.

The articulation between theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy is the following one. The only legitimate use of the concepts of Metaphysics is a use within the framework of morals. In the Critique of the pure reason Kant does nothing but evoke this idea without him to give all the importance which it deserves. It will fill this gap with the Critique of the reason practices . In this work, but it will show that the moral duty is essentially unconditional (it is the famous categorical imperative already presented in Fondements of the metaphysics of manners ) and that it is unthinkable without the concepts of freedom, God and immortality of the heart.

The moral law

We will limit ourselves here to a general description of the moral thought of Kant which is defined above all in the Critique of the reason practices and in the Fondements of the metaphysics of manners .

The moral action is such as it is categorical according to Kant. That means that it does not aim other ends only itself. One morally only acts to act morally and not by search for any personal interest. A categorical imperative is distinguished for example from a hypothetical requirement which indicates the means to use to reach an end. For example “if you want to grow rich, you must less spend that what you gain” is a hypothetical requirement because it indicates the adequate process to achieve a goal. If I spend less than this I I gain do not do that by love of the saving but with an aim of enriching me. The categorical imperative takes the form of an injunction to him:

“Acted in way such as you treats humanity, as well in your person as in very other, always at the same time like end, and never simply like means. ”

Contrary to the hypothetical requirements, this requirement is single and obliges unconditionally. If I acted according to this principle am not to reach a particular end but only by will to follow this principle. The moral action for Kant is moreover universally good i.e. good in any circumstance and not only for one precise person or in a typical location. The fundamental criterion to know if an action is morally good is even the fact that one can universalize his maxim. From where formula celebrates it:

“Acted according to the maxim which can at the same time transform into universal law”

It is not acted in fact that of one new formulation of the categorical imperative, whose Kant proposes also a third formulation:

“Acted according to maxims which can be at the same time caught themselves for object like universal laws of nature. ”
Starting from the Critique of the reason Kant practices thinks that the Liberté such as it had defined it in the Critique pure reason is the base (Transcendantal) of the moral law. If I am not free i.e. able to act in-outside any motivation like the personal interest or the desire, the moral action is impossible. An agent unable to act by itself would be always guided by its desires or the research of the interest. It would be unable to follow a categorical imperative. It is the problems of autonomy: the moral agent must be autonomous, it should not be alienated by its dimension significant (or animal) and must try to follow its rational dimension where it discovers the principles of morality.

Postulates of the practical reason

They are three and they were established in the Dialectical one of the Critique of the pure reason :

  • the Freedom (cosmological postulate);

  • the immortality of the heart (psychological postulate);
  • the existence of God (theological postulate).

According to Kant, these three concepts are Postulat S. Indeed it is impossible to show their existence positively. The Critique of the pure reason had thus concluded with the possibility of human freedom without being able truly to found it. The Critique of the reason practices , by analyzing the fact of the presence of the moral law, highlights the need for posing freedom to explain the categorical imperative. It is the first postulate.

The two other postulates of the practical reason must also be posed in order to allow the implementation of the categorical imperative. But in the world that we know, the malicious man can be happy and the man good unhappy. There are thus, in this world, no relationship between happiness and the virtue. The risk is then that of the despair or the vanity of the moral action. To act morally, it is necessary thus that I think that there exists a moral author of the world - God - and that my heart is immortal: that means that one day happiness and the Vertu will be joined together, and my moral action will have thus contributed to the Sovereign Well and will be recognized like such.

Philosophy of the right

The philosophy of the Droit is one of the branches of practical philosophy. Even a “legal” action, i.e. in conformity with morals, is not justified by the research of the Morale. It is “heteronomous” like known as Kant. Kantian philosophy on this subject is exposed in the Doctrine of the right , first part of Métaphysique of manners.

Political philosophy

The political philosophy of Kant is itself a branch of practical philosophy.

Many essays and certain passages of its great works made it possible to release a Kantian political thought quite particular, in spite of the fact that it is not very far away from the current of the French Lumières of the time.

For Kant, the man must be carried out as a rational individual in the company, and must ensure full blooming with each one.

In its test What Lights? , Kant defends freedom of expression as a need to human progress.

Theory of the judgment

See also: Critical of faculty to judge

The esthetic philosophy of Kant is exposed in the Critique of faculty to judge. This third opus critical has as a subject faculty to judge like joint of the theoretical reason and of the reason practices . Kant wants to complete by there the building of the metaphysics which he wants refonder since the Critique of the pure reason .

The esthetic judgment

The goal of Kant is not to propose standards of the Beau, but to explain why a thing is beautiful, and of what a judgment of taste consists. The beautiful one would be a product of the direction Esthétique. In this direction, which is beautiful, it is not an object, but its representation. Kant gives the definitions of them following:

  • universality without concept : “Is beautiful what likes universally without concept”. The beautiful one is an intermediary between the sensitivity and the Entendement: it is not a definable concept by our only understanding.

  • a finality without end : The beautiful one is not the Utile, it thus does not have fine outside. It has nevertheless a fine intern (harmony).
  • a not involved pleasure : The beautiful one does not merge with the pleasant , which concerns a strictly personal perception for its part: “When I say that the wine of the Canaries is pleasant, I suffer readily that one begins again to me and that it is reminded to me that I must say only that it is pleasant with me. ” whereas for the example of a judgment on the beauty of a thing, he explains: “I do not judge only for me, but for everyone, and I speak about the beauty as if it were a quality of the things” If the beautiful one brings Plaisir and Satisfaction, it is in a not involved way.

Kant distinguishes two types of beautiful: the free beauty and the adherent beauty.

  • the Sublimates: For Kant, sublimates it is distinguished from beautiful in what it exceeds our understanding.

“Art does not want the representation of a beautiful thing but the beautiful representation of a thing. ” One finds here the place which occupies at Kant faculty to judge, and the interpretation of the esthetism makes by a variable appreciation from one individual to another.

The teleological judgment

See also: Teleology

Teleology is the study of the final causes (old Greek telos , the finality, and logos , the logical, scientific speech). It is an idea “positivist” envisaging a happy end of times, which is prolonged and grows rich quite naturally with Christianity and Islam through the image by the end of the world, the Apocalypse. According to teleological optics, humanity evolves to a point of perfection.

Posterity

The influence of Kant relates to three groups of philosophers roughly:

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