Immanuel Kant

 Life
Kant was born in 1724 in the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad in Russia).
His parents – Johann Georg and Anna Regina – were pietists. Although they raised
Kant in this tradition (an austere offshoot of Lutheranism that emphasized humility and
divine grace), he does not appear ever to have been very sympathetic to this kind of
religious devotion. As a youth, he attended the Collegium Fridericianum in Königsberg,
after which he attended the University of Königsberg. Although he initially focused his
studies on the classics, philosophy soon caught and held his attention. The rationalism
of Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) and Christian Wolff (1679-1754) was most influential
on him during these early years, but Kant was also introduced to Isaac Newton’s (1642-
1727) writings during this time.

His mother had died in 1737, and after his father’s death in 1746 Kant left the University
to work as a private tutor for several families in the countryside around the city. He
returned to the University in 1754 to teach as a Privatdozent, which meant that he was
paid directly by individual students, rather than by the University. He supported himself
in this way until 1770. Kant published many essays and other short works during this
period. He made minor scientific contributions in astronomy, physics, and earth
science, and wrote philosophical treatises engaging with the Leibnizian-Wolffian
traditions of the day (many of these are discussed below). Kant’s primary professional
goal during this period was to eventually attain the position of Professor of Logic and
Metaphysics at Königsberg. He finally succeeded in 1770 (at the age of 46) when he
completed his second dissertation (the first had been published in 1755), which is now
referred to as the Inaugural Dissertation.

Commentators divide Kant’s career into the “pre-critical” period before 1770 and the
“critical” period after. After the publication of the Inaugural Dissertation, Kant
published hardly anything for more than a decade (this period is referred to as his
“silent decade”). However, this was anything but a fallow period for Kant. After
discovering and being shaken by the radical skepticism of Hume’s empiricism in the
early 1770s, Kant undertook a massive project to respond to Hume. He realized that this
response would require a complete reorientation of the most fundamental approaches to
metaphysics and epistemology. Although it took much longer than initially planned, his
project came to fruition in 1781 with the publication of the first edition of Critique of
Pure Reason

The 1780s would be the most productive years of Kant’s career. In addition to writing
the Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783) as a sort of introduction to
the Critique, Kant wrote important works in ethics (Groundwork for the Metaphysics of
Morals, 1785, and Critique of Practical Reason, 1788), he applied his theoretical
philosophy to Newtonian physical theory (Metaphysical Foundations of Natural
Science, 1786), and he substantially revised the Critique of Pure Reason in 1787. Kant
capped the decade with the publication of the third and final critique, Critique of the
Power of Judgment (1790).

Although the products of the 1780s are the works for which Kant is best known, he
continued to publish philosophical writings through the 1790s as well. Of note during
this period are Religion within the Bounds of Mere Reason (1793), Towards Perpetual
Peace (1795), Metaphysics of Morals (1797), and Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point
of View (1798). The Religion was attended with some controversy, and Kant was
ultimately led to promise the King of Prussia (Friedrich Wilhelm II) not to publish
anything else on religion. (Kant considered the promise null and void after the king died
in 1797.) During his final years, he devoted himself to completing the critical project
with one final bridge to physical science. Unfortunately, the encroaching dementia of
Kant’s final years prevented him from completing this book (partial drafts are published
under the title Opus Postumum).
Kant never married and there are many stories that paint him as a quirky but dour
eccentric. These stories do not do him justice. He was beloved by his friends and
colleagues. He was consistently generous to all those around him, including his servants.
He was universally considered a lively and engaging dinner guest and (later in life) host.
And he was a devoted and popular teacher throughout the five decades he spent in the
classroom. Although he had hoped for a small, private ceremony, when he died in 1804,
age 79, his funeral was attended by the thousands who wished to pay their respects to
“the sage of Königsberg.”

Immanuel Kant, (born April 22, 1724, Königsberg, Prussia [now

Kaliningrad, Russia]—died February 12, 1804, Königsberg), German
philosopher whose comprehensive and systematic work
in epistemology (the theory of knowledge), ethics,
and aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy,
especially the various schools of Kantianism and idealism.
Kant was one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment and
arguably one of the greatest philosophers of all time. In him were
subsumed new trends that had begun with
the rationalism (stressing reason) of René Descartes and
the empiricism (stressing experience) of Francis Bacon. He thus
inaugurated a new era in the development of philosophical thought.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher during the

Enlightenment era of the late 18th century. His best known work
is the Critique of Pure Reason.
Synopsis
Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724, in Konigsberg, Prussia, or what is now Kaliningrad,
Russia. While tutoring, he published science papers, including "General Natural History and
Theory of the Heavens" in 1755. He spent the next 15 years as a metaphysics lecturer. In 1781,
he published the first part of Critique of Pure Reason. He published more critiques in the years
preceding his death on February 12, 1804, in the city of his birth.

Early Life 
Immanuel Kant was the fourth of nine children born to Johann Georg Cant, a harness maker, and
Anna Regina Cant. Later in his life, Immanuel changed the spelling of his name to Kantto to
adhere to German spelling practices. Both parents were devout followers of Pietism, an 18th-
century branch of the Lutheran Church. Seeing the potential in the young man, a local pastor
arranged for the young Kant's education. While at school, Kant gained a deep appreciation for
the Latin classics.

In 1740, Kant enrolled at the University of Konigsberg as a theology student, but was soon
attracted to mathematics and physics. In 1746, his father died and he was forced to leave the
university to help his family. For a decade, he worked as a private tutor for the wealthy. During
this time he published several papers dealing with scientific questions exploring the middle
ground between rationalism and empiricism.

Full-Fledged Scholar and Philosopher

In 1755, Immanuel Kant returned to the University of Konigsberg to

continue his education. That same year he received his doctorate of
philosophy. For the next 15 years, he worked as a lecturer and tutor
and wrote major works on philosophy. In 1770, he became a full
professor at the University of Konigsberg, teaching metaphysics and
logic.

In 1781, Immanuel Kant published the Critique of Pure Reason, an

enormous work and one of the most important on Western thought.
He attempted to explain how reason and experiences interact with
thought and understanding. This revolutionary proposal explained how
an individual’s mind organizes experiences into understanding the
way the world works. 
Kant focused on ethics, the philosophical study of moral actions. He
proposed a moral law called the “categorical imperative,” stating that
morality is derived from rationality and all moral judgments are
rationally supported. What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong;
there is no grey area. Human beings are obligated to follow this
imperative unconditionally if they are to claim to be moral.

Later Years

Though the Critique of Pure Reason received little attention at the

time, Kant continued to refine his theories in a series of essays that
comprised the Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of
Judgement. Kant continued to write on philosophy until shortly before
his death. In his last years, he became embittered due to his loss of
memory. He died in 1804 at age 80.