BIOGRAPHY OF IMMANUEL KANT

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.

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
impiricism.

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.

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.
St. Thomas Aquinas Biography

Saint, Theologian, Philosopher, Priest (c. 1225–1274)

Born: Around Circa 1225 Roccasecca, Italy, near Aquino, Terra di Lavoro, in the Kingdom of Sicily

Ranked as the most influential thinkers of Medieval Scholasticism

Has 8 siblings including him as the youngest

Died: March 7, 1274 at the Cistercian Monastery of Fossanova, near Terracina, Latium, Papal States,
Italy.

Father: Landulph Aquinas, count of Aquino

Mother: Theodora Aquinas, was countess of Teano

Education: He spent the next five years completing his primary education at a Benedictine house in
Naples

• He also studied Aristotle's work

• Circa 1239, he began attending the University of Naples

• From 1245 to 1252, St. Thomas Aquinas continued to pursue his studies with the Dominicans in
Naples, Paris and Cologne

His professor: St. Albert the Great

Theology and Philosophy

After completing his education, St. Thomas Aquinas devoted himself to a life of traveling, writing,
teaching, public speaking and preaching. Religious institutions and universities alike yearned to benefit
from the wisdom of "The Christian Apostle."

Major Works

A prolific writer, St. Thomas Aquinas penned close to 60 known works ranging in length from short to
tome-like. Handwritten copies of his works were distributed to libraries across Europe. His philosophical
and theological writings spanned a wide spectrum of topics, including commentaries on the Bible and
discussions of Aristotle's writings on natural philosophy.
BIOGRAPHY OF ARISTOTLE

Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagira in northern

Greece. Both of his parents were members of

traditional medical families, and his father,

Nicomachus, served as court physician to King

Amyntus III of Macedonia. His parents died while

he was young, and he was likely raised at his

family’s home in Stagira. At age 17 he was sent to

Athens to enroll in Plato’s Academy. He spent 20

years as a student and teacher at the school,

emerging with both a great respect and a good deal

of criticism for his teacher’s theories. Plato’s own

later writings, in which he softened some earlier

positions, likely bear the mark of repeated

discussions with his most gifted students.

When Plato died in 347, control of the Academy

passed to his nephew Speusippus. Aristotle left

Athens soon after, though it is not clear whether

frustrations at the Academy or political difficulties

due to his family’s Macedonian connections

hastened his exit. He spent five years on the coast

of Asia Minor as a guest of former students at

Assos and Lesbos. It was here that he undertook

his pioneering research into marine biology and

married his wife Pythias, with whom he had his only

daughter, also named Pythias.

Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 B.C. As an alien,

he couldn’t own property so he rented space in the

Lyceum, a former wrestling school outside the city.

It was at the Lyceum that Aristotle probably

composed most of his approximately 200 works, of

which only 31 survive. In style, his known works are

dense and almost jumbled, suggesting that they

were lecture notes for internal use at his school.

The surviving works of Aristotle are grouped into

four categories. The “Organon” is a set of writings

that provide a logical toolkit for use in any

philosophical or scientific investigation. Next come

Aristotle’s theoretical works, most famously his

treatises on animals, cosmology, the “Physics” (a

basic inquiry about the nature of matter and

change) and the “Metaphysics” (a quasi-theological

investigation of existence itself).

Third are Aristotle’s so-called practical works,

notably the “Nicomachean Ethics” and “Politics,”

both deep investigations into the nature of human

flourishing on the individual, familial and societal

levels. Finally, his “Rhetoric” and “Poetics” examine

the finished products of human productivity,

including what makes for a convincing argument

and how a well-wrought tragedy can instill cathartic

fear and pity.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.,

anti-Macedonian sentiment again forced Aristotle to

flee Athens. He died a little north of the city in 322,

of a digestive complaint. He asked to be buried

next to his wife, who had died some years before.

In his last years he had a relationship with his slave

Herpyllis, who bore him the son, Nicomachus, for

whom his great ethical treatise is named.

Aristotle (c. 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and
scientist who is still considered one of the greatest thinkers in politics,
psychology and ethics. When Aristotle turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s
Academy. In 338, he began tutoring Alexander the Great. In 335, Aristotle
founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of the
rest of his life studying, teaching and writing. Some of his most notable works
include Nichomachean Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Poetics and Prior
Analytics.