The Importance of Immanuel Kant's Works - Research Paper Example

Inserts His/her Inserts Inserts Grade (20, 02, Immanuel Kant Introduction In western philosophy the work of Immanuel Kant holds great importance. His contribution to western philosophy is commendable since he gave a new outlook to the philosophical problems of his time. The work of Kant is of particular importance to German philosophy as philosophers like Hegel were deeply inspired by Kant. He has also influenced many other great thinkers of modern times. It was because of the wholeness of Kant’s work that many people from different professional backgrounds identify with him. Kant wrote extensively on political philosophy, moral philosophy, perception, and categories of the faculty of understanding. In this paper we will attempt to outline the main ideas of Kant and then an analysis of his ideas will be followed. We will also discuss the strengths of Kant’s ideas briefly at the end of the paper. Immanuel Kant and his Philosophical Works Kant wrote extensively on philosophy as he covered different branches of philosophy. He wrote on Metaphysics, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. He was particularly interested in creating a bridge between the rationalist and empiricist philosophies. The major work of Kant is The Critique of Pure Reason. This book holds great value in the field of philosophy as it made important contributions to Metaphysics. In this great book Kant has attempted to solve the problems that were not previously answered by Metaphysics and philosophy. Kant is known all over the world for these two books and they are also a compulsory read in any philosophy curriculum. In the other works of Immanuel Kant, his works on ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy are included. Kant wrote Ground Work of the Metaphysics of Morals in which he outlined his moral philosophy. In other books like Critique of Practical Reason and Metaphysics of Morals, Kant has explained his view on ethics and morality. He believed that morals and ethical standards cannot be relative in nature and they should be absolute. He also stressed more on actions and behaviors than the consequences of actions and behaviors. The Categorical Imperative of Kant is a widely discussed and accepted ethical theory. The views o Kant on ethics will be discussed in detail later. Kant also wrote on aesthetics in detail in his books Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and Critique of Judgment. On aesthetics Kant was of the opinion that our judgment of beauty is not cognitive in nature (Kant, 1). This means that we do not reason and then come to a conclusion about beauty rather it is aesthetical in nature. Such were Kant’s ideas about aesthetics. In the field of politics too Kant contributed heavily as he wrote Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. The focus of Kant’s political philosophy is on law and on mixed form of government. He is not in favor of democracy as many of his contemporaries but at the same time he is also not in favor of extremely autocratic government. Kant’s political views were mainly aimed at finding ways to end ways and bring long term peace in the world. He was not in favor of wars at all and attempted to give a political philosophy that will end all kinds of war and bring about perpetual peace. Kant's Philosophy The philosophy of Immanuel Kant is complex and covers a wide range of topics. Kant has written on ethics, politics, and on reason and experience. In this section we will talk about each of these three areas in great detail. It is important to understand the social settings as well as the philosophical thought prevalent in the days of Kant in order to understand fully what he is trying to say. Kant was living at a time when enlightenment movement was in its full flow. Philosophers and thinkers had started to celebrate the power of reason and logic in the field of metaphysics and philosophy. Religious ideas that were based on spirituality or superstitions were denounced and reason became the standard to judge right from wrong. Knowledge was considered admirable not abhor able and previous restrictions on thought were let go of. In days Kant rapid progress was being made in the domain of science as scientist began to through light on the nature of the universe. All this was being done on the basis of logic and reason, which was in direct conflict with skepticism. In the 18th century two schools of philosophy existed; rationalism and empiricism. Empiricism advocated skepticism and argued that knowledge can only be gained through sensory means or experience. Many famous philosophers of Enlightenment like Hume and Locke were empiricist philosophers. On the other hand rationalism argued that knowledge can be derived from reason or deductive reasoning (Bourke, 263) and not only from experience. Famous rationalists are Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza. In the midst of all this Kant tried to combine reason with experience. He attempted to give a solution that may end the differences between empiricists and rationalists. This is why Kant is well known for his efforts as he tried to equip metaphysics to solve the problems that were previously considered insolvable by metaphysicians. Kant’s work on politics and ethics came before his main book The Critique of Reason therefore they are not merely an extension of Kant’s views on reason and experience. The philosophy of Kant will be discussed in great detail below. Ethical Philosophy of Kant Ethics formulate a major portion of Kant’s philosophy. His views on ethics were opposite of relativism which called for relative nature of morality. According to Kant morality is not something relative rather it is fixed, absolute, and universal. This means that an action is right or wrong no matter of the consequences of that action. This is very different from other famous ethical theories like Utilitarianism that focus on consequences of an action when deciding about the morality of those actions. Kant argues that we should only treat an action as an end in itself instead of treating it as a means to an end (Kant, 421). Moral philosophy of Kant is based on the idea that people should do something not because it is desirable or to fulfill any other purpose, but because it is inherently right. An action is right not because it yields the right results but because it is intrinsically desirable; Kant called this categorical imperatives. In Kant’s philosophy categorical imperatives are principles that we have to follow because the moral law calls us to follow those principles. In simpler words one should do something that is inherently right instead of doing something that is only desirable. The idea of Kant is to preach a moral philosophy that is intentionally good meaning that all kinds of actions must have good intentions behind them. By doing this Kant was giving us a new moral code that contrasted with consequentialist approach to ethics. There are 2 formulations of categorical imperative. The first argues that we all should behave in a way that if our actions become universal law even then we may have no issues with it. This means that our reasons for actions should be such that we can also accept them as universal laws. The second formulation calls for actions that are an end in itself instead of just a means to an end. Kant also didn’t believe in God but maintained that an idea of a Supreme Being play a great role in promoting happiness. Kant’s acceptance of God is due to the practical benefits and pragmatic reasons. He lived in a society in which religion played a huge role and the intellectual elite was getting over the influence of God and religion. This is why he argued in favor of a supreme entity as he knew that God serves an important social purpose. Reason and Experience: Kant’s Transcendental Idealism As mentioned before Kant wanted to bridge the gap between empiricism and rationalism by proving that reason and experience can both exist together and our knowledge about the world is dependent on both experience and reason (Porter, 156). He criticized both the empiricist and rationalist school of thoughts. Kant thought that rationalists fell short when they talk about things that are beyond the world of experiences. He said that we cannot know certain things like free will and God without experience through reasoning. This is where Kant thought rationalism lacked. He also had reservations about empiricism as he thought that reasoning is important in order to understand our experiences and therefore skepticism advocated by empiricists was not justified according to Kant. The philosophy of Kant talks about another way in which reason and experience can be combined so that weaknesses of both empiricists and rationalists can be solved. This is what he audaciously termed as his ‘Copernican Revolution’ (Russell, 680). In his book The Critique of Pure Reason he attempts to prove that synthetic judgments are a priori possible, meaning that we can know synthetic truths independent of experience. The argument is best understood by mathematics which Kant declares as a synthetic a priori because we understand it without prior experience. Kant advocates that because of some basic forms and concepts we are able to perform mathematics of higher levels without prior experience. This is the basis of Kant’s transcendental idealism. Kant argues that our experience is based on both on our perception of the outer world and on our a priori knowledge. Our mental apparatus arranges everything we see around us in the dimensions of space and time and gives it order. Space and time is something in the mind and that is why we view the world around us through space and time. According to Bertrand Russell, if we always wear blue spectacles we will always see the world in blue so similarly our mind wears spatial spectacles therefore we will always see everything in space (680). Political Philosophy The political philosophy of Kant is based on perpetual peace. He was against war even though he lived in a totalitarian form of government. He concluded that all kinds of war adventures are against reason and therefore they should be ended immediately. Moreover he also talked about an international form of government which would compromise of Free states. He was not a supporter of democracy nor he was supporting totalitarianism but believed in a mix form of government. Kant’s views on eternal piece are different than his contemporaries as he talks about international government based on a legal doctrine. It would be safe to say that Kant’s political philosophy is based on law which according to Kant will stop any and all kinds of War Between the States and eternal piece will be achieved as a result. The views of Kant therefore on politics are interesting as the concept of international government, and republics was different in philosophy at that time. The opposition of democracy is the thing that makes Kant similar to the philosophers of his time. He was suspicious of a system that would give the power to the all. Kant called democracy ‘despotism’ because it gives power in the hands of majority and not ‘everyone’ and therefore it is basically a contradiction (Kant, 352). This treatment of democracy is understandable as thinkers were still skeptical about the ways in which democracy could affect them. The age of enlightenment was changing the political ideas of the world but the change was slow. This is why philosophers as great as Kant argued against democracy, although the criticism of democracy by Kant is valid. Analysis of Kant’s Ideas Kant’s ideas were truly revolutionary as he tried to change the way philosophers used to think in his times. His philosophy is centered on the principle of combining experience with a priori knowledge. He has played a great role in presenting bring the two schools of thought of rationalism and empiricism on similar grounds so that problems of metaphysics can be solved. This intention of Kant was noble and he spent a major portion of his life finding the answers of the questions that he thought was important. The philosophy of Kant is complex but this cannot be considered as philosophers used to write in a complex way in those days. Philosophy was considered noble and therefore it was not meant for the lay man. This is why even experts disagree on what Kant actually meant in some of his books. Because of this complexity many future philosophers had difficulty in understanding Kant because of his complex presentation of thoughts. Philosophers also argue that Kant’s treatment of perception is not correct as perception is also dependent on our thought process but Kant has treated perception as sensation (Schopenhauer, 8). This is considered a weakness of Kant’s argument. Also Kant assumed that everyone (that is everyone’s mind) arranges matter into similar forms but how thing happens is not explained. How come it is possible that the whole world experiences all things in a similar form? This is another question which Kant failed to answer in his philosophy. Strengths of Kant’s Ideas There are also many strengths of Kant’s idea. He was the first philosopher to attempt to reconcile two broad schools of philosophy that were totally opposite to each other. It is important to understand that Kant admitted that Hume awakened him from his dogmatic slumber (Russell). This admission is something which is admirable since it is difficult to admit one’s mistake but Kant felt no shame in accepting that he was indeed not thinking in the right direction. This can be termed as one of the strengths of Kant’s personality as he readily accepted his mistakes and worked on them to write the three critiques. Kant gave philosophy a new direction as he tried to reconcile different strands of thoughts. It is important to note that Kant showed philosophers that there is also a midway to rationalism and empiricism or to reason and experience. This gave future philosophers an idea as to how to look at philosophical problems. This is one of the greatest contributions of Kant as he gave the coming thinkers a new way of thinking. Although Kant was not totally accurate in his philosophy and there are certainly many loop holes in his philosophy but still the contribution of his work remains great. Living in an era he also held views that were anti religion and at times anti state. His political philosophy is also desirable as it talks about an end to war and perpetual peace. All in all the contributions of Kant to philosophy are numerous. Conclusion Kant is a well known German philosopher and an influential philosopher of his time. He suggested a Copernican revolution in the field of metaphysics by bridging the gap between empiricist and rationalist philosophies. This made him argue that reason and experience are both important for our experience of the world. He also wrote on political and moral philosophy in great detail. Kant’s works are considered important in the field of philosophy of today. Works cited Page Bourke, Vernon J. Rationalism. 1962. Print Kant, Immanuel. Logic, trans. Robert S. Hartman and Wolfgang Schwarz. New York: Dover Publications, 1974. Print Kant, Immanuel. Metaphysical foundations of natural science, trans. Michael Friedman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual Peace, trans. Lewis White Beck. London: Bobbs-Merrill, 1957. Print Potter, Vincent. Readings in Epistemology. London: Fordham University Press, 1993. Print Russell, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1946. Print Schopenhauer, Arthur. The world as will and representation. London: Courier Dover Publications, 1966. Print Read More