Immanuel Kant: biography and teachings of the great philosopher

Immanuel Kant is a German philosopher, professor at the University of Koenigsberg, an honorary foreign member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the founder of classical German philosophy and “criticism”. The scale of activity is equal to Plato and Aristotle. Let's take a closer look at the life of Immanuel Kant and the main ideas of his developments.

Childhood

The future philosopher was born on April 22, 1724 in Koenigsberg (present-day Kaliningrad), in a large family. For all his life he did not leave his hometown further than 120 kilometers. Kant grew up in an environment in which the ideas of pietism had a special place. His father was a saddler and from childhood taught children to work. Mother, however, tried to take care of their education. From the first years of his life, Kant had poor health. In the process of studying at school, his ability to learn the Latin language was discovered. Subsequently, it is in Latin that all four dissertations of the scientist will be written.

Higher education

In 1740, Immanuel Kant entered the University of Albertina. Of the teachers, M. Knutzen had a special influence on him, who introduced the ambitious young man to the achievements of modern science at that time. In 1747, the difficult financial situation led to the fact that Kant was forced to go to the suburbs of Koenigsberg in order to get a home teacher in the landowner's family there.

Labor activity

Returning to his hometown in 1755, Immanuel Kant completed his studies at the university and defended his master's thesis entitled “On Fire”. Over the next year, he defended two more dissertations, which gave him the right to lecture as an assistant professor and then a professor. However, Kant then refused the title of professor and became an extraordinary (one who receives money from students, and not from management) as an assistant professor. In this format, the scientist worked until 1770, until he became an ordinary professor at the department of logic and metaphysics of his native university.

Surprisingly, as a teacher, Kant gave lectures on a wide range of subjects, starting with mathematics and ending with anthropology. In 1796, he stopped lecturing, and four years later left the university altogether due to poor health. At home, Kant continued to work until his death.

Lifestyle

The lifestyle of Immanuel Kant and his habits, which began to manifest themselves especially since 1784, when the philosopher acquired his own home, deserve close attention. Every day, Martin Lampe - a retired soldier who served as a servant in Kant's house - woke up a scientist. Waking up, Kant drank several cups of tea, smoked a pipe and began preparing for lectures. After the lectures it was lunch time, during which usually several guests made up the company of the scientist. Lunch was often delayed for 2-3 hours and was always accompanied by a lively conversation on various topics. The only thing the scientist did not want to talk about at that time was philosophy. After lunch, Kant went daily for a walk around the city, which later became legendary. Before going to bed, the philosopher liked to look at the cathedral, the building of which was clearly visible from the window of his bedroom.

To make a reasonable choice, you must first know what you can do without.

Throughout his conscious life, Immanuel Kant carefully monitored his own health and professed a system of hygiene prescriptions, which he personally developed on the basis of long-term self-observation and self-hypnosis.

The main postulates of this system:

1. Keep your head, legs and chest cool.
2. Less sleep because bed is a "nest of disease." The scientist was sure that you need to sleep only at night, deep and short sleep. When the dream did not come, he tried to call it, repeating the word "Cicero" in his mind.
3. Move more, service yourself, walk regardless of weather conditions.

Kant was not married, although he did not have any prejudices regarding the opposite sex. According to the scientist, when he wanted to start a family, there was no such opportunity, and when the opportunity appeared, the desire was already gone.

In the philosophical views of the scientist, the influence of H. Wolf, J. J. Rousseau, A. G. Baumgarten, D. Hume and other thinkers is traced. Bamgarten's Wolfian textbook became the basis for Kant's lectures on metophysics. As the philosopher himself admitted, the works of Rousseau weaned him from arrogance. And Hume’s achievements “awakened” the German scientist from “dogmatic sleep”.

Subcritical Philosophy

In the work of Immanuel Kant, two periods are distinguished: subcritical and critical. During the first period, the scientist gradually departed from the ideas of Wolf's metaphysics. The second period was the time when Kant formulated questions about the definition of metaphysics as a science and about the creation of new guidelines for philosophy by him.

Among the studies of the subcritical period, the cosmogonic developments of the philosopher, which he outlined in the work “General Natural History and Theory of Heaven” (1755), are of particular interest. In his theory, Immanuel Kant argued that the explanation of the formation of planets can be made by assuming the existence of matter endowed with forces of repulsion and attraction, based on the postulates of Newtonian physics.

In the subcritical period, the scientist also paid much attention to the study of spaces. In 1756, in a dissertation entitled “Physical Methodology”, he wrote that space, being a continuous dynamic medium, is created by the interaction of simple discrete substances and has a relational character.

The central teaching of Immanuel Kant of this period was set forth in a work of 1763, called "The Only Possible Basis for Proving the Being of God." Having criticized all the evidence of the existence of God known until then, Kant put forward a personal “ontological” argument, which was based on the recognition of the need for some kind of primary existence and its identification with divine power.

Transition to critical philosophy

Kant's transition to criticism was gradual. This process began with the fact that the scientist revised his views on space and time. At the end of 1760, Kant recognized space and time as subjective forms of human receptivity, independent of things. Things, in the form in which they exist by themselves, the scientist called "noumenami." Kant secured the result of these investigations in his work “On the Forms and Principles of the Sensually Perceptible and Intelligent World” (1770).

The next turning point was the "awakening" of the scientist from the "dogmatic dream", which occurred in 1771 after Kant became acquainted with the achievements of D. Hume. Against the background of pondering the threat of a complete empirization of philosophy, Kant formulated the main question of a new critical teaching. He sounded as follows: "How are a priori synthetic knowledge possible?" The philosopher was puzzled by the solution of this question until 1781, when the work “Critique of Pure Reason” saw the light of day. Over the next 5 years, three more books by Immanuel Kant were published. The crown of this period was the second and third “Critics”: “Critique of practical reason” (1788) and “Critique of the ability of judgment” (1790). The philosopher did not stop there and in the 1800s he published several important works supplementing the previous ones.

Critical philosophy system

Kant's criticism consists of theoretical and practical components. The connecting link between them is the doctrine of the philosopher on objective and subjective expediency. The main question of criticism is: “What is a man?” The study of human nature is carried out at two levels: transcendental (revealing a priori signs of humanity) and empirical (a person is considered in the form in which he exists in society).

Doctrine of the mind

Kant perceives “dialectics” as a teaching, not only helping to criticize traditional metaphysics. It makes it possible to comprehend the highest degree of human cognitive ability - the mind. According to the scientist, the mind is the ability to think unconditional. It grows out of reason (which acts as the source of rules) and brings to its unconditional concept. The scientist calls those concepts to which no subject can be given experimentally by “ideas of pure reason”.

Our knowledge begins with perception, passes into understanding, and ends with a cause. There is nothing more important than reason.

Practical philosophy

The basis of Kant's practical philosophy is the doctrine of moral law, which is "a fact of pure reason." He connects morality with unconditional duty. He believes that her laws stem from the mind, that is, the ability to think unconditionally. Since universal precepts can determine the will of action, they can be considered practical.

Social philosophy

Questions of creativity, according to Kant, are not limited to the field of art. He talked about the possibility of people creating a whole artificial world, which the philosopher considered the world of culture. Kant discussed the development of culture and civilization in his later works. He saw the progress of human society in the natural competition of people and their desire to assert themselves. Moreover, according to the scientist, the history of mankind is a movement towards full recognition of the value and freedom of the individual and “eternal peace”.

Society, a tendency to communicate make people stand out, then a person feels in demand when he is realized most fully. Using natural inclinations, you can get unique masterpieces that he can never create alone, without society.

Leaving life

The great philosopher Immanuel Kant died on February 12, 1804. Thanks to the tough regime, he, despite all his ailments, survived many acquaintances and comrades.

Impact on subsequent philosophy

Kant's developments had a huge impact on the subsequent development of thought. He became the founder of the so-called German classical philosophy, which was later represented by large-scale systems of Schelling, Hegel and Fichte. Immanuel Kant also had a great influence on the formation of the scientific views of Schopenhauer. In addition, his ideas influenced romantic movements. In the second half of the 19th century, neo-Kantianism had great authority. And in the 20th century, Kant's influence was recognized by leading representatives of existentialism, the phenomenological school, analytical philosophy and philosophical anthropology.

Interesting facts from the life of a scientist

As can be seen from the biography of Immanuel Kant, he was a rather interesting and outstanding person. Consider some amazing facts from his life:

1. The philosopher refuted 5 evidence of the existence of God, which for a long time enjoyed absolute authority, and proposed its own, which to this day no one could refute.
2. Kant only ate lunch, and he replaced the rest of the meals with tea or coffee. His rise was strictly at 5 o’clock, and the end - at 22 o’clock.
3. Despite a highly moral way of thinking, Kant was a supporter of anti-Semitism.
4. The growth of the philosopher is only 157 cm, which, for example, is 9 cm less than that of Pushkin.
5. When Hitler came to power, the Nazis proudly called Kant a true Aryan.
6. Kant knew how to dress with taste, although he considered fashion a conceited affair.
7. According to student stories, the philosopher often lent a glance to one of the students when giving lectures. Once he stopped his gaze on a student who lacked buttons on his clothes. This problem immediately took all the attention from the teacher, he became confused and distracted.
8. Kant had three older and seven younger brothers and sisters. Of these, only four survived, while the rest died in early childhood.
9. Near the house of Immanuel Kant, whose biography was the subject of our review, there was a city prison. In it, prisoners were forced to sing spiritual songs daily. The vocal of criminals was so annoying to the philosopher that he turned to the burgomaster with a request to stop this practice.
10. Quotes from Immanuel Kant have always been very popular. The most popular of them is “Have the courage to use your own mind!” “That is the motto of the Enlightenment.” Some of them are also given in the review.