Abriana Wilks
Dr. Oliver
Philosophy
December 1, 2014
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German
Philosopher born April 22, 1724 and he died at the age of 79 on February 12,
1804. He lived in the same place he was born in Germany, for his whole life.
His father was a Scottish immigrant and his mother was an uneducated German
woman. "Both parents were devoted followers of the Pietist branch of the Lutheran church, which taught that religion belongs to the inner life expressed in simplicity and
obedience to moral law" (Bird). Through the
church the family attended, their pastor made it possible for Kant to have an
education. He had a rough upbringing, but with his determination and he was
able to make something of himself.
Kant was known for his work that still
influence philosophy today. Kant could be easily thought of as one of the
greatest philosophers of all time. Kant felt that knowledge was very important
to understand the world. He was a much disciplined man, he had a routine that
he followed every day, so there would not be any time wasted. He taught at the
university, smoked a pipe, and walked up and down the street the same time every
day.
Kant was known for trying to
understand Metaphysics. Metaphysics is the attempt to make sense of things.
According to A.W. Moore, it's the core part of philosophy. Other branches of
philosophy all depend on metaphysics in various ways. You could say that it's
the part of philosophy that holds the rest of the discipline together (Edmonds
and Warburton 133). The whole subject of metaphysics is basically what
philosophy about. He did three dissertations, he second one was called " Metaphysicae cum Geometria Iunctae Usus in Philosophia Naturali, Cuius
Specimen I. Continet Monadologiam Physicam (1756; The Employment in Natural
Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, of Which Sample I Contains
the Physical Monadology)—also known as theMonodologia Physica—contrasted the
Newtonian methods of thinking with those employed in the philosophy then
prevailing in German universities (Bird). The dissertation was from the
philosophy of Gottifried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz's ideas were not really
expected in Germany at the time because of his radical views. In Kant's third
dissertation, he analyzed the principle of significant reasoning, which was
basically "asserts that for everything there is a sufficient reason why it
should be rather not be (Bird). While analyzing he was very careful not to
challenge the assumptions of Leibniz's metaphysics. He
was also a lecturer, a really good he would add and humor and vivid
explanations to prevent boring lectures.
Kant
had an obsession in the limits of thought, the limits of what we can know and
understand. “In his famous book The
Critique of Pure Reason (1781), he explored these limits, pushing right to
the boundaries of what make sense” (Warburton 111). The book took him ten years to actually
complete. The book is not easy to read even Kant said the book was dry, only a
few people said they understood the book in its entirety. Even though the book
is not very easy to read, the main idea was clear, but Kant felt like the
critics were misunderstanding the whole idea of the book. The book was later
divided into three parts: Transcendental Aesthetic, Transcendental Analytic,
and Transcendental Dialect.
The Critique of Practical Reasoning was
a follow up to The Critique of Pure
Reason. He wanted the Practical
Reasoning to be the standard sourcebook of his ethical doctrines. The book
was supposed to be shorter and easier to read, but it still talked about the
same thing. In that book he mentioned 'Holy
Will’. According to Otto Bird, for a will of this kind there would be no
distinction between reason and inclination; a being possessed of a holy will
would always act as it ought. It would not, however, have the concepts of duty
and moral obligation, which enter only when reason and desire find themselves
opposed. When describing Holy Will is where it was when Kant’s religious views
started to show. He said that you can’t be either a body or a spirit you have
to be both.
Kant
has two words to describe the two different worlds in reality, noumenal and phenomenal
worlds. The noumenal world is whatever it is that lie behind appearances and
the phenomenal world is the world around us, the world we experiences through
our senses (Warburton 112). “The noumenal realm is the real of essence of being
of eternal realities, including God and the things one cannot physically touch.
In view of that, the phenomenal realm is the realm of sensual reality, the
things which we experience through the senses. This realization was a powerful
and influential synthesis of empiricism and rationalism which for Kant led to
the disposing of metaphysical claims to any cognitive status – no longer
regarded as knowledge” (Andrews). Basically the phenomenal world is
the things we see every day like the sun, buildings, and other people. Noumenal
would be things we experience, that cannot be seen.
In
1790 The Critique Judgment was
released by Kant. In Critique Judgment
Kant analyzed the notion of “aesthetic purposiveness”, which means to ascribe
beauty into something. “The explanation lies in
the fact that, when a person contemplates an object and finds it beautiful,
there is a certain harmony between
his imagination and his understanding, of which he is aware from the immediate
delight that he takes in the object” (Bird). The imagination is a powerful
thing and sometimes it see things that are not really there, but it gives us
the illusion that it is there, but it is not. The explanation sounds really complicated,
but when it is thought about it makes a lot sense. The book The Critique
Judgment was a very popular book among college boys in Germany around the last
years of Kant’s life.
Kant
started to get recognized by the Russian government and they actually asked for
his advice. Around 1790 Kant started to get really sick and he stop doing his
daily walks (or what now known as the Philosopher’s Walk) that he had been
doing all those years. He had stop writing as much because it was hard for him
to write for more than a few hours a day. Before his death, he got into trouble
about his views on Christianity, and was ordered not to talk about any
religious subjects for as long as he lecture. His health had gotten worse and
worse and, Kant died on February 12, 1804 in the same place he was born and
raised. Kant was and still is one of the greatest philosophers, with some of
the most famous works phenomenal and noumenal worlds, The Critique of Pure Reason, The
Critique of Practical Reasoning, and The Critique of Judgement.
Works Cited
Andrews, Max. “Immanuel Kant Phenomenal-Noumenal
Split.” Sententias: Dialogs
Concerning
Philosophy, Technology, and Science. Web. 2 Dec. 2014
Bird, Otto. "Immanuel Kant (German Philosopher)."
Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Encyclopedia. Britannica. Web. 2
Dec. 2014
Edmonds, David and Niguel Warburton. Philosophy Bites
Back. London: Oxford University
Press.
2012. Print.
Warburton, Nigel. A Little History of Philosophy. New
Haven and London: Yale University
Press. 2012. Print.
.
"Noumenal would be things we experience, that cannot be seen" - no, for Kant we don't experience the noumenal.
ReplyDelete"Around 1790 Kant started to get really sick and he stop doing his daily walks (or what now known as the Philosopher’s Walk) that he had been doing all those years." For a walking philosopher, that's when you know the game is over.