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Who is Kant and what did he do. Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

Who is Kant and what did he do. Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

05.03.2022

Immanuel Kant (German Immanuel Kant; April 22, 1724, Königsberg, Prussia - February 12, 1804, ibid.) - German philosopher, founder of German classical philosophy, standing on the verge of the Enlightenment and romanticism.

Born in 1724 in Königsberg in a poor family of a saddle maker, a native of Scotland. The boy was named after Saint Immanuel.

Under the care of the doctor of theology Franz Albert Schulz, who noticed talent in Immanuel, Kant graduated from the prestigious Friedrichs-Kollegium gymnasium, and then in 1740 entered the University of Königsberg.

Due to the death of his father, he fails to complete his studies and, in order to feed his family, Kant becomes a home teacher for 10 years. It was at this time, in 1747-1755, that he developed and published his cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the solar system from the original nebula, which has not lost its relevance to this day.

In 1755, Kant defended his dissertation and received a doctorate, which finally gives him the right to teach at the university. For him, forty years of teaching began.

During the Seven Years' War from 1758 to 1762, Koenigsberg was under the jurisdiction of the Russian government, which was reflected in the business correspondence of the philosopher. In particular, in 1758 he addressed an application for the position of an ordinary professor to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The period of Russian occupation was the least productive in Kant's work: for all the years of the domination of the Russian Empire over East Prussia, only a few essays on earthquakes came out from the philosopher's pen; on the contrary, immediately after the end of the occupation, Kant published a whole series of works. (Later Kant said: "Russians are our main enemies".)

Kant's natural-science and philosophical researches are supplemented by "political science" opuses; thus, in his treatise Towards Perpetual Peace, he for the first time prescribed the cultural and philosophical foundations for the future unification of Europe into a family of enlightened peoples.

Since 1770, it has been customary to count the "critical" period in Kant's work. This year, at the age of 46, he was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics at Königsberg University, where until 1797 he taught an extensive cycle of disciplines - philosophical, mathematical, physical.

During this period, Kant wrote fundamental philosophical works that brought the scientist a reputation as one of the outstanding thinkers of the 18th century and had a huge impact on the further development of world philosophical thought:

"Critique of Pure Reason" (1781) - epistemology (epistemology)
"Critique of Practical Reason" (1788) - ethics
"Critique of the faculty of judgment" (1790) - aesthetics.

Being in poor health, Kant subjected his life to a harsh regimen, which allowed him to outlive all his friends. His accuracy in following the routine became a byword even among punctual Germans and gave rise to many sayings and anecdotes. He was not married. He said that when he wanted to have a wife, he could not support her, and when he already could, he did not want to. However, he was not a misogynist either, he willingly talked with women, he was a pleasant secular interlocutor. In his old age he was cared for by one of his sisters.

Despite his philosophy, he could sometimes show ethnic prejudices, in particular, anti-Semite phobia.

Kant wrote: "Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own mind! - this is ... the motto of the Enlightenment ".

Kant was buried at the eastern corner of the north side of the Königsberg Cathedral in the professorial crypt, a chapel was erected over his grave. In 1924, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Kant, the chapel was replaced with a new structure, in the form of an open columned hall, strikingly different in style from the cathedral itself.

Kant went through two stages in his philosophical development: "pre-critical" and "critical". (These concepts are defined by the philosopher's Critique of Pure Reason, 1781; Critique of Practical Reason, 1788; Critique of Judgment, 1790).

Stage I (until 1770) - Kant developed the questions that had been posed by previous philosophical thought. In addition, during this period, the philosopher was engaged in natural science problems:

developed a cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the solar system from a giant primordial gaseous nebula (General Natural History and Theory of the Sky, 1755);
outlined the idea of a genealogical classification of the animal world, that is, the distribution of various classes of animals in the order of their possible origin;
put forward the idea of the natural origin of human races;
studied the role of ebbs and flows on our planet.

Stage II (begins in 1770 or 1780s) - deals with issues of epistemology (the process of cognition), reflects on the metaphysical (general philosophical) problems of being, cognition, man, morality, state and law, aesthetics.

Kant rejected the dogmatic method of cognition and believed that instead it should be based on the method of critical philosophizing, the essence of which lies in the study of the mind itself, the boundaries that a person can reach with the mind, and the study of individual ways of human cognition.

Kant's main philosophical work is "Critique of Pure Reason". The original problem for Kant is the question "How is pure knowledge possible?". First of all, this concerns the possibility of pure mathematics and pure natural science ("pure" means "non-empirical", a priori, or inexperienced).

Kant formulated this question in terms of distinctions between analytic and synthetic judgments - "How are synthetic judgments a priori possible?". By "synthetic" judgments, Kant understood judgments with an increment of content in comparison with the content of the concepts included in the judgment. Kant distinguished these judgments from analytical judgments that reveal the meaning of concepts. Analytic and synthetic judgments differ in whether the content of the judgment predicate follows from the content of its subject (such are analytic judgments) or, conversely, is added to it "from outside" (such are synthetic judgments). The term "a priori" means "out of experience", as opposed to the term "a posteriori" - "from experience".

Analytic judgments are always a priori: experience is not needed for them, so there are no a posteriori analytic judgments. Accordingly, experimental (a posteriori) judgments are always synthetic, since their predicates draw content from experience that was not in the subject of the judgment. As for a priori synthetic judgments, they, according to Kant, are part of mathematics and natural science. Due to their a priori nature, these judgments contain universal and necessary knowledge, that is, such that it is impossible to extract from experience; thanks to syntheticity, such judgments give an increase in knowledge.

Kant, following Hume, agrees that if our knowledge begins with experience, then its connection - universality and necessity - is not from it. However, if Hume draws a skeptical conclusion from this that the connection of experience is just a habit, then Kant refers this connection to the necessary a priori activity of the mind (in the broad sense). The revelation of this activity of the mind in relation to experience, Kant calls transcendental research. “I call transcendental ... knowledge that deals not so much with objects as with the types of our knowledge of objects ...”, writes Kant.

Kant did not share the boundless faith in the powers of the human mind, calling this faith dogmatism. Kant, according to him, made the Copernican revolution in philosophy, by being the first to point out that in order to justify the possibility of knowledge, one should proceed from the fact that not our cognitive abilities correspond to the world, but the world must conform to our abilities, so that knowledge could take place at all. In other words, our consciousness does not just passively comprehend the world as it really is (dogmatism), but, rather, on the contrary, the world conforms to the possibilities of our knowledge, namely: the mind is an active participant in the formation of the world itself, given to us in experience. Experience is essentially a synthesis of that sensory content (“matter”) that is given by the world (things in themselves) and that subjective form in which this matter (sensations) is comprehended by consciousness. A single synthetic whole of matter and form Kant calls experience, which by necessity becomes something only subjective. That is why Kant distinguishes between the world as it is in itself (that is, outside the formative activity of the mind) - a thing-in-itself, and the world as it is given in the phenomenon, that is, in experience.

In experience, two levels of shaping (activity) of the subject are distinguished. First, these are a priori forms of feeling - space and time. In contemplation, sensory data (matter) are realized by us in the forms of space and time, and thus the experience of feeling becomes something necessary and universal. This is a sensory synthesis. To the question of how pure, that is, theoretical, mathematics is possible, Kant answers: it is possible as an a priori science on the basis of pure contemplations of space and time. Pure contemplation (representation) of space is the basis of geometry, a pure representation of time is the basis of arithmetic (the number series implies the presence of an account, and the condition for the account is time).

Secondly, thanks to the categories of the understanding, the givens of contemplation are connected. This is a mental synthesis. Reason, according to Kant, deals with a priori categories, which are "forms of thought". The path to synthesized knowledge lies through the synthesis of sensations and their a priori forms - space and time - with a priori categories of reason. “Without sensibility, not a single object would be given to us, and without reason, not a single one could be thought” (Kant). Cognition is achieved by combining intuitions and concepts (categories) and is an a priori ordering of phenomena, expressed in the construction of objects based on sensations.

1.Unity
2.Set
3. Wholeness

1.Reality
2. Denial
3.Restriction

1. Substance and belonging
2. Cause and effect
3.Interaction

1. Possibility and impossibility
2. Existence and non-existence
3. Necessity and chance

The basis of any synthesis is, according to Kant, the transcendental unity of apperception (“apperception” is a term). This is logical self-consciousness, “a generating representation I think, which must be able to accompany all other representations and be the same in every consciousness.”

Much space is devoted in the Critique to how representations are subsumed under the concepts of the understanding (categories). Here the decisive role is played by imagination and rational categorical schematism. According to Kant, there must be a mediating link between intuitions and categories, thanks to which abstract concepts, which are categories, are able to organize sensory data, turning them into law-like experience, that is, into nature. The mediator between thinking and sensibility in Kant is the productive power of the imagination. This ability creates a scheme of time as "a pure image of all sense objects in general."

Thanks to the scheme of time, there exists, for example, the scheme of "multiplicity" - a number as a successive attachment of units to each other; the scheme of "reality" - the existence of an object in time; the scheme of "substantiality" - the stability of a real object in time; scheme of "existence" - the presence of an object at a certain time; the scheme of "necessity" - the presence of a certain object at all times. By the productive power of the imagination, the subject, according to Kant, generates the foundations of pure natural science (they are also the most general laws of nature). According to Kant, pure natural science is the result of a priori categorical synthesis.

Knowledge is given by the synthesis of categories and observations. Kant showed for the first time that our knowledge of the world is not a passive reflection of reality; according to Kant, it arises due to the active creative activity of the unconscious productive power of the imagination.

Finally, having described the empirical application of reason (that is, its application in experience), Kant asks the question of the possibility of a pure application of reason (reason, according to Kant, is the lowest level of reason, the application of which is limited to the sphere of experience). Here a new question arises: "How is metaphysics possible?". As a result of the study of pure reason, Kant shows that reason, when it tries to get unambiguous and conclusive answers to philosophical questions proper, inevitably plunges itself into contradictions; this means that the mind cannot have a transcendent application that would allow it to achieve theoretical knowledge about things in themselves, because, seeking to go beyond experience, it "entangles itself" in paralogisms and antinomies (contradictions, each of whose statements is equally justified); reason in the narrow sense - as opposed to reason operating with categories - can only have a regulatory meaning: to be a regulator of the movement of thought towards the goals of systematic unity, to give a system of principles that any knowledge must satisfy

Imperative - a rule that contains "objective coercion to act."

Moral law - coercion, the need to act contrary to empirical influences. So, it takes the form of a coercive command - an imperative.

Hypothetical imperatives (relative or conditional imperatives) say that actions are effective in achieving certain goals (for example, pleasure or success).

The principles of morality go back to one supreme principle - the categorical imperative, which prescribes actions that are good in themselves, objectively, without regard to any goal other than morality itself (for example, the requirement of honesty).

- “act only according to such a maxim, guided by which you can at the same time wish it to become a universal law” [options: “always act in such a way that the maxim (principle) of your behavior can become a universal law (act as you would could wish for everyone to act)”];

- “act in such a way that you always treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, as an end, and never treat it only as a means” [wording option: “treat humanity in your person (as well as in the person of any other) always as an end and never - only as a means"];

- “the principle of the will of each person as a will that establishes universal laws with all its maxims”: one should “do everything based on the maxim of one’s will as one that could also have itself as an object as a will that establishes universal laws.”

These are three different ways of representing the same law, and each of them combines the other two.

The existence of man "has in itself the highest goal ..."; “only morality and humanity, insofar as it is capable of it, have dignity,” writes Kant.

Duty is the necessity of action out of respect for the moral law.

In ethical teaching, a person is considered from two points of view: a person as a phenomenon; man as a thing in itself.

The behavior of the former is determined solely by external circumstances and is subject to a hypothetical imperative. The behavior of the second must obey the categorical imperative, the highest a priori moral principle. Thus, behavior can be determined by both practical interests and moral principles. Two tendencies arise: the pursuit of happiness (the satisfaction of certain material needs) and the pursuit of virtue. These strivings can contradict each other, and thus the “antinomy of practical reason” arises.

As conditions for the applicability of the categorical imperative in the world of phenomena, Kant puts forward three postulates of practical reason. The first postulate requires the complete autonomy of the human will, its freedom. Kant expresses this postulate with the formula: "You must, therefore you can." Recognizing that without the hope of happiness, people would not have had the spiritual strength to fulfill their duty in spite of internal and external obstacles, Kant puts forward the second postulate: "the immortality of the human soul must exist." Thus, Kant resolves the antinomy of striving for happiness and striving for virtue by transferring the hopes of the individual to the supra-empirical world. For the first and second postulates, a guarantor is needed, and only God can be it, which means that he must exist - such is the third postulate of practical reason.

The autonomy of Kant's ethics means the dependence of religion on ethics. According to Kant, "religion is no different from morality in its content."

The middle of the 18th century was a turning point for German philosophy. It was at this time that outstanding scientists appeared in Germany, whose ideas and concepts changed the view of the philosophy of ideal objectivism and subjectivism. The scientific theories of I. Kant, G. Hegel, L. Feuerbach helped to take a fresh look at the position in the society of a subject who actively cognizes the world. It was thanks to them that the method of dialectical knowledge appeared.

Immanuel Kant - the first of the greatest German philosophers

Immanuel Kant is rightfully considered the world's largest luminary of philosophy after Aristotle and Plato. The future scientist was born in 1724 in Koenigsberg in the family of a master saddler. The father dreamed of giving his only son a good education and making him a minister of the church. Young Kant graduated from the local university and began to earn his living by private lessons, but at the same time constantly improved his education. As a result, he defended his dissertation and began teaching logic and metaphysics at the university.

Kant subordinated his whole life to a strict timetable and followed it punctually all his life. Biographers of the scientist note that his life was poor in events: he subordinated his existence completely to intellectual work.

The scientist had friends, but he never skimped on his studies for the sake of communication, he could be carried away by beautiful and smart women, but he never allowed passion to captivate him and distract him from the main thing, that is, from scientific work.

Two periods in the work of Immanuel Kant

Kant's scientific and philosophical activity can be divided into two time periods: pre-critical and critical.

The first period falls on the 50-60s of the 18th century. At this stage, the scientist is interested in the secrets of the universe and he acts more like a mathematician, physicist, chemist, biologist, that is, a materialist who, with the help of scientific dialectics, tries to explain the laws of nature and its self-development. The main problem that interests the scientist during this period is the explanation of the state of the Universe, the Cosmos. He was the first to connect the tides in the seas with the phases of the moon and put forward a hypothesis about the origin of our galaxy from a gaseous nebula.

In the later "critical" period" - the 70-80s - Kant completely reoriented himself to the problems of human morality and morality. The main questions that the scientist tries to answer are: what is a person? what is he born for? what is the purpose of human existence? what is happiness? what are the main laws of human coexistence?

A feature of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant is that he made the subject of study not the object, but the subject of cognitive activity. Only the specificity of the activity of the subject cognizing the world can determine the possible ways of cognition.

Briefly about the theory and practice in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant

In theoretical philosophy, Kant tries to define the limits and possibilities of human knowledge, the possibilities of scientific activity and the limits of memory. He poses the question: what can I know? how can i find out?

Kant believes that the knowledge of the world with the help of sensory images is a priori based on the arguments of the mind, and only in this way can the desired result be achieved.

Any event or thing is displayed in the mind of the subject, thanks to the information received through the senses. Such reflections Kant called phenomena. He believed that we do not know the things themselves, but only their phenomena. In other words, we cognize "things in themselves" and have our own subjective opinion about everything, based on the negation of knowledge (knowledge cannot appear from nowhere).

According to Kant, the highest way of cognition combines the use of reason and reliance on experience, but reason rejects experience and tries to go beyond the limits of reason, this is the highest happiness of human knowledge and existence.

What are antinomies?

Antinomies are statements that refute each other. Kant cites four of the most famous antinomies to support his theory of reason and experience.

The world (Universe, Cosmos) has a beginning and an end, i.e. boundaries, because everything in the world has a beginning and an end. However, the Universe is infinite and unknowable by the human mind.
All the most complex can be decomposed into the simplest elements. But there is nothing simple in the world, everything is complicated, and the more we lay out, the more difficult it is for us to explain the results.
There is freedom in the world, however, all living beings are constantly subject to the laws of nature.
The world has a first cause (God). But at the same time, there is no root cause, everything is accidental, like the very existence of the Universe.

How can these theories and antitheories be explained? Kant argued that in order to understand them and come to a single conclusion, faith is needed. Kant did not rebel against science at all, he only said that science is not at all omnipotent and sometimes it is impossible to solve a problem, even relying on all sorts of scientific methods.

The main questions of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant

The scientist set himself a global task: to try to answer the questions that have long worried the best minds of mankind. What am I here for? What should I do?

Kant believed that two directions of spiritual activity are characteristic of a person: the first is sensually perceived, in which we rely on feelings and ready-made templates, and the second is intelligible, which can be achieved with the help of faith and independent perception of the surrounding world.

And on this second path, it is no longer theoretical, but practical reason, since, as Kant believed, moral laws cannot be derived theoretically on the basis of experience. No one can say why a person acts one way or another in any conditions. This is only a matter of his conscience and other moral qualities that cannot be artificially brought up, each person deduces them for himself independently.

It was at this time that Kant deduces the highest moral document - a categorical prescription that determines the existence of mankind at all stages of development and under all political systems: act towards others as you want them to act towards you.

Of course, this is a somewhat simplified formulation of the prescription, but its essence is precisely this. Kant believed that each by his behavior forms a model of actions for others: an action in response to a similar action.

Features of the social philosophy of Immanuel Kant

Enlightenment philosophers considered progress in the development of human social relations. Kant in his writings tried to find patterns in the development of progress and ways to influence it. At the same time, he believed that absolutely every single individual affects progress. Therefore, for him, the rational activity of all mankind as a whole was primary.

At the same time, Kant considered the reasons for the imperfection of human relations and found them in the internal conflicts of each person individually. That is, as long as we suffer because of our own selfishness, ambition, greed or envy, we will not be able to create a perfect society.

The philosopher considered the ideal of the state structure to be a republic, which is ruled by a wise and just person, endowed with all the powers of absolute power. Like Locke and Hobbes, Kant believed that it was necessary to separate the legislative from the executive, while it was necessary to abolish feudal rights to land and peasants.

Kant paid special attention to questions of war and peace. He believed that it was possible to hold world negotiations aimed at establishing eternal peace on the planet. Otherwise, wars will destroy all the achievements with such difficulty achieved by mankind.

Extremely interesting are the conditions under which, according to the philosopher, all wars would stop:

All territorial claims must be destroyed,
There must be a ban on the sale, purchase and inheritance of States,
Standing armies must be destroyed,
No state shall grant monetary or any other loans for the preparation of war,
No state has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of another state,
It is unacceptable to conduct espionage or organize terrorist acts in order to undermine trust between states.

Of course, these ideas can be called utopian, but the scientist believed that humanity would eventually achieve such progress in social relations that it would be able to resolve all issues of regulating international relations through peaceful negotiations.

Immanuel Kant is a German philosopher, the founder of German classical philosophy, who worked on the verge of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Born April 22, 1724 in Königsberg in a poor family of artisan Johann Georg Kant. In 1730 he entered elementary school, and in the autumn of 1732 he entered the state church gymnasium Collegium Fridericianum. Under the care of the doctor of theology Franz Albert Schulz, who noticed extraordinary talent in Kant, he graduated from the Latin department of a prestigious church gymnasium, and then in 1740 entered the University of Koenigsberg. The faculty at which he studied is not exactly known. Presumably, it was the faculty of theology, although some researchers, based on an analysis of the list of subjects to which he paid the most attention, call it medical. Due to the death of his father, Immanuel failed to complete his studies and, in order to feed his family, he became a home teacher for 10 years.

Kant returned to Königsberg in 1753 with the hope of starting a career at Königsberg University. On June 12, 1755, he defended his dissertation, for which he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, which gave him the right to teach at the university. For him, forty years of teaching began. Kant gave his first lecture in the autumn of 1755. During his first year as an associate professor, Kant lectured sometimes twenty-eight hours a week.

The war between Prussia and France, Austria and Russia had a significant impact on Kant's life and work. In this war, Prussia was defeated, and Koenigsberg was captured by Russian troops. On January 24, 1758, the city swore allegiance to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Together with the teachers of the university, Kant also took the oath. Classes at the university were not interrupted during the war, but classes with Russian officers were added to the usual lectures. Kant read fortification and pyrotechnics for Russian listeners. Some biographers of the philosopher believe that such well-known persons in Russian history as the future Catherine's nobleman G. Orlov and the great commander A. Suvorov could have been his listeners at that time.

By the age of forty, Kant was still a privatdozent and received no money from the university. Neither lectures nor publications made it possible to overcome material uncertainty. According to eyewitnesses, he had to sell books from his library in order to satisfy the most pressing needs. Nevertheless, recalling these years, Kant called them the time of the greatest satisfaction in his life. He strove in his education and teaching for the ideal of broad practical knowledge about man, which led to the fact that Kant continued to be considered a "secular philosopher" even when his forms of thinking and way of life completely changed.

By the end of the 1760s, Kant became known beyond the borders of Prussia. In 1769, Professor Hausen from Halle publishes biographies of famous philosophers and historians of the 18th century. in Germany and beyond. This collection also included a biography of Kant.

In 1770, at the age of 46, Kant was appointed ordinary professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg, where until 1797 he taught an extensive cycle of disciplines - philosophical, mathematical, physical. Kant occupied this position until his death and performed his duties with his usual punctuality.

By 1794, Kant published a number of articles in which he was ironic about the dogmas of the church, which caused a confrontation with the Prussian authorities. Rumors spread about the impending massacre of the philosopher. Despite this, in 1794 the Russian Academy of Sciences elected Kant as its member.

Having reached the age of 75, Kant felt a decline in strength, significantly reduced the number of lectures, the last of which he gave on June 23, 1796. In November 1801, Kant finally parted with the university.

Immanuel Kant died on February 12, 1804 in Konigsberg. Back in 1799, Kant ordered his own funeral. He asked that they take place on the third day after his death and be as modest as possible: let only relatives and friends be present, and the body be interred in an ordinary cemetery. It turned out differently. The whole city said goodbye to the thinker. Access to the deceased lasted sixteen days. The coffin was carried by 24 students, the entire officer corps of the garrison and thousands of fellow citizens followed the coffin. Kant was buried in the professorial crypt adjoining the Königsberg Cathedral.

Major works

1. Critique of Pure Reason (1781).

2. The idea of universal history in the world-civil plan (1784).

3. Metaphysical principles of natural science (1786).

4. Critique of Practical Reason (1788).

5. The End of All Things (1794).

6. To eternal peace (1795).

7. On the organ of the soul (1796).

8. Metaphysics of Morals (1797).

9. Notification of the imminent signing of a treaty on perpetual peace in philosophy (1797).

10. About the imaginary right to lie out of philanthropy (1797).

11. Dispute of the faculties (1798).

12. Anthropology (1798).

13. Logic (1801).

14. Physical Geography (1802).

15. On Pedagogy (1803).

Theoretical views

Kant's political and constitutional views are contained mainly in the works "Ideas of World History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View", "Toward an Eternal Peace", "Metaphysical Principles of the Doctrine of Law".

The cornerstone principle of his views is the assertion that every person has perfect dignity, absolute value, and a person is not an instrument for the implementation of any plans, even noble ones. A person is a subject of moral consciousness, fundamentally different from the surrounding nature, therefore, in his behavior, he must be guided by the dictates of the moral law. This law is a priori and therefore unconditional. Kant calls it the "categorical imperative". Compliance with the requirements of the "categorical imperative" is possible when individuals are able to follow the voice of "practical reason". "Practical reason" covered both the field of ethics and the field of law.

The totality of conditions that limit the arbitrariness of one in relation to others through the objective general law of freedom, Kant calls right. It is designed to regulate the external form of human behavior, human actions. The true calling of law is to reliably guarantee morality (subjective motives, structure of thoughts and feelings), as well as the social space in which morality could normally manifest itself, in which individual freedom could be freely realized. This is the essence of Kant's idea of the moral validity of law.

The necessity of the state, which Kant saw as an association of many people subject to legal laws, he associated not with the practical, sensually tangible, individual, group and general needs of members of society, but with categories that entirely belong to the rational, intelligible world. The benefit of the state is not at all the solution of such problems as concern for the material security of citizens, for the satisfaction of their social and cultural needs, for their work, health, education, and so on. This is not good for the citizens. The benefit of the state is the state of the greatest consistency of the constitution with the principles of law, to which the mind obliges to strive with the help of the "categorical imperative". The advancement and defense of Kant's thesis that the benefit and purpose of the state is in the improvement of law, in the maximum compliance of the structure and regime of the state with the principles of law, gave reason to consider Kant one of the main creators of the concept of "rule of law". The state must rely on law and coordinate its actions with it. Deviating from this provision can cost the state extremely dearly: the state risks losing the trust and respect of its citizens, its activities will no longer find an internal response and support in citizens. People will consciously take a position of alienation from such a state.

Kant distinguishes three categories of law: natural law, which has its source in self-evident a priori principles; positive law, the source of which is the will of the legislator; justice is a claim that is not provided for by law and therefore not secured by coercion. Natural law, in turn, is divided into two branches: private law (the relationship of individuals as owners) and public law (the relationship between people united in a union of citizens, as members of a political whole).

The central institution of public law is the prerogative of the people to demand their participation in the establishment of the rule of law by adopting a constitution expressing their will, which is the democratic idea of popular sovereignty. The supremacy of the people, proclaimed by Kant following Rousseau, determines the freedom, equality and independence of all citizens in the state - the organization of the aggregate multitude of persons bound by legal laws.

According to Kant, every state has three powers: legislative (belonging only to the confident "collective will of the people"), executive (concentrated with the legitimate ruler and subordinate to the legislative, supreme power), judicial (appointed by the executive power). The subordination and consent of these authorities are capable of preventing despotism and guaranteeing the welfare of the state.

Kant did not attach great importance to the classification of state forms, distinguishing the following three types: autocracy (absolutism), aristocracy and democracy. In addition, he believed that the center of gravity of the problem of the state structure lies directly in the ways and methods of governing the people. From this position, he distinguishes between republican and despotic forms of government: the first is based on the separation of the executive from the legislative, the second, on the contrary, on their merger. Kant considered the republican system as the ideal state structure, since it is most durable: the law in the republic is independent and does not depend on any person. However, Kant disputes the right of the people to punish the head of state, even if he violates his duty to the country, believing that an individual may not feel internally connected with state power, not feel his duty to it, but outwardly, formally, he is always obliged to fulfill it. laws and regulations.

An important proposition put forward by Kant is the project of establishing "eternal peace". However, it can be achieved only in the distant future, through the creation of an all-encompassing federation of independent, equal states built on the republican type. According to the philosopher, the formation of such a cosmopolitan union, in the end, is inevitable. For Kant, eternal peace is the highest political good, which is achieved only with the best system, "where power belongs not to people, but to laws."

Of great importance was the principle formulated by Immanuel Kant about the priority of morality over politics. This principle was directed against the immoral policies of those in power. Kant considers publicity, openness of all political actions, to be the main remedy against immoral politics. He believed that "all actions relating to the law of other people are unjust, the maxims of which are incompatible with publicity", while "all maxims that need publicity (in order to achieve their goal) are consistent with both law and politics." Kant argued that "the right of man must be considered sacred, no matter how much sacrifice it costs the ruling power."

It was Kant who ingeniously formulated the main problem of constitutionalism: "The constitution of the state, in the final analysis, is based on the morality of its citizens, which, in turn, is based on a good constitution."

German Immanuel Kant

German philosopher, founder of German classical philosophy

short biography

The largest German scientist, philosopher, founder of German classical philosophy, a man whose works had a huge impact on the development of philosophical thought in the 18th and subsequent centuries.

In 1724, on April 22, Immanuel was born in Prussian Konigsberg. His whole biography will be connected with this city; if Kant left its limits, then for a short distance and not for long. The future great philosopher was born into a poor, large family; his father was a simple craftsman. Immanuel's giftedness was noticed by the doctor of theology Franz Schulz and helped him become a student at the prestigious Friedrichs Collegium gymnasium.

In 1740, Immanuel Kant became a student at the Albertina University of Koenigsberg, but the death of his father prevented him from completely unlearning. For 10 years, Kant, providing financial support for his family, has been working as a home teacher in different families, having left his native Koenigsberg. Difficult everyday circumstances do not prevent him from engaging in scientific activities. So, in 1747-1750. Kant's attention was focused on his own cosmogonic theory of the origin of the solar system from the original nebula, the relevance of which has not been lost to this day.

In 1755 he returned to Konigsberg. Kant finally managed not only to complete his university education, but also, having defended several dissertations, to receive a doctorate degree and the right to engage in teaching activities as an assistant professor and professor. Within the walls of his alma mater, he worked for four decades. Until 1770, Kant worked as an extraordinary associate professor, after that he was an ordinary professor in the department of logic and metaphysics. Philosophical, physical, mathematical and other disciplines Immanuel Kant taught students until 1796.

The year 1770 also became a milestone in his scientific biography: he divides his work into the so-called. subcritical and critical periods. In the second, a number of fundamental works were written, which not only enjoyed great success, but also allowed Kant to enter the circle of outstanding thinkers of the century. The field of epistemology includes his work Critique of Pure Reason (1781), ethics - Critique of Practical Reason (1788). In 1790, the essay "Critique of the Faculty of Judgment" touching on issues of aesthetics was published. Kant's worldview as a philosopher was formed to a certain extent thanks to the study of the writings of Hume and a number of other thinkers.

In turn, the influence of the works of Immanuel Kant himself on the subsequent development of philosophical thought is difficult to overestimate. German classical philosophy, of which he was the founder, later included major philosophical systems developed by Fichte, Schelling, Hegel. The romantic movement experienced the impact of Kant's teachings. Schopenhauer's philosophy also shows the influence of his ideas. In the second half of the XIX century. “neo-Kantianism” was very relevant; in the 20th century, Kant’s philosophical heritage influenced, in particular, existentialism, the phenomenological school, etc.

In 1796, Immanuel Kant stopped lecturing, in 1801 he retired from the university, but did not stop his scientific activity until 1803. The thinker could never boast of iron health and found a way out in a clear daily routine, strict adherence to his own system, good habits, which surprised even pedantic Germans. Kant never connected his life with any of the women, although he had nothing against the fair sex. Regularity and accuracy helped him live longer than many of his peers. He died in his native Konigsberg on February 12, 1804; they buried him in the professorial crypt of the city cathedral.

Biography from Wikipedia

Born into a poor family of a saddle maker. Immanuel had been in poor health since childhood. His mother tried to give her son the highest quality education. She encouraged curiosity and fantasy in her son. Until the end of his life, Kant remembered his mother with great love and gratitude. The father instilled in his son a love of work. Under the care of the doctor of theology F. A. Schulz, who noticed talent in him, he graduated from the prestigious Friedrichs-Collegium gymnasium (de: Collegium Fridericianum), and then in 1740 he entered the University of Königsberg. There were 4 faculties - theological, legal, medical and philosophical. It is not known exactly which faculty Kant chose. Information about this has not been preserved. Biographers differ in their assumptions. Kant's interest in philosophy was awakened by Professor Martin Knutzen. Knutzen was a pietist and Wolfian, fascinated by English natural history. It was he who inspired Kant to write a work on physics.

Kant began this work in his fourth year of study. This work progressed slowly. The young Kant had little knowledge and skills. He was poor. His mother had died by then, and his father could barely make ends meet. Kant worked part-time with lessons; in addition, rich classmates tried to help him. Pastor Schultz and a maternal relative, Uncle Richter, also helped him. There is evidence that it was Richter who took on most of the costs of publishing Kant's debut work, Thoughts on the True Evaluation of Living Forces. Kant wrote it for 3 years and printed it for 4 years. The work was fully printed only in 1749. Kant's work has elicited various responses; there was a lot of criticism among them.

Due to the death of his father, he fails to complete his studies and, in order to feed his family, he becomes a home teacher in Yudshen (now Veselovka) for 10 years. It was at this time, in the years 1747-1755, that he developed and published his cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the solar system from the original nebula.

In 1755, Kant defended his dissertation and received a doctorate, which gives him the right to teach at the university. For him, forty years of teaching began.

During the Seven Years' War from 1758 to 1762, Koenigsberg was under the jurisdiction of the Russian government, which was reflected in the business correspondence of the philosopher. In particular, in 1758 he addressed an application for the position of an ordinary professor to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Unfortunately, the letter never reached her, but was lost in the governor's office. The issue of the department was resolved in favor of another applicant - on the grounds that he was older both in years and in teaching experience.

The period of domination of the Russian Empire over East Prussia was the least productive in Kant's work: for all the years, only a few essays on earthquakes came out from the philosopher's pen, but immediately after its completion, Kant published a whole series of works.

During the several years that the Russian troops were in Königsberg, Kant kept several young noblemen in his apartment as boarders and became acquainted with many Russian officers, among whom there were many thinking people. One of the officers' circles suggested that the philosopher give lectures on physics and physical geography (Immanuel Kant, after being refused, was very intensively engaged in private lessons: he even taught fortification and pyrotechnics).

The plan long conceived as to how the field of pure philosophy was to be cultivated consisted of three tasks:

what can i know? (metaphysics);
what should I do? (morality);
what can I hope for? (religion);

finally, this was to be followed by the fourth task - what is a person? (anthropology, on which I have been lecturing for more than twenty years).

"Critique of Pure Reason" (1781) - epistemology (epistemology)
"Critique of Practical Reason" (1788) - ethics
"Critique of the Faculty of Judgment" (1790) - aesthetics

There is an opinion that Kant sometimes showed anti-Semite phobia.

Kant wrote: “Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own mind! - this is ... the motto of the Enlightenment.

Stages of scientific activity

Stage I (until 1770) - Kant developed the questions that had been posed by previous philosophical thought. In addition, during this period, the philosopher was engaged in natural science problems:

developed a cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the solar system from a giant primordial gaseous nebula (General Natural History and Theory of the Sky, 1755);
outlined the idea of a genealogical classification of the animal world, that is, the distribution of various classes of animals in the order of their possible origin;
put forward the idea of the natural origin of human races;
studied the role of ebbs and flows on our planet.

Philosophy

Epistemology

Kant's main philosophical work is the Critique of Pure Reason. The original problem for Kant is the question "How is pure knowledge possible?". First of all, this concerns the possibility of pure mathematics and pure natural science ("pure" means "non-empirical", a priori, or inexperienced). Kant formulated this question in terms of a distinction between analytical and synthetic judgments - "How are synthetic judgments a priori possible?" By "synthetic" judgments, Kant understood judgments with an increment of content in comparison with the content of the concepts included in the judgment. Kant distinguished these judgments from analytical judgments that reveal the meaning of concepts. Analytic and synthetic judgments differ in whether the content of the judgment predicate follows from the content of its subject (such are analytic judgments) or, conversely, is added to it "from outside" (such are synthetic judgments). The term "a priori" means "out of experience", as opposed to the term "a posteriori" - "from experience".

Analytic judgments are always a priori: experience is not needed for them, so there are no a posteriori analytic judgments. Accordingly, experimental (a posteriori) judgments are always synthetic, since their predicates draw content from experience that was not in the subject of the judgment. Concerning a priori synthetic judgments, then, according to Kant, they are part of mathematics and natural science. Due to their a priori nature, these judgments contain universal and necessary knowledge, that is, such that it is impossible to extract from experience; thanks to syntheticity, such judgments give an increase in knowledge.

In experience, two levels of shaping (activity) of the subject are distinguished. First, these are a priori forms of feeling (sensory contemplation) - space (external feeling) and time (internal feeling). In contemplation, sensory data (matter) are realized by us in the forms of space and time, and thus the experience of feeling becomes something necessary and universal. This is a sensory synthesis. To the question of how pure, that is, theoretical, mathematics is possible, Kant answers: it is possible as an a priori science on the basis of pure contemplations of space and time. Pure contemplation (representation) of space is the basis of geometry (three-dimensionality: for example, the relative position of points and lines and other figures), a pure representation of time is the basis of arithmetic (the number series implies the presence of an account, and the condition for the account is time).

Quantity categories
- Unity
- A bunch of
- Wholeness
Quality categories
- Reality
- Negation
- Limitation
Categories of relationship
- Substance and belonging
- Cause and investigation
- Interaction
Categories of modality
- Possibility and impossibility
- Existence and non-existence
- Necessity and chance

The sensory material of cognition, ordered through the a priori mechanisms of contemplation and reason, becomes what Kant calls experience. On the basis of sensations (which can be expressed by statements like “this is yellow” or “this is sweet”), which are formed through time and space, as well as through a priori categories of reason, judgments of perception arise: “the stone is warm”, “the sun is round”, then - “the sun shone, and then the stone became warm”, and further - developed judgments of experience, in which the observed objects and processes are brought under the category of causality: “the sun caused the stone to heat up”, etc. Kant's concept of experience coincides with the concept of nature: “ …nature and possible experience is exactly the same" representation i think which must be able to accompany all other representations and be the same in every consciousness. As I. S. Narsky writes, transcendental apperception Kant is “the principle of constancy and systemic organization of the action of categories, arising from the unity of the one who applies them, reasoning"I". (...) It is common to ... empirical "I" and in this sense, the objective logical structure of their consciousness, ensuring the internal unity of experience, science and nature.

Much space is devoted in the Critique to how representations are subsumed under the concepts of the understanding (categories). Here the decisive role is played by the ability of judgment, imagination and rational categorical schematism. According to Kant, there must be a mediating link between intuitions and categories, thanks to which abstract concepts, which are categories, are able to organize sensory data, turning them into law-like experience, that is, into nature. The intermediary between thinking and sensibility in Kant is productive power of the imagination. This ability creates a scheme of time as "a pure image of all sense objects in general." Thanks to the scheme of time, there exists, for example, the scheme of "multiplicity" - a number as a successive attachment of units to each other; the scheme of "reality" - the existence of an object in time; the scheme of "substantiality" - the stability of a real object in time; scheme of "existence" - the presence of an object at a certain time; the scheme of "necessity" - the presence of a certain object at all times. By the productive power of the imagination, the subject, according to Kant, generates the foundations of pure natural science (they are also the most general laws of nature). According to Kant, pure natural science is the result of a priori categorical synthesis.

Knowledge is given by synthesis of categories and observations. Kant showed for the first time that our knowledge of the world is not a passive reflection of reality; according to Kant, it arises due to the active creative activity of the unconscious productive power of the imagination.

Kant argues that the solution of antinomies "can never be found in experience ...".

Kant considers the solution of the first two antinomies to be the identification of a situation in which "the question itself does not make sense." Kant argues, as I. S. Narsky writes, “that the properties of ‘beginning’, ‘boundary’, ‘simplicity’ and ‘complexity’ are not applicable to the world of things in themselves outside of time and space, and the world of phenomena is never given to us in in its entirety precisely as an integral “world”, while the empiricism of the fragments of the phenomenal world cannot be invested in these characteristics ... ". As for the third and fourth antinomies, the dispute in them, according to Kant, is "settled" if one recognizes the truth of their antitheses for phenomena and assumes the (regulative) truth of their theses for things in themselves. Thus, the existence of antinomies, according to Kant, is one of the proofs of the correctness of his transcendental idealism, which contrasted the world of things in themselves and the world of appearances.

According to Kant, any future metaphysics that wants to be a science must take into account the implications of his critique of pure reason.

Ethics and the problem of religion

In the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant expounds the theory of ethics. Practical reason in Kant's teaching is the only source of principles of moral behavior; it is the mind growing into the will. Ethics of Kant is autonomous and a priori, it is aimed at what is due, and not at what exists. Its autonomy means the independence of moral principles from non-moral arguments and grounds. The reference point for Kantian ethics is not the actual actions of people, but the norms arising from the "pure" moral will. This is ethics debt. In the apriorism of duty, Kant seeks the source of the universality of moral norms.

Categorical imperative

Imperative - a rule that contains "objective coercion to act." Moral law - coercion, the need to act contrary to empirical influences. So, it takes the form of a coercive command - an imperative.

Hypothetical imperatives(relative or conditional imperatives) say that actions are effective in achieving certain goals (for example, pleasure or success).

The principles of morality go back to one supreme principle - categorical imperative, prescribing actions that are good in themselves, objectively, without regard to any goal other than morality itself (for example, the requirement of honesty). The categorical imperative says:

« act only in accordance with such a maxim, guided by which you can at the same time wish it to become a universal law"[options: "always act in such a way that the maxim (principle) of your behavior can become a universal law (act as you would wish everyone to act)"];
« act in such a way that you always treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, as an end, and never treat it only as a means"[wording option:" treat humanity in your own person (as well as in the person of any other) always as an end and never - only as a means"];
« principle the will of every person will, with all its maxims establishing universal laws”: one should “do everything from the maxim of one’s will as such, which could also have itself as an object as a will that establishes universal laws.”

These are three different ways of representing the same law, and each of them combines the other two.

The existence of man "has in itself the highest goal ..."; “... only morality and humanity, insofar as it is capable of it, have dignity,” writes Kant.

Duty is the necessity of action out of respect for the moral law.

In ethical teaching, a person is considered from two points of view:

man as a phenomenon;
man as a thing in itself.

As conditions for the applicability of the categorical imperative in the world of phenomena, Kant puts forward three postulates of practical reason. The first postulate requires the complete autonomy of the human will, its freedom. Kant expresses this postulate with the formula: "You must, therefore you can." Recognizing that without the hope of happiness, people would not have had enough spiritual strength to fulfill their duty in spite of internal and external obstacles, Kant puts forward the second postulate: “there must be immortality human soul." Thus, Kant resolves the antinomy of striving for happiness and striving for virtue by transferring the hopes of the individual to the supra-empirical world. For the first and second postulates, a guarantor is needed, and only God can be it, which means that he must exist- such is the third postulate of practical reason.

The autonomy of Kant's ethics means the dependence of religion on ethics. According to Kant, "religion is no different from morality in its content."

The doctrine of law and the state

The state is an association of many people subject to legal laws.

In the doctrine of law, Kant developed the ideas of the French Enlightenment: the need to destroy all forms of personal dependence, the assertion of personal freedom and equality before the law. Kant derived legal laws from moral ones. Kant recognized the right to freely express his opinion, but with a caveat: "argue as much as you like and about anything, just obey."

State structures cannot be immutable and change when they are no longer necessary. And only the republic is durable (the law is independent and does not depend on any individual).

In the doctrine of relations between states, Kant opposes the unjust state of these relations, against the dominance of strong law in international relations. He advocates the creation of an equal union of peoples. Kant believed that such a union brings humanity closer to the realization of the idea of eternal peace.

The doctrine of expediency. Aesthetics

As a connecting link between the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant creates the Critique of Judgment, which focuses on the concept of expediency. Subjective expediency, according to Kant, is present in the aesthetic ability of judgment, objective - in teleological. The first is expressed in the harmony of the aesthetic object.

In aesthetics, Kant distinguishes between two types of aesthetic ideas - the beautiful and the sublime. The aesthetic is what one likes about an idea, regardless of its presence. Beauty is perfection associated with form. In Kant, the beautiful acts as a "symbol of the morally good." The Sublime is the perfection associated with infinity in force (dynamically sublime) or in space (mathematical sublime). An example of a dynamically sublime is a storm. An example of the mathematically sublime is mountains. A genius is a person capable of embodying aesthetic ideas.

The teleological ability of judgment is connected with the concept of a living organism as a manifestation of expediency in nature.

About a human

Kant's views on man are reflected in the book Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798). Its main part consists of three sections in accordance with the three abilities of a person: knowledge, feeling of pleasure and displeasure, the ability to desire.

Man is “the most important thing in the world”, since he has self-consciousness.

Man is the highest value, it is a personality. Self-consciousness of a person gives rise to egoism as a natural property of a person. A person does not manifest it only when he considers his "I" not as the whole world, but only as part of it. It is necessary to curb egoism, to control the spiritual manifestations of the personality with the mind.

A person can have unconscious ideas - "dark". In darkness, the process of the birth of creative ideas can take place, which a person can know only at the level of sensations.

From the sexual feeling (passion) the mind is clouded. But in a person, a moral and cultural norm is imposed on feelings and desires.

Such a concept as genius was subjected to Kant's analysis. "The talent for invention is called genius."

Memory

In 1935, the International Astronomical Union named a crater on the visible side of the Moon after Immanuel Kant.

Popular biographies

The name of Immanuel Kant is familiar to us from Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. In the first chapter, a wonderful dialogue takes place between Woland and the Soviet writer Ivanushka Bezdomny, in which he proposes to exile the philosopher to Solovki and is very upset that this is impossible to do. Unfortunately, this is where the acquaintance with Kant's creative heritage ends, and this is not surprising. It is hard to wade through the jungle of meanings of the Königsberg sage, but for a professional this name means a lot. Immanuel Kant led European thought out of the impasse of positivism and showed new horizons for understanding reality.

Green man from Koenigsberg

One of the legends says that Kant was born with some strange body color - either green or blue. This happened on April 22, 1724 in the Prussian Königsberg, and no one believed that he would survive. By the way, the philosopher, who embraced myriad universes with his mind, never left his native city. Kant really was in poor health, and this forced him to submit his life to a strict regime. Kant did not hesitate to discuss his sores in lectures, citing them as examples. He never took medicine, solving his problems with volitional suggestions.

Kant's punctuality became the talk of the town. Strictly at the same time, he passed by city shops, the owners of which checked the time on him. He had nothing but a talent for philosophizing and an iron will that subordinated itself to this science. The craftsman's father died when Immanuel was studying at the University of Königsberg. To feed his family, the young man is forced to interrupt his studies and earn money as a home teacher. He manages to defend his dissertation only in 1755, which gives him the right to teach at the university as an ordinary professor.

The Prussian king Frederick was losing to the Russians in the seven-year war, so from 1758 to 1762 Kant was a subject of Queen Elizabeth. During this merry time, Kant wrote almost nothing. He himself took on board several Russian officers, among whom were quite interesting interlocutors. Perhaps they discussed pyrotechnics and fortification, which Kant undertook to teach as a private teacher. However, he never fell in love with the Russians, calling them the main enemies.

At least three attempts by the philosopher to start a family are known. He himself later said that when he needed a wife, he did not have the means to support her, and when the funds appeared, the wife was no longer needed. For a long time he lived modestly, providing for himself and his father's family, and quite calmly managed without female affection. We know almost nothing about the personal life of the philosopher. From the official portrait, a dwarf with a large forehead, small boring eyes and a restrained smile looks at us.

Looking for a man

By the middle of the 18th century, the world seemed to run like clockwork. Descartes, Leibniz and Newton formulated the basic laws of mechanics that applied to any sphere of being. Scientists did not need God, and people began to be considered as one of the links in a complex but predictable mechanism called the "Universe". All natural phenomena were subject to the iron law of cause and effect, in which freedom of choice was naturally abolished. Immanuel Kant felt the approach of a catastrophe and did everything to prevent it.

If a person is just a toy in a world that was once created by someone, then it is pointless to demand anything from him, and even more so to punish him, because the punishment is given as a warning to the criminal himself or to the people around him. But a person in the causal world cannot make mistakes, since his actions are determined. Kant approaches questions of ethics and religion in the second half of his life. In his youth, he deals with the genesis of the solar system, putting forward a hypothesis about the original gaseous nebula, classifies the animal world and thinks about the origin of man. His essays are devoted to earthquakes, tides and tides.

Theory of knowledge

Kant welcomed the development of science, but very quickly realized that it was still powerless to explain to man the meaning of his existence. The philosopher raised many questions that are open to this day. In his theory of knowledge, he questions the dogmatic idea of a pure mind capable of knowing the truth. His major work "Critique of Pure Reason" proves the impossibility of knowing this world "as it really is." Everything we see, hear, and feel comes to us through our senses, which give us an extremely distorted idea of the "thing in itself." That is, hypothetical beings receiving information, for example, through electromagnetic oscillations, will see the object in a completely different way.

Experience and the so-called "pure reason" touch and oppose in the process of cognition, but the arbiter of their dispute about the truth is the soul. Kant calls it a tool for comprehending the meaning of things and phenomena. It is in it that there is a certain givenness that directs our knowledge beyond the limits of the phenomena given to us in sensation. The soul is the repository and transformer of experience that helps us understand the laws of the material world.

The categorical imperative and free will

So, if a person is a mechanical toy in the hands of necessity, then all his actions are justified, even the most disgusting ones. We have no desire to moralize a tiger that has eaten a lamb or even a child. We'll just kill the beast if we can, but not out of punishment or revenge. We don’t even think to be offended by the hurricane that destroyed our homes. This is how the elements act, without malicious intent and compassion, under the influence of the law of universal gravitation and the circulation of substances in nature.

A person will be punished even for a violation caused by extreme necessity, for example, a feeling of hunger. We are not only aware of our actions, but also have the freedom of choice. This is what makes us different from animals. Natural laws are manifested in us in full measure. Having fallen from a tree, we fall to the ground with the same speed as any other object. Lightning is equally ruthless to both the pope and the tortoise. However, in figuring out the causes of the famous Lisbon earthquake of 1755, Kant is trying to understand to what extent it is caused by the immoral acts of people.

Here it should be said about the metaphysics of morality, about which the philosopher wrote so much. The very word "metaphysics" is of Greek origin and means the principles and causes of our being. Undoubtedly, there was not and will not be such an instrument that would measure morality, but it is a guide to the freedom given to man along with the soul. The highest manifestation of this freedom is the categorical imperative, that is, the order that a person gives to himself. In this it differs from the animal world. In this he is opposed to nature.

The famous Kantian phrase about the starry sky above the head and the moral law inside a person expresses the essence of his thoughts about the universe, man, ethics and God. Kant's categorical imperative reads:

Act only in accordance with such a maxim, guided by which you can at the same time wish it to become a universal law.
Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, as an end, and never treat it only as a means.
The principle of the will of each person as will, with all its maxims establishing universal laws.

Immanuel Kant owns other famous sayings:

The freedom to wave your arms ends at the tip of the other person's nose.
Do not treat others as a means to your ends.
Love for life means love for truth.

The world after Kant

This philosopher raised problems that scientists still deal with today. In ethics and religious studies, political science and aesthetics, anthropology and psychology, he left his indelible mark. The world after Kant became completely different, although the vast majority of bearers of intelligent life did not understand this. He introduced into the circulation of philosophy such concepts as conscience, soul and virtue, which previously were the lot of only moral theology.

The rapid pace of science in our time is trying to turn a person into a part of nature, over which any experiments are permissible. Kant prevented this in the eighteenth century. His memorial complex is the main attraction of modern Kaliningrad. Tourists from all over the world come here, replenishing the city's budget. I would like to believe that they are familiar with the legacy of the great humanist, not only from quotes.