Immanuel Kant: Life, Philosophy, and the Copernican Revolution

Immanuel Kant: Life and Work

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher, widely considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era. Born in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on April 22, 1724, Kant was educated at the Collegium Fredericianum and the University of Königsberg. At school, he studied the classics, and at university, he focused on physics and mathematics. After his father's death, he was forced to leave university and earn a living as a private tutor. In 1755, with the help of a friend, he resumed his studies and obtained his doctorate.

He then taught at the university for 15 years, initially lecturing on science and mathematics, and gradually expanding to cover almost all branches of philosophy. Although Kant's lectures and writings during this period established his reputation as an original philosopher, he was not awarded a professorship until 1770, when he was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics. During the next 27 years, he continued his dedicated work, attracting a large number of students to Königsberg.

Kant's unorthodox religious teachings, which were based more on rationalism than divine revelation, brought him into conflict with the Prussian government. In 1792, Frederick William II, King of Prussia, barred him from teaching or writing on religious matters. Kant obeyed this order for five years until the king's death, after which he felt released from this obligation. In 1798, he retired from the university and published a summary containing an expression of his religious ideas. He died on February 12, 1804.

Kant's Theory of Knowledge

Kant's theory of knowledge, presented in his Critique of Pure Reason, is one of the major milestones in the history of philosophy. Its purpose is to answer the skepticism of empiricists like David Hume, who claimed that knowledge is based solely on custom.

Kant did not doubt that scientific knowledge, which is universal and necessary, is possible, as demonstrated by Newtonian physics. He knew that knowledge of this kind cannot be founded on mere custom. Hence, he did not question the possibility of scientific knowledge but rather the "conditions of possibility" for such knowledge. His theory helps to find a solid ground for science, not in the noumenon (reality, the thing itself), but in the subject, the bearer of universal forms that derive from experience the necessary elements to construct the object of knowledge: the phenomenon.

Key Concepts in Kant's Philosophy

• Copernican Revolution: While previous philosophers (both rationalists and empiricists) had placed emphasis on the object of knowledge, Kant emphasized the knowing subject. The subject does not perceive the object as something given but rather constructs it.
• A priori: Independent of experience and the condition of possibility of all experience.
• Noumenon: The thing itself, reality as it is in itself. (It remains unknowable.)
• Chaos of Impressions: Impressions are the material of knowledge. Without them, the intellect knows nothing. However, they break into the intellect in a chaotic manner, and it is the intellect that orders them a priori to construct the phenomenon. Kant says that without the forms and categories that the intellect brings, impressions would be "blind". Thus, while he recognizes, like the empiricists, that all knowledge begins with experience, he denies that all knowledge comes from experience, because it would be impossible without the contribution of the subject's a priori forms.
• A priori Forms and Categories: The a priori forms and categories construct the phenomenon from the chaos of impressions. Kant argued that without impressions, forms and categories remain "empty".
• Object of Knowledge: The intellect, with its a priori forms of sensibility and categories of understanding, constructs, from the chaotic matter of impressions, the object of knowledge, the phenomenon, which is intramental. The intellect does not know things as they are in themselves (noumena) but as it constructs them itself (phenomena).
• Ideas of Pure Reason: The ideas of God, soul, and world are empty. Impressions give substance to the empty forms of the intellect, but there are no impressions of the ideas of reason. These ideas project the tendency of reason to make an increasingly encompassing synthesis, up to a level at which this goal cannot be achieved.