Kant's Moral Philosophy: Historical, Philosophical, and Cultural Context

Historical, Philosophical, and Cultural Context of Kant's Moral Philosophy

Immanuel Kant (18th-19th century) wrote Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals in 1785. Kant experienced the government of a "king sergeant" under Frederick William I (1713-1740), but his work was published during the reign of Frederick the Great (1740-1786), an enlightened despot who housed figures like La Mettrie and Voltaire in his court. Their policy reflected an effort of rationalization. The influence of enlightened ideas, primarily from France, was significant in Kant's thinking.

Some key ideas that influenced Kant include:

1. Religion: A position close to deism, exemplified by Voltaire. Kant's writings on religion, particularly "Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone," led to censorship issues.
2. Progressive Conception of History: The belief that history is progressing, also found in thinkers like Robert Turgot, Marquis de Condorcet, Herder, and Lessing. Kant viewed the French Revolution (1789) as evidence of this progress.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau significantly influenced Kant. The idea that political society results from a covenant or contract, uniting citizens under a "general will," is a key reflection of Rousseau's influence. Kant believed that the legislature should act as if its subjects might also desire the rules it establishes.

Unlike Rousseau, Kant did not believe in the natural goodness of humanity. He argued that evil and selfishness, while causing conflict, ultimately produce a positive effect. This view aligns Kant with the British Enlightenment, particularly Adam Smith. Kant is often seen as a synthesis of rationalist and empiricist traditions. The rationalist closest to Kant was Wolff (17th-18th century). David Hume, the Scottish empiricist, "roused him from his dogmatic slumber," disabusing him of a purely a priori rationalist understanding of reality.

Regarding physics, Kant adopted Isaac Newton's model, where everything is explained by laws, dispensing with purpose and the need for God. Kant believed that ethics should not be tied to natural phenomena because nature, in this conception, leaves no room for freedom. In ethics, Kant referred to Scottish philosophers like Hume, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson, but rejected their emotivist approach. Instead, there is an affinity between Kant's ethics and Hellenistic schools like Stoicism.

Kant belongs to the world of Enlightenment philosophers but is more directly influenced by Prussian Idealism (Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel).