Kant's Philosophy: Enlightenment, Rationalism, and Empiricism

Kant's Philosophical Foundations

Immanuel Kant was born in Germany in 1724.

Historical Context

From modernity to the Enlightenment: The pre-revolutionary France was ilustrado. Despotism reigned. In England, however, the king reigns but does not rule.

Revolutions Illustrated

• Glorious Revolution in England (1688)
• Independence of the Colonies (1776)
• The French Revolution (1789)

In Germany, despotism prevailed. Kant faced censorship problems during this time.

Cultural Context

The Enlightenment was a new cultural, political, social, and educational movement that gradually spread across Europe and America.

• The Rise of the bourgeoisie and early steps of liberalism.
• Confidence in reason.
• Confidence in education and knowledge.
• Confidence in progress.

Philosophical Context

Rationalism, primarily on the continent, focused on innate ideas, the mathematical modeling of reasoning, deductive methods, and metaphysical speculation.

English Empiricism denied the existence of innate ideas, asserting that all ideas and knowledge come from experience. Physics served as a model for inductive reasoning and experimental methods, leading to a denial of metaphysics.

Criticism: Kant synthesized rationalism and empiricism.

Kant's Thought

Kant stands at the intersection of four major ideological currents of the eighteenth century: Enlightenment, rationalism, empiricism, and Rousseau's philosophy. His work seeks to resolve the multiple problems arising from this intersection, primarily addressing three questions:

1. What is the status of science?
2. What is knowledge in general?
3. How should humans behave?

The answers to the first two questions are explored in his work, Critique of Pure Reason, and are determined by what Kant called the "fact of pure reason," which is the physical-mathematical science of Newton. Kant analyzes the characteristics of this science, viewing physics and mathematics as composed of synthetic judgments a priori, combining elements from experience and the subject. Without the subject's input, there is no scientific knowledge. This input is necessary for intellectual knowledge. Without it, there is no real knowledge. Knowledge does not put humans in touch with reality itself, but with the object of knowledge, with the phenomenon.

Kant's position is called "transcendental idealism," asserting that human beings know their own ideas, not reality itself, which is unknowable. However, these ideas would not exist without a reality that furnishes the material element on which the subject discusses the formal elements. This is why metaphysics is not a science, as it seeks to know the reality of the subject matter, and its objects are not sensible realities that could provide the material element necessary to produce true knowledge. Metaphysics aims at achieving a knowledge of realities of which the subject cannot have experience, making it impossible.

In his work, Critique of Practical Reason, Kant answers the question of how humans should behave, which is attached to what is expected of them. The answer is determined by what he calls the "fact of practical reason," which is the existence in every human being of a moral law with a categorical imperative. Human beings must accommodate their behavior by an expression of their reason. Kantian morality is thus an autonomous moral system, since the human being meets this moral law because it comes from his own reason. In discharging his duty by duty, he obeys himself. It is also a universal moral system with categorical imperatives, being an expression of the rational nature of human beings, common to all. Analyzing "the fact of practical reason" also answers the question of what is expected of humans. Indeed, to explain the existence of moral order, it is necessary to postulate that human beings are free and immortal and that there is a Supreme Being, God, who ensures that the line of duty will be rewarded with eternal happiness.