Kant: biography life ideas philosophy: Immanuel Kant. Philosophy in an accessible language: Kant's philosophy In what century did Kant live

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Immanuel Kant: biography

He was born on April 22 (zodiac sign Taurus) 1724 in Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad), where his grandfather emigrated from Scotland. At that time it was a very cosmopolitan city. Kant's parents were devout Lutherans of modest means.

Immanuel was the fourth child in the family. He grew up with his younger brother, older sister and two younger sisters in a working-class neighborhood in the suburbs of Königsberg among laborers, small shopkeepers and craftsmen. Like his father, he was not in good health.

In 1737 his mother died. The boy stood out among his peers, especially in the study of Greek and Latin. Already at the age of 13, the young man showed signs of his legendary perseverance; he was single-minded in his teaching.

In 1740, at the age of 16, he entered the University of Königsberg. Here he met talented professors who opened the world of philosophical and scientific thought to the young scientist.

About the modest life of the great scientist

In the next 7 years, Immanuel not only deepened the study of mathematics, he also continued his passion for the methodology of various sciences. In 1746, his father died, and Kant realized that he could not complete his studies, since he had no funds.

He leaves his native city (in 1747) and begins to teach children from wealthy families of Yudshen (now the village of Veselovka). The young scientist also devoted most of his time to working on his dissertation. In 1755 he received the degree of Privatdozent.

The position of freelance assistant professor, which he held for the next fifteen years, was not profitable. The scientist was forced to live on the little money that students paid him. In the end, he was forced to work as an assistant librarian for several hours a week in the library of the royal castle.

Kant could only afford a small room with modest living conditions. After lecturing on geography, mineralogy, physics, pedagogy, anthropology and philosophy, he enjoyed reading newspapers over a cup of coffee.

Sometimes he rested, playing billiards or cards, occasionally drinking one or two beers with friends. In the evening, Kant returned to his room to his table, chair, bed, and a few selected books. The only thing that adorned its walls was a portrait of the French theorist J.-J. Rousseau.

Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

Kant's judgments during this early period of his life were shaped by the provocative ideas of Rousseau and the rationalism of Leibniz. But he was also deeply moved by the achievements of the scientist and theologian. At that time, Newton's work had just begun to be studied at the University of Königsberg.

Soon the scientist publishes several books and many essays on metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, logic and other sciences, including astronomy. Kant used Newton's principles in his hypothesis of the primordial nebula, which best explained the origin of the universe and has not lost its relevance to this day.

In 1764 - Kant published his "Study of the degree of clarity of the principles of natural theology and morality." He views religious worship as "idolatry". He is sure that religion as a state institution corrupts people and breeds hypocrisy.

The work testifies that Kant understood the limits of the rationalistic: in particular, he began to feel the inconsistencies of the logical demonstrations performed by such rationalists as Wolf, who assumed that making a false proposition necessarily implied that the proposition that was controversial to him must be true.

Kant's forebodings indicate that even in the early period of his work he was already moving towards a dialectical understanding of truth, which would later become his method of thinking.

Kant became a very famous teacher. He was a popular professor among students, not only because his lively teaching method included provocative ideas, but also because of his humor. The effectiveness of his teaching and the stable reputation of an interesting author attracted many students to Koenigsberg.

Alma mater

In 1770 (when Kant was 46 years old) his alma mater accepted him as a full member of the faculty: he was confirmed professor of logic and metaphysics. He continued to work at the University of Königsberg for the next 27 years, in 1786 he became its rector.

Königsber University

At the age of 57, the philosopher completed his greatest work, Critical Analysis of Pure Reason. His work is dialectical and subtle; on the one hand, this makes "pure reason" the subject of critical analysis, and on the other hand, it is the use of "pure reason" for development in accordance with requests.

Kant's basic idea is that the mind plays an active role in structuring reality. The mind gives the structure of the objects as they must conform to the structure of the mind in order to be perceived first.

Kant rejects the ideas of dogmatic metaphysicians-rationalists (Spinoza, Leibniz) and the skepticism of empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume). He uses an unusual method of analyzing judgments and methodologies.

Kant divided his philosophy into 4 parts (questions):

1. What can I know? (metaphysics).
2. What should I do? (morality).
3. What can I hope for (religion).
4. What is a person? (anthropology).

last years of life

The philosopher Immanuel Kant is undoubtedly one of the most famous thinkers in the world. For example, in his monumental Critique of Pure Reason, he showed how the cognitive faculties of the mind can be used to determine the limits of these very faculties.

His life is of interest to neurologists for several reasons: he had a specific personality type; he suffered from a headache; died with dementia. Kant was a man of legendary calmness and pedantry.

For example, his morning walks always took place at the same time. Residents said they could check their watches when he passed by.

He always walked the same route and even walked the same number of steps. He suffered from headaches, which were probably migraines. It has long been believed that people with an obsessive personality type often suffer from migraines. And in last years During his lifetime, Kant showed clear signs of dementia.

Various causes have been considered, such as vascular dementia or a slowly growing tumor such as a frontal meningioma. Because he had impaired cognitive function, the presence of hallucinations and recurring loss of consciousness.

The philosopher never married. His name can be found in the famous list Kant died on February 12, 1804. He was 79 years old. Many geniuses had symptoms of the mentally ill.

Immanuel Kant: short biography and philosophy (video):

Immanuel Kant laid the foundation for classical philosophy in Germany. Representatives of the German philosophical school focused on the freedom of the human spirit and will, its sovereignty over nature and the world. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant defined the main task in giving an answer to the main questions that affect the essence of life and the human mind.

Philosophical views of Kant

The beginning of Kant's philosophical activity is called the pre-critical period. The thinker was engaged in natural science issues and the development of important hypotheses in this area. He created a cosmogenic hypothesis about the origin of the solar system from a gaseous nebula. Also, he worked on the theory of the influence of tides on the daily speed of the Earth's rotation. Kant studied not only natural phenomena. He investigated the question of the natural origin of individual human races. He proposed to classify representatives of the animal world in the order of their probable origin.

After these studies, there comes a critical period. Its beginning falls on 1770, when the scientist becomes a professor at the university. The essence of Kant's research activity is reduced to the study of the limitations of the human mind as an instrument of knowledge. The thinker creates his most significant work in this period - "Critique of Pure Reason".

Biographical information

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in the small town of Konigsberg, into a poor family of a craftsman. His mother, a peasant woman, sought to raise her son educated. She encouraged his interest in the sciences. The upbringing of the child had a religious bias. The future philosopher had poor health since childhood.

Kant studied at the Friedrichs-Kollegium gymnasium. In 1740 he entered the University of Koenigsberg, but the young man did not have time to finish his studies, he received news of his father's death. In order to earn a living for the family, the future philosopher works as a home tutor in Yudshen for 10 years. At this time, it is necessary to develop his hypothesis that the solar system originated from the original nebula.

In 1755, the philosopher received his doctorate. Kant began teaching at the university, lecturing in geography and mathematics, and gaining more and more popularity. He strives to teach his students to think and look for answers to questions on their own, without resorting to ready-made solutions. Later, he began to give lectures on anthropology, metaphysics and logic.

The scientist has been teaching for 40 years. In the autumn of 1797, he completes pedagogical activity due to his advanced age. Considering the weakness of his health, Kant adhered to an extremely strict daily routine throughout his life, which helped him live to a ripe old age. He didn't marry. The philosopher never left his native city in his life, and was known and respected in it. He died on February 12, 1804, and was buried in Königsberg.

Gnoseological views of Kant

Epistemology is understood as a philosophical and methodological discipline that studies knowledge as such, as well as studying its structure, development and functioning.

The scientist did not recognize the dogmatic way of knowing. He argued that it is necessary to build on critical philosophizing. He clearly expressed his point of view in the study of the mind and the limits achievable by it.

Kant, in his world-famous Critique of Pure Reason, proves the correctness of agnostic ideas. Agnosticism assumes that it is impossible to prove the truth of propositions based on subjective experience. The philosopher's predecessors considered the object of cognition (i.e., the surrounding world, reality) as the main cause of the difficulties of cognition. But Kant did not agree with them, suggesting that the reason for the difficulties of cognition lies in the subject of cognition (i.e., in the person himself).

The philosopher speaks of the human mind. He believes that the mind is imperfect and limited in its capabilities. When trying to go beyond the possibilities of cognition, the mind stumbles upon insurmountable contradictions. Kant singled out these contradictions and designated them as antinomies. Using reason, a person is able to prove both statements of the antinomy, despite the fact that they are opposite. It boggles the mind. Kant argued how the presence of antinomies proves that there are limits to human cognitive abilities.

Views on ethical theory

The philosopher studies ethics in detail, and expresses his attitude in the works that later became famous - "Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morality" and "Critique of Practical Reason". According to the views of the philosopher, moral principles originate from practical reason, which develops into will. characteristic feature The ethics of the thinker is that non-moral views and arguments do not affect moral principles. He takes as a guide those norms that come from the "pure" moral will. The scientist believes that there is something that unites moral norms, and is looking for it.

The thinker introduces the concept of "hypothetical imperative" (also, it is called conditional or relative). Under the imperative understand the moral law, coercion to action. A hypothetical imperative is a principle of action that is effective in achieving a particular goal.

Also, the philosopher introduces the opposite concept - the "categorical imperative", which should be understood as a single supreme principle. This principle should prescribe actions that are objectively good. The categorical imperative can be described by the following Kantian rule: one should act according to a principle that can be made a general law for all people.

Aesthetics of Kant

In his work Critique of Judgment, the thinker thoroughly discusses the issue of aesthetics. He regards the aesthetic as something pleasing in an idea. In his opinion, there is the so-called power of judgment, as the highest faculty of feeling. It is between reason and reason. The power of judgment is able to unite pure reason and practical reason.

The philosopher introduces the concept of "expediency" in relation to the subject. According to this theory, there are two types of expediency:

1. External - when an animal or object can be useful to achieve a specific goal: a person uses the strength of a bull to plow the land.
2. Internal - that which causes a feeling of beauty in a person.

The thinker believes that the feeling of beauty arises in a person precisely when he does not consider an object in order to apply it practically. In aesthetic perception, the main role is played by the form of the observed object, and not its expediency. Kant believes that something beautiful is liked by people without understanding.

The power of reason harms the aesthetic sense. This happens because the mind tries to dismember the beautiful and analyze the relationship of details. The power of beauty eludes man. It is impossible to learn to feel beautiful consciously, but you can gradually cultivate a sense of beauty in yourself. To do this, a person needs to observe harmonious forms. Similar forms are found in nature. It is also possible to develop aesthetic taste through contact with the world of art. This world was created to discover beauty and harmony, and acquaintance with works of art - The best way develop a sense of beauty.

Influence on the world history of philosophy

The critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant is rightly called the most important synthesis of systems previously developed by scientists from all over Europe. The works of the philosopher can be considered the great crown of all previous philosophical views. The activities and achievements of Kant became the starting point from which the newest philosophy began. Kant created a brilliant synthesis of all the important ideas of his contemporaries and predecessors. He revised the ideas of empiricism and theories of Locke, Leibniz, Hume.

Kant created a general model, using criticism in relation to existing theories. He added to the already existing ideas his own, original, generated by his brilliant mind. In the future, criticism, laid down by a scientist, will become an indisputable condition in relation to any philosophical idea. Criticism cannot be refuted or destroyed, it can only be developed.

The most important merit of the thinker is his solution of a deep, ancient problem that divides philosophers into supporters of rationalism or empiricism. Kant worked through this issue in order to show the representatives of both schools the narrowness and one-sidedness of their thinking. He found a variant that reflects the real interaction of intelligence and experience in the history of human knowledge.

1. Founder German classical idealism counts Immanuel Kant(1724 - 1804) - German (Prussian) philosopher, professor at the University of Koenigsber.

All the work of I. Kant can be divided into two large periods:

Subcritical (until the beginning of the 70s of the XVIII century);

Critical (early 70s of the XVIII century and until 1804).

During precritical period I. Kant's philosophical interest was directed to the problems of natural science and nature.

In a later, critical period, Kant's interest shifted to questions of the activity of the mind, cognition, the mechanism of cognition, the boundaries of cognition, logic, ethics, social philosophy. Your name critical period received in connection with the name of three fundamental philosophical works Kant:

"Critique of Pure Reason";

"Critique of Practical Reason";

"Criticism of Judgment".

2. The most important problems of Kant's philosophical research precritical period were problems of life, nature, natural sciences. Kant's innovation in the study of these problems lies in the fact that he was one of the first philosophers who, considering these problems, paid great attention to development problem.

Philosophical conclusions of Kant were revolutionary for his era:

The solar system arose from a large initial cloud of particles of matter rarefied in space as a result of

rotation of this cloud, which became possible due to the movement and interaction (attraction, repulsion, collision) of its constituent particles.

Nature has its history in time (beginning and end), and is not eternal and unchanging;

Nature is in constant change and development;

Movement and rest are relative;

All life on earth, including humans, is the result of natural biological evolution.

At the same time, Kant's ideas bear the imprint of the worldview of that time:

Mechanical laws are not originally embedded in matter, but have their own external cause;

This external cause (first principle) is God. Despite this, Kant's contemporaries believed that his discoveries (especially about the origin of the solar system and the biological evolution of man) were commensurate in their significance with the discovery of Copernicus (the rotation of the Earth around the Sun).

3. At the heart of Kant's philosophical research critical period(the beginning of the 70s of the XVIII century and until 1804) lies problem of knowledge.

IN his book "Critique of Pure Reason" Kant defends the idea agnosticism- the impossibility of knowing the surrounding reality.

Most philosophers before Kant saw the object of cognitive activity as the main reason for the difficulties of cognition - being, the surrounding world, which contains many secrets unsolved for thousands of years. Kant puts forward the hypothesis that cause difficulty in learning is not the surrounding reality - an object, but subject of cognitive activity man, or rather his mind.

The cognitive capabilities (abilities) of the human mind are limited(that is, the mind cannot do everything). As soon as the human mind with its arsenal of cognitive means tries to go beyond its own framework (possibility) of cognition, it encounters insoluble contradictions. These irresolvable contradictions, of which Kant discovered four, Kant called antinomies.

Second antinomy - SIMPLE AND COMPLEX
There are only simple elements and what is simple. .	There is nothing simple in the world.
Third antinomy - FREEDOM AND CAUSATION
There is not only causality according to the laws of nature, but also freedom.	Freedom does not exist. Everything in the world takes place due to strict causality according to the laws of nature.
The fourth antinomy - THE PRESENCE OF GOD
There is God - an unconditionally necessary being, the cause of all that exists.	There is no god. There is no absolutely necessary being - the cause of everything that exists.

With the help of reason, one can logically prove both opposite positions of antinomies at the same time - reason comes to a standstill. The presence of antinomies, according to Kant, is proof of the existence of the limits of the cognitive abilities of the mind.

Also in the Critique of Pure Reason, I. Kant classifies knowledge itself as the result of cognitive activity and highlights three concepts that characterize knowledge:

a posteriori knowledge;

A priori knowledge;

"thing in itself".

A posteriori knowledge- the knowledge that a person receives as a result of experience. This knowledge can only be conjectural, but not reliable, since every statement taken from this type of knowledge must be verified in practice, and such knowledge is not always true. For example, a person knows from experience that all metals melt, but theoretically there may be metals that are not subject to melting; or "all swans are white", but sometimes black ones can also be found in nature, therefore, experimental (empirical, a posteriori) knowledge can misfire, does not have complete reliability and cannot claim to be universal.

A priori knowledge- experimental, that is, that which exists in the mind from the very beginning and does not require any experimental evidence. For example: "All bodies are extended", " Human life flows in time”, “All bodies have mass”. Any of these provisions is obvious and absolutely reliable both with and without experimental verification. Only a priori (experimental) knowledge is absolutely reliable and reliable, possesses the qualities of universality and necessity.

It should be noted: Kant's theory of a priori (originally true) knowledge was completely logical in the era of Kant, however, discovered by A. Einstein in the middle of the twentieth century. the theory of relativity called it into question.

"Thing in Itself"- one of the central concepts of the whole philosophy of Kant. "Thing in itself" is the inner essence of a thing, which will never be known by the mind.

4. Kant singles out scheme of the cognitive process, according to which:

The outside world initially influences ("affecting") on the human senses;

The human senses take affected images of the outside world in the form of sensations;

The human consciousness brings the scattered images and sensations received by the senses into a system, as a result of which a holistic picture of the surrounding world arises in the human mind;

A holistic picture of the surrounding world, arising in the mind on the basis of sensations, is just the image of the outside world visible to the mind and feelings, which has nothing to do with the real world;

real world, whose images are perceived by the mind and feelings, is "thing in itself"- a substance that absolutely cannot be understood by the mind;

the human mind can only to know the images a huge variety of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world - "things in themselves", but not their inner being.

Thus, at In cognition, the mind encounters two impenetrable boundaries:

Own (internal for the mind) boundaries, beyond which

there are insoluble contradictions - antinomies;

External boundaries - the inner essence of things in themselves.

5. The very human consciousness (pure mind), which receives signals - images from unknowable "things in themselves" - the surrounding world, also, according to Kant, has its own structure, which includes:

Forms of sensuality;

Forms of reason;

Forms of the mind.

Sensuality- the first level of consciousness. Forms of Sensuality- space And time. Thanks to sensibility, consciousness initially systematizes sensations, placing them in space and time.

Reason- the next level of consciousness. Forms of reason -categories- extremely general concepts, with the help of which further comprehension and systematization of the initial sensations located in the "coordinate system" of space and time takes place. (Examples of categories are quantity, quality, possibility, impossibility, necessity, etc.)

Intelligence- the highest level of consciousness. Forms of the mind are final higher ideas, for example: the idea of ​​God; the idea of ​​the soul; the idea of ​​the essence of the world, etc.

Philosophy, according to Kant, is the science of given (higher) ideas. 6. Kant's great service to philosophy is that he put forward the doctrine of categories(translated from Greek - statements) - extremely general concepts with which you can describe and to which you can reduce everything that exists. (That is, there are no such things or phenomena of the surrounding world that would not have the features characterized by these categories.) Kant singles out twelve such categories and divides them into four classes, three in each.

Data classes are:

Quantity;

Quality;

Attitude;

Modality.

(That is, everything in the world has quantity, quality, relationships, modality.)

quantities - unity, plurality, wholeness;

Qualities - reality, negation, limitation;

Relations - substantiality (inherence) and accident (independence); cause and investigation; interaction;

Modality - possibility and impossibility, existence and non-existence, necessity and chance.

the first two categories of each of the four classes are opposite characteristics of the properties of the class, the third ones are their synthesis. For example, the extreme opposite characteristics of quantity are unity and plurality, their synthesis is wholeness; qualities - reality and negation (unreality), their synthesis - limitation, etc.

According to Kant, with the help of categories - limit general characteristics of all that exists - the mind carries out its activity: it arranges the chaos of initial sensations on the "shelves of the mind", thanks to which orderly mental activity is possible.

7. Along with "pure reason" - consciousness, carrying out mental activity and cognition, Kant singles out "practical reason" by which he understands morality and also criticizes it in his other key work, The Critique of Practical Reason.

Main Questions "Critiques of Practical Reason":

What should be the moral?

What is the moral (moral) behavior of a person? Reflecting on these questions, Kant comes to the following

conclusions:

pure morality- a virtuous social consciousness recognized by all, which an individual perceives as his own;

Between pure morality and real life (actions, motives, interests of people) there is a strong contradiction;

Morality, human behavior must be independent of any external conditions and must obey only the moral law.

I. Kant formulated as follows moral Law, which has a supreme and unconditional character, and called it categorical imperative:"Act in such a way that the maxim of your action may be the principle of universal legislation."

Currently, the moral law (categorical imperative), formulated by Kant, is understood as follows:

A person must act in such a way that his actions are a model for all;

A person should treat another person (like him - a thinking being and a unique personality) only as an end, and not as a means.

8. In his third book of the critical period - "Criticism of Judgment"- Kant puts forward idea of ​​universal expediency:

expediency in aesthetics (a person is endowed with abilities that he must use as successfully as possible in various spheres of life and culture);

Expediency in nature (everything in nature has its own meaning - in the organization of living nature, the organization of inanimate nature, the structure of organisms, reproduction, development);

The expediency of the spirit (the presence of God).

9. Socio-political views I. Kant:

The philosopher believed that man is endowed with an inherently evil nature;

I saw the salvation of a person in moral education and strict adherence to the moral law (categorical imperative);

He was a supporter of the spread of democracy and the legal order - firstly, in each individual society; secondly, in relations between states and peoples;

He condemned wars as the most serious delusion and crime of mankind;

He believed that in the future a "higher world" would inevitably come - wars would either be prohibited by law or become economically unprofitable.

10. The historical significance of Kant's philosophy in what they were:

An explanation based on science (Newtonian mechanics) of the emergence of the solar system (from a rotating nebula of elements discharged in space) is given;

An idea was put forward about the presence of limits of the cognitive ability of the human mind (antinomies, "things in themselves");

Twelve categories have been deduced - maximum general concepts, which make up the framework of thinking;

The idea of ​​democracy and legal order has been put forward both in each individual society and in international relations;

Wars are condemned, "eternal peace" is predicted in the future, based on the economic unprofitability of wars and their legal prohibition.

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, Königsberg was under the jurisdiction of the Russian government, which was reflected in business correspondence 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.

Period of dominance Russian Empire over East Prussia was the least productive in Kant's work: over the years, only a few essays on earthquakes came out from the philosopher's pen, but immediately after his 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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Stages of scientific activity

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.

Philosophy

Epistemology

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 individual ways human knowledge.

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.

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 (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).

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.

• 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.

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 arises new question: "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.

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 conduct; 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.

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 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 person. 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". Birth can take place in darkness creative ideas 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

MOSCOW, April 22 - RIA Novosti. The 290th anniversary of the birth of the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is celebrated on Tuesday.

Below is a biographical note.

The founder of German classical philosophy, Immanuel Kant, was born on April 22, 1724 in the suburb of Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) Vorder Vorstadt in a poor family of a saddler (a saddler is a manufacturer of eyecups for horses that are put on them to limit the field of view). At baptism, Kant received the name Emanuel, but later he himself changed it to Immanuel, considering it the most suitable for himself. The family belonged to one of the areas of Protestantism - pietism, which preached personal piety and the strictest observance of moral rules.

From 1732 to 1740, Kant studied at one of the best schools in Koenigsberg - the Latin Friedrichs-Collegium (Collegium Fridericianum).

The house in the Kaliningrad region where Kant lived and worked will be restoredGovernor of the Kaliningrad Region Nikolai Tsukanov instructed to complete the development of the concept for the development of the territory in the village of Veselovka, associated with the name of the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, within two weeks, the regional government said in a statement.

In 1740 he entered the University of Königsberg. There is no exact data on which faculty Kant studied at. Most researchers of his biography agree that he should have studied at the theological faculty. However, judging by the list of subjects he studied, the future philosopher preferred mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy. For the entire period of study, he attended only one theological course.

In the summer of 1746, Kant presented to the Faculty of Philosophy his first scientific work - "Thoughts for a true assessment of living forces", dedicated to the formula for momentum. The work was published in 1747 with the money of Kant's uncle, the shoemaker Richter.

In 1746, due to the difficult financial situation, Kant was forced to leave the university without passing the final exams and without defending his dissertation for a master's degree. For several years he worked as a home teacher on estates in the vicinity of Koenigsberg.

In August 1754, Immanuel Kant returned to Konigsberg. In April 1755, he defended his thesis "On Fire" for a master's degree. In June 1755 he was awarded his doctorate for his dissertation "A New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Knowledge", which was his first philosophical work. He received the title of Privatdozent of Philosophy, which gave him the right to teach at the university, without, however, receiving a salary from the university.

In 1756, Kant defended his thesis "Physical Monadology" and received the post of ordinary professor. In the same year, he petitioned the king for the post of professor of logic and metaphysics, but was refused. Only in 1770 did Kant receive a permanent position as professor of these subjects.

Kant lectured not only on philosophy, but also on mathematics, physics, geography, and anthropology.

In the development of Kant's philosophical views, two qualitatively different periods are distinguished: the early, or "pre-critical", which lasted until 1770, and the subsequent, "critical", when he created his own philosophical system, which he called "critical philosophy".

The early Kant was an inconsistent supporter of natural-scientific materialism, which he tried to combine with the ideas of Gottfried Leibniz and his follower Christian Wolff. His most significant work of this period is the "General Natural History and Theory of the Sky" of 1755), in which the author puts forward a hypothesis about the origin of the solar system (and similarly about the origin of the entire universe). Kant's cosmogonic hypothesis showed the scientific significance of the historical view of nature.

Another treatise of this period, also important for the history of dialectics, is An Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Quantities into Philosophy (1763), in which a distinction is made between real and logical contradiction.

From 1771, a "critical" period began in the work of the philosopher. Since that time, Kant's scientific activity has been devoted to three main topics: epistemology, ethics and aesthetics, combined with the doctrine of expediency in nature. Each of these topics corresponded to a fundamental work: Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Critique of Practical Reason (1788), Critique of Judgment (1790) and a number of other works.

In his main work, The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant tried to substantiate the unknowability of the essence of things ("things in themselves"). From Kant's point of view, our knowledge is determined not so much by the external material world as by the general laws and methods of our mind. With this formulation of the question, the philosopher laid the foundation for a new philosophical problem - the theory of knowledge.

Twice, in 1786 and 1788, Kant was elected rector of the University of Königsberg. In the summer of 1796, he gave his last lectures at the university, but he left his place on the university staff only in 1801.

Immanuel Kant subordinated his life to a strict schedule, thanks to which he lived a long life, despite his naturally poor health; On February 12, 1804, the scientist died at his home. His last word was "Gut".

Kant was not married, although, according to biographers, he had this intention several times.

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 1809, the crypt was demolished due to dilapidation, and in its place a walking gallery was built, which was called "Stoa Kantiana" and existed until 1880. In 1924, according to the project of the architect Friedrich Lars, the Kant memorial was restored and acquired a modern look.

The monument to Immanuel Kant was cast in bronze in Berlin by Karl Gladenbeck according to the design of Christian Daniel Rauch in 1857, but was installed opposite the philosopher's house in Königsberg only in 1864, since the money collected by the inhabitants of the city was not enough. In 1885, in connection with the redevelopment of the city, the monument was moved to the university building. In 1944, the sculpture was hidden from the bombings in the estate of Countess Marion Denhoff, but was subsequently lost. In the early 1990s, Countess Denhoff donated a large sum to restore the monument.

A new bronze statue of Kant, cast in Berlin by the sculptor Harald Haacke from an old miniature model, was installed on June 27, 1992 in Kaliningrad in front of the university building. The burial place and the monument to Kant are objects cultural heritage modern Kaliningrad.