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Immanuel Kant was an influential 18th century German philosopher. He synthesized rationalism and empiricism, and his work in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics continues to influence modern philosophy. Some of Kant's most famous works include the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Practical Reason, and the Critique of Judgement. Kant argued that the human mind structures our experience of nature and that human reason gives us moral principles like belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Kant's moral philosophy centered on universal ethical principles known as categorical imperatives, which state that people should only act in a way that everyone could, and that people should never be used merely as a means

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87 views2 pages

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Immanuel Kant was an influential 18th century German philosopher. He synthesized rationalism and empiricism, and his work in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics continues to influence modern philosophy. Some of Kant's most famous works include the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Practical Reason, and the Critique of Judgement. Kant argued that the human mind structures our experience of nature and that human reason gives us moral principles like belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Kant's moral philosophy centered on universal ethical principles known as categorical imperatives, which state that people should only act in a way that everyone could, and that people should never be used merely as a means

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RonibeMalingin
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Name: Malingin, Ronibe B.

Subject: Understanding the Se


Course: BTLED-ICT 1-1A Instructor: Mr. Edgar AdamEscolano

Immanuel Kant is the central figure in modern philosophy and the most
important philosopher of the Enlightenment in the past 2,000 years. He was born, lived,
and died in the provincial Prussian university town of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad in
Russia). Kant’s childhood is quite poor and religious, his family were Pietist of Lutheran
Church which emphasizes the importance of moral goodness, hard work, duty, and
consistency. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism in the nineteenth
and twentieth-century philosophy which continues to exercise a significant influence
today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other
fields. Aside from this, he has 3 most famous works, these are the Critique of Pure
Reason which was published in 1781 and revised in 1787, the Critique of Practical
Reasons (1788), and the Critique of Judgement (1790). This is the fundamental idea of
Kant’s “critical philosophy” and he argues that the human understanding is the source of
the general laws of nature that structure all our experience, and that human reason
gives itself the moral law which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality.

Moreover, Kant's moral philosophy is about our moral values which determines on
what we care about and what we don’t care about. Our values determine our decisions,
actions, and beliefs. This moral philosophy applies to everything in our lives. Kant called
these universalized ethical principles the “categorical imperatives”. Categorical
imperatives are the supreme principle of morality on what is right is right and what is
wrong is wrong. It has 3 formulations in categorical imperatives, the first states that “Act
only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a
universal law”, and it means that you should only act so you would want everyone in the
world to act in the same way and by that basis, you should refrain doing things that you
would not want everyone else to do.
An example of this, the person walked to the park to look at the beautiful flowers, one
day they may want to pick some flowers to take home, if they ask themselves what if
everyone who came to the park picked some flowers then there would be no more
flowers left in the park and there will no beautiful view and so picking flowers cannot be
morally permissible. The second formulation is “So act as to treat humanity, both in your
own person, and in the person of every other, always at the same time as an end, never
simply as a means”, so if you can rational or reasonable being should never be used by
someone else to fulfill another end rather they should consider ends themselves they
should be treated as people. An example of this, the slave owner forcing many people
to build a giant building, the building is the end, and people are being used as a means
to build it. It forces them against their will to build this would violate the moral law.
Human beings must follow this imperative unconditionally if they are to claim to be
moral and this would create a state of peace and harmony. Kant continued to write
philosophy until shortly before his death. In his last year, he became embittered due to
his loss of memory, and later on, he died in 1804 at the age of 80.

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