Blackwell Reference Online

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As befits a philosopher who believed that human beings must be understood largely in abstraction from their physical attributes, Kant's life, insofar as it is worth telling, was entirely a life of the mind. He was born (1724) and died (1804) in the same town, Königsberg, East Prussia. He had neither wife nor children. He spent his entire university career teaching at the institution (Königsberg) where he was educated. In contrast to his limited geographical confines, Kant's intellectual interests ranged over most parts of the (then) known world of ideas. He made seminal contributions to epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Along with his predecessor and frequent target, David Hume, he attempted a major realignment of the entire discipline of philosophy away from metaphysics. Hume and Kant also changed the face of academic religion. Although Kant tried to sequester himself from political affairs, his efforts to bring enlightenment to religion earned him a rebuke from his (unenlightened) monarch, Frederick William II. The global sweep of Kant's intellectual endeavors was principled. It rested on the central distinctive tenet of his philosophy, transcendental idealism. Transcendental idealism is a subtle, many-faceted doctrine, but its core is the idea that the human mind is creative, not merely receptive and reactive. On Kant's view, human beings could acquire ... log in or subscribe to read full text