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Immanuel Kant's ideas are a very brief history. Immanuel Kant: biography and teachings of the great philosopher

Immanuel Kant (German: Immanuel Kant; April 22, 1724, Königsberg, Prussia - February 12, 1804, ibid.) - German philosopher, founder of the German classical philosophy, standing on the verge of the Enlightenment and Romanticism.

Born in 1724 in Königsberg in a poor family of a saddle maker, a native of Scotland. The boy was named after Saint Immanuel.

Under the care of the doctor of theology Franz Albert Schulz, who noticed talent in Immanuel, Kant graduated from the prestigious Friedrichs-Kollegium gymnasium, and then in 1740 entered the University of Königsberg.

Due to the death of his father, he fails to complete his studies and, in order to feed his family, Kant becomes a home teacher for 10 years. It was at this time, in 1747-1755, that he developed and published his cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the solar system from the original nebula, which has not lost its relevance to this day.

In 1755, Kant defended his dissertation and received a doctorate, which finally 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, Koenigsberg was under the jurisdiction of the Russian government, which was reflected in the business correspondence of the philosopher. In particular, in 1758 he addressed an application for the position of an ordinary professor to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The period of Russian occupation was the least productive in Kant's work: for all the years of the domination of the Russian Empire over East Prussia, only a few essays on earthquakes came out from the philosopher's pen; on the contrary, immediately after the end of the occupation, Kant published a whole series of works. (Later Kant said: "Russians are our main enemies".)

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.

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 the 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.

Despite his philosophy, he could sometimes show ethnic prejudices, in particular, 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 Cathedral Königsberg 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.

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.

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 of individual ways of human cognition.

Kant's main philosophical work is "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 distinctions between analytic 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. As for a priori synthetic judgments, they, according to Kant, 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 - space and time. 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, 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.

1.Unity
2.Set
3. Wholeness

1.Reality
2. Denial
3.Restriction

1. Substance and belonging
2. Cause and effect
3.Interaction

1. Possibility and impossibility
2. Existence and non-existence
3. 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 are exactly the same.

The basis of any synthesis is, according to Kant, the transcendental unity of apperception (“apperception” is a term). This is logical self-consciousness, “a generating representation I think, which must be able to accompany all other representations and be the same in every consciousness.”

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 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 mediator between thinking and sensibility in Kant is the productive power of the imagination. This ability creates a pattern of time like " clean image 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 in 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 the 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 a new question arises: "How is metaphysics possible?". As a result of the study of pure reason, Kant shows that the mind, when it tries to get unambiguous and conclusive answers to the actual philosophical questions, 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

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 - the categorical imperative, which prescribes actions that are good in themselves, objectively, without regard to any goal other than morality itself (for example, the requirement of honesty).

- “act only according to 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 could wish for 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 person (as well as in the person of any other) always as an end and never - only as a means"];

- “the principle of the will of each person as a will that establishes universal laws with all its maxims”: one should “do everything based on the maxim of one’s will as one that 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: a person 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 a condition of applicability categorical imperative in the world of phenomena, Kant advances 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 the spiritual strength to fulfill their duty in spite of internal and external obstacles, Kant puts forward the second postulate: "the immortality of the human soul must exist." 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."

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 a concept for the development of the territory in the village of Veselovka, associated with the name of the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, 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 towards 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"). According to Kant, our knowledge is determined not so much by external material world how many general laws and techniques of our mind. With this formulation of the question, the philosopher laid the foundation for a new philosophical problem- Theories 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 for the restoration of 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.

, Spinoza

Followers: Reinhold, Jacobi, Mendelssohn, Herbart, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Frieze, Helmholtz, Cohen, Natorp, Windelband, Rickert, Riehl, Vaihinger, Cassirer, Husserl, Heidegger, Peirce, Wittgenstein, Apel, Strawson, Quine and many others

Biography

Born into a poor family of a saddle maker. The boy was named after St. Emmanuel, in translation this Hebrew name means "God is with us." Under the care of the doctor of theology Franz Albert Schulz, who noticed talent in Immanuel, Kant graduated from the prestigious Friedrichs-Kollegium gymnasium, and then entered the University of Königsberg. Due to the death of his father, he fails to complete his studies and, in order to feed his family, Kant becomes a home teacher for 10 years. It was at this time, in -, that he developed and published the cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the solar system from the original nebula, which has not lost its relevance to this day.

Good will is pure (unconditional will). Pure good will cannot exist outside of reason, since it is pure and does not contain anything empirical. And in order to generate this will, reason is needed.

Categorical imperative

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) - actions are good in special cases, to achieve certain goals (doctor's advice to a person who cares about his health).

"Act only in accordance with such a maxim, guided by which you can at the same time wish it to become a universal law."

“Act in such a way that you always treat a person, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, as an end, and never treat him as a means.”

"the principle of the will of every man as a will that establishes universal laws with all its maxims."

These are three different ways of representing the same law, and each of them combines the other two.

To check the compliance of a particular act with the moral law, Kant proposed using a thought experiment.

Idea of law and state

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.

In the doctrine of the state, Kant developed the ideas of J.J. Rousseau: the idea of popular sovereignty (the source of sovereignty is the monarch, who cannot be condemned, because "he cannot act wrongfully").

Kant also considered the ideas of Voltaire: he recognized the right to free speech opinion, but with a caveat: "argue as much as you like and about anything, but obey."

The state (in the broadest sense) is an association of many people who are subject to legal laws.

All states have three powers:

legislative (supreme) - belongs only to the united will of the people;

executive (acts according to the law) - belongs to the ruler;

judicial (acts according to the law) - belongs to the judge.

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). A true republic is a system governed by authorized deputies elected by the people.

In the doctrine of relations between states, Kant opposes the unjust state of these relations, against the dominance of strong law in international relations. Therefore, Kant is for the creation of an equal union of peoples, which would provide assistance to the weak. And he believed that such a union brings humanity closer to the idea of eternal peace.

Kant's Questions

What can I know?

Kant recognized the possibility of cognition, but at the same time limited this possibility to human abilities, i.e. you can know, but not everything.

What should I do?

One must act according to the moral law; you need to develop your mental and physical strength.

What can I hope for?

You can rely on yourself and on state laws.

What is a person?

Man is the highest value.

About the end of existence

In the "Berlin Monthly" (June 1794) Kant published his article. The idea of the end of all things is presented in this article as the moral end of mankind. The article talks about the ultimate goal of human existence.

Three ending options:

1) natural - according to divine wisdom.

2) supernatural - for reasons incomprehensible to people.

3) unnatural - due to human imprudence, misunderstanding of the ultimate goal.

Compositions

Akademieausgabe von Immanuel Kants Gesammelten Werken (German)

Russian editions

Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 1. - M., 1963, 543 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 4)
Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 2. - M., 1964, 510 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 5)
Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 3. - M., 1964, 799 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 6)
Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 4 Part 1. - M., 1965, 544 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 14)
Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 4 Part 2. - M., 1965, 478 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 15)
Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 5. - M., 1966, 564 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 16)
Immanuel Kant. Works in six volumes. Volume 6. - M., 1966, 743 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 17)
Immanuel Kant. Critique of pure reason. - M., 1994, 574 s (Philosophical Heritage, Vol. 118)
Kant I. Critique of Pure Reason / Per. with him. N. Lossky verified and edited by Ts. G. Arzakanyan and M. I. Itkin; Note. Ts. G. Arzakanyan. - M.: Eksmo Publishing House, 2007. - 736 with ISBN 5-699-14702-0

Russian translations available online

Prolegomena to any future metaphysics that may appear as a science (translation: M. Itkina)
The question of whether the Earth is aging from a physical point of view

Translators of Kant into Russian

About him

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Immanuel Kant is a German thinker, the founder of classical philosophy and the theory of criticism. Kant's immortal quotes have gone down in history, and the scientist's books form the basis of philosophy worldwide.

Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in a religious family in the suburbs of Koenigsberg in Prussia. His father, Johann Georg Kant, worked as a craftsman and made saddles, and his mother, Anna Regina, took care of the household.

There were 12 children in the Kant family, and Immanuel was born the fourth, many of the children died in infancy from diseases. Three sisters and two brothers survived.

The house where Kant spent his childhood with a large family was small and poor. In the 18th century the building was destroyed by fire.

The future philosopher spent his youth on the outskirts of the city among workers and craftsmen. Historians have long argued what nationality Kant belongs to, some of them believed that the ancestors of the philosopher came from Scotland. Immanuel himself expressed this assumption in a letter to Bishop Lindblom. However, this information has not been officially confirmed. It is known that Kant's great-grandfather was a merchant in the Memel region, and his maternal relatives lived in Nunberg, Germany.

Kant's parents laid spiritual education in their son, they were adherents of a special trend in Lutheranism - pietism. The essence of this doctrine is that each person is under God's eye therefore personal piety was preferred. Anna Regina taught her son the basics of faith, and also instilled in little Kant a love for the world around him.

The devout Anna Regina took her children with her to sermons and Bible studies. Doctor of theology Franz Schulz often visited the Kant family, where he noticed that Immanuel was doing well in studying scripture and is able to express his own thoughts.

When Kant was eight years old, on the instructions of Schulz, his parents sent him to one of the leading schools in Koenigsberg, the Friedrich Gymnasium, so that the boy would receive a prestigious education.

Kant studied at school for eight years, from 1732 to 1740. Classes in the gymnasium began at 7:00 and lasted until 9:00. The disciples studied theology, the Old and New testaments, Latin, German and Greek, geography, etc. Philosophy was taught only in the upper grades, and Kant believed that the subject was taught incorrectly in school. Mathematics classes were paid and at the request of the students.

Anna Regina and Johann Georg Kant wanted their son to become a priest in the future, but the boy was impressed by the Latin lessons taught by Heidenreich, so he wanted to become a literature teacher. Yes, and strict rules and customs in the religious school Kant did not like. The future philosopher was in poor health, but he studied with diligence thanks to his intelligence and quick wits.

At the age of sixteen, Kant entered the University of Königsberg, where the student was first introduced to the discoveries by the teacher Martin Knutzen, a pietist and Wolfian. The teachings of Isaac had a significant impact on the worldview of the student. Kant diligently treated his studies, despite the difficulties. The favorites of the philosopher were the natural and exact sciences: philosophy, physics, mathematics. Kant attended the theology class only once out of respect for Pastor Schultz.

Official information that Kant was listed in the Albertina did not reach his contemporaries, therefore it is possible to judge that he studied at the theological faculty only by guesswork.

When Kant was 13 years old, Anna Regina fell ill and died soon after. A large family had to make ends meet. Immanuel had nothing to wear, and also did not have enough money for food, he was fed by wealthy classmates. Sometimes the young man did not even have shoes, and they had to be borrowed from friends. But the guy treated all the difficulties from a philosophical point of view and said that things obey him, and not vice versa.

Philosophy

Scientists divide the philosophical work of Immanuel Kant into two periods: pre-critical and critical. The pre-critical period is the formation of Kant's philosophical thought and the slow liberation from the school of Christian Wolff, whose philosophy dominated Germany. The critical time in Kant's work is the idea of metaphysics as a science, as well as the creation of a new doctrine, which is based on the theory of the activity of consciousness.

First editions of Immanuel Kant's works

Immanuel writes his first essay “Thoughts on the true assessment of living forces” at the university under the influence of the teacher Knutzen, but the work was published in 1749 thanks to the financial assistance of Uncle Richter.

Kant was unable to graduate from the university due to financial difficulties: Johann Georg Kant died in 1746, and in order to feed his family, Immanuel had to work as a home teacher and teach children from the families of counts, majors and priests for almost ten years. In his free time, Immanuel wrote philosophical essays, which formed the basis of his works.

House of pastor Anders, where Kant taught in 1747-1751

In 1755, Immanuel Kant returned to the University of Königsberg to defend his dissertation "On Fire" and receive a master's degree. In autumn, the philosopher receives his doctorate for his work in the field of the theory of knowledge "New illumination of the first principles of metaphysical knowledge" and begins to teach logic and metaphysics at the university.

In the first period of Immanuel Kant's activity, the interest of scientists was attracted by the cosmogonic work "The General Natural History and Theory of the Sky", in which Kant tells about the origin of the Universe. In his work, Kant relies not on theology, but on physics.

Also during this period, Kant studies the theory of space from a physical point of view and proves the existence of a Supreme Mind, from which all phenomena of life originate. The scientist believed that if there is matter, then there is God. According to the philosopher, a person must recognize the need for the existence of someone who stands behind material things. Kant expounds this idea in his central work, The Only Possible Ground for the Proof of the Existence of God.

The critical period in Kant's work arose when he began teaching logic and metaphysics at the university. Immanuel's hypotheses did not change immediately, but gradually. Initially, Immanuel changed his views on space and time.

It was during the period of criticism that Kant wrote outstanding works on epistemology, ethics and aesthetics: the works of the philosopher became the basis of world doctrine. In 1781, Immanuel expanded his scientific biography by writing one of his fundamental works, Critique of Pure Reason, in which he described in detail the concept of the categorical imperative.

Personal life

Kant was not distinguished by his beauty, he was short in stature, had narrow shoulders and a hollow chest. However, Immanuel tried to keep himself in order and often visited the tailor and the hairdresser.

The philosopher led a reclusive life and never married, in his opinion, love relationship interfere with scientific activity. For this reason, the scientist never started a family. However, Kant loved feminine beauty and enjoyed it. By old age, Immanuel was blind in his left eye, so during dinner he asked some young beauty to sit to his right.

It is not known whether the scientist was in love: Louise Rebecca Fritz, in her old age, recalled that Kant liked her. Borovsky also said that the philosopher loved twice and intended to marry.

Immanuel was never late and followed the daily routine to the minute. Every day he went to one cafe in order to drink a cup of tea. Moreover, Kant came at the same time: the waiters did not even have to look at the clock. This feature of the philosopher even applies to ordinary walks, which he loved.

The scientist was in poor health, but developed his own body hygiene, so he lived to see old age. Every morning Immanuel began at 5 o'clock. Without taking off his night clothes, Kant went to his office, where the philosopher's servant Martin Lampe was preparing a cup of weak green tea and a smoking pipe for the owner. According to Martin's memoirs, Kant had a strange feature: while in the office, the scientist put on a cocked hat right over the cap. Then he slowly drank tea, smoked tobacco and read the outline of the upcoming lecture. Immanuel spent at least two hours at his desk.

At 7 am, Kant changed his clothes and went down to the lecture hall, where devoted listeners were waiting for him: sometimes there were not even enough seats. He lectured slowly, diluting philosophical ideas humor.

Immanuel paid attention even to minor details in the image of the interlocutor, he would not communicate with a student who was sloppily dressed. Kant even forgot what he was telling the audience when he saw that one of the students was missing a button on his shirt.

After a two-hour lecture, the philosopher returned to the office and again changed into night pajamas, a cap and put on a cocked hat on top. Kant spent 3 hours and 45 minutes at his desk.

Then Immanuel was preparing for the dinner reception of guests and ordered the cook to prepare the table: the philosopher hated to eat alone, especially the scientist ate once a day. The table abounded with food, the only thing missing from the meal was beer. Kant disliked the malt drink and believed that beer, unlike wine, had a bad taste.

Kant dined with his favorite spoon, which he kept with his money. At the table, the news taking place in the world was discussed, but not philosophy at all.

Death

The scientist lived the rest of his life in a house, being in abundance. Despite careful monitoring of health, the body of the 75-year-old philosopher began to weaken: first, his physical strength left him, and then his mind began to grow cloudy. In his advanced years, Kant could not give lectures, and at the dinner table the scientist received only close friends.

Kant gave up his favorite walks and stayed at home. The philosopher tried to write an essay "The System of Pure Philosophy in its entirety", but he did not have enough strength.

Later, the scientist began to forget the words, and life began to fade faster. Died great philosopher February 12, 1804. Before his death, Kant said: "Es ist gut" ("It's good").

Immanuel was buried near the Königsberg Cathedral, and a chapel was erected over Kant's grave.

Bibliography

Critique of pure reason;
Prolegomena to any future metaphysics;
Critique of practical reason;
Fundamentals of metaphysics of morality;
Criticism of the ability of judgment;

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

Biography

Categorical imperative

Idea of ​​law and state

Kant's Questions

About the end of existence

Compositions

Russian editions

Russian translations available online

Translators of Kant into Russian

About him

see also

Links

Philosophy

Personal life

Death

Bibliography

Idea of law and state