Philosophy of Kant

 

Immanuel Kant was an eighteen century German philosopher whose works I adore.

Most philosophers during his time are rationalist or empiricist. Rationalist(Descartes) believe that the only way to know truth is through our intellect and not our senses. Empiricist(Hume) argues that human knowledge originates only through our sensations.

Kant on the other hand synthesized the two positions and call this his ‘Copernican Revolution', which true enough became one of his most notable contribution to philosophy. He conceptualized the human mind as something active which experience originates from. To him, our mind is not a data receiver but rather an experience originator.

He categorizes the things that we experience through our senses and name it "Phenomena".
He categorizes things as they actually are in themselves and name it "Noumena".

Broadly speaking to him, human senses can never perceive "things in themselves", but rather we can only use our five senses to perceive frameworks of "Phenomena". Which means our perception of a chair is not the actual essence of a chair, but rather what our senses subjectively form for us.

This 'Copernican Revolution' of his was also used in his ethical writings. He argued that good will can only be sourced from the mind and not from the outside world. Our actions cannot be moral if it is on the ground of a mean to an end(Doing good in hopes for recognition, money or rewards etc), but rather it has to be derived from pure reason and can only be moral if the action leads to an end in itself(Doing good for goodness sake). Which makes his ethics deontological in nature(duty driven).

He created a test to ensure that our actions are good willed. He called it Categorical Imperatives, which is a secular way to know objectively justified moral actions for ourselves. A modern rendering of Kant's Categorical Imperative might be: An act is morally right if and only if its maxim is able to be universalized.

A good example is driving pass a red light. Most ethical system would say that it is not immoral to drive pass a red light when there is no car or people around. However if you use Kant's CI and universalize the action by imagining the whole world doing the same thing, then you will realize that it will not be a logical world to live in as if you were to live in that world, red lights will not serve their function anymore. Hence to Kant, driving pass a red light even when there is no car or people around is wrong.

Will talk more about Kant in another time.