Immanuel kant biography timeline with paragraphs

There is no aspect of modern Western philosophy that does not bear the influence of Immanuel Kant. Without ever leaving the vicinity of his hometown of Königsberg, the philosopher changed the course of ethics, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and aesthetics.

Kant was born in 1724 in Königsberg, then East Prussia, now part of Russia, to a harness-maker of modest means. As a boy, Kant was sent to a Pietist school for his early education. At sixteen, he enrolled in the University of Königsberg, also known as the Albertina, where he became interested in philosophy.

When Kant graduated six years later, he was not financially able immediately to pursue his academic career, and, therefore, worked as a private tutor for several years. At the age of 31, he obtained an unsalaried position as a private docent at the university, lecturing an average of twenty hours per week on an array of subjects including logic, metaphysics, mathematics, and physical geography. In addition to teaching the dominant Wolffian-Leibnizian philosophy, Kant also incorporated ideas from abroad. David Hume (1711–1776) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), in particular, became influential in Kant’s thought, and he shared his reflections on these thinkers with his students. Kant published several significant essays during the first decades of his career at the Albertina. Although these essays were not nearly as influential as his later works, they already contained the seeds of his “critical philosophy.”

As an academic at the Albertina, Kant led a life of strict self-discipline. It is said that his routine was so rigid that his neighbors would set their clocks by the time of his afternoon walks, which he missed only once, the day he discovered the Emile of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This self-discipline served him well, allowing him to focus all of his energies on developing his thought. Despite the singular regularity of his routine, Kant led a lively social life. Those who knew him described him a

Immanuel Kant wrote the Critique of Pure Reason, it is one of the most important works on Western thought.However, it is very long and dry.This work explained how an individual’s mind organizes experiences into understanding the way the world works.He addresses Knowledge independent of experience " a priori" and knowledge obtained through experience is " a posteriori".
Kant, Immanuel, and Norman K. Smith. Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Boston: Bedford, 1929.

1. Life and works

Immanuel Kant was born April 22, 1724 in Königsberg, near the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Today Königsberg has been renamed Kaliningrad and is part of Russia. But during Kant’s lifetime Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia, and its dominant language was German. Though geographically remote from the rest of Prussia and other German cities, Königsberg was then a major commercial center, an important military port, and a relatively cosmopolitan university town.

Kant was born into an artisan family of modest means. His father was a master harness maker, and his mother was the daughter of a harness maker, though she was better educated than most women of her social class. Kant’s family was never destitute, but his father’s trade was in decline during Kant’s youth and his parents at times had to rely on extended family for financial support.

Kant’s parents were Pietist and he attended a Pietist school, the Collegium Fridericianum, from ages eight through fifteen. Pietism was an evangelical Lutheran movement that emphasized conversion, reliance on divine grace, the experience of religious emotions, and personal devotion involving regular Bible study, prayer, and introspection. Kant reacted strongly against the forced soul-searching to which he was subjected at the Collegium Fridericianum, in response to which he sought refuge in the Latin classics, which were central to the school’s curriculum. Later the mature Kant’s emphasis on reason and autonomy, rather than emotion and dependence on either authority or grace, may in part reflect his youthful reaction against Pietism. But although the young Kant loathed his Pietist schooling, he had deep respect and admiration for his parents, especially his mother, whose “genuine religiosity” he described as “not at all enthusiastic.” According to his biographer, Manfred Kuehn, Kant&rsquo

German philosopher (1724–1804)

"Kant" redirects here. For other uses, see Kant (disambiguation).

Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential and controversial figures in modern Western philosophy. He has been called the "father of modern ethics", the "father of modern aesthetics", and for bringing together rationalism and empiricism, the "father of modern philosophy".

In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, Kant argued that space and time are mere "forms of intuition" that structure all experience, and that the objects of experience are mere "appearances". The nature of things as they are in themselves is unknowable to us. Nonetheless, in an attempt to counter the philosophical doctrine of skepticism, he wrote the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), his best-known work. Kant drew a parallel to the Copernican Revolution in his proposal to think of the objects of experience as conforming to our spatial and temporal forms of