Kant’s Moral Philosophy

Abstract

Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad in the U.S.S.R.) in 1724, and died in the same town in 1804, having taught philosophy in the university there from 17 5 5. With the publication of his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 he became the founder and head of a new school of philosophy, the so-called Critical Philosophy, which was quickly accepted in universities all over Germany and soon gave Kant himself an international reputation. The Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and the Critique of Judgment (1790) completed Kant’s systematic exposition of his views, but both before he wrote the Critique of Pure Reason and afterwards, he published voluminously in books and in the press. Furthermore, he lectured on a wide range of topics, including mathematics, physics, cosmology, anthropology (i.e. what today is called psychology), physical geography and education, as well as on natural theology and the various branches of philosophy. His lectures were witty and learned, and people went to Königsberg from all over Germany in order to hear them.