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Immanuel Kant


German Philosopher.

Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher from Königsberg in Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia) who researched, lectured and wrote on philosophy and anthropology during the Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century.

Kant's major work, the Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1781), aimed to unite reason with experience to move beyond what he took to be failures of traditional philosophy and metaphysics. He hoped to end an age of speculation where objects outside experience were used to support what he saw as futile theories, while opposing the skepticism of thinkers such as Berkeley and Hume.

His ideas influenced many thinkers in Germany during his lifetime. He settled and moved philosophy beyond the debate between the rationalists and empiricists. The philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer amended and developed the Kantian system, thus bringing about various forms of German idealism. He is seen as a major figure in the history and development of philosophy. German and European thinking progressed after his time, and his influence still inspires philosophical work today.

Despite being raised in a religious household and still maintaining a belief in God, he was skeptical of religion in later life and was an agnostic.


Sources:

1.) "While this sounds skeptical, Kant is only agnostic about our knowledge of metaphysical objects such as God. And, as noted above, Kant's agnosticism leads to the conclusion that we can neither affirm nor deny claims made by traditional metaphysics." Andrew Fiala, J. M. D. Meiklejohn, Critique of Pure Reason - Introduction, page xi.

2.) Ed Hindson, Ergun Caner, Edward J. Verstraete, ed. (2008). The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics: Surveying the Evidence for the Truth of Christianity. Harvest House Publishers. p. 82. ISBN 9780736920841. "It is in this sense that modern atheism rests heavily upon the skepticism of David Hume and the agnosticism of Immanuel Kant."

3.) "Kant's Agnosticism: Should We Be Agnostic About It?". I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Crossway. 2004. pp. 59-60. ISBN 9781581345612. "Immanuel Kant's impact has been even more devastating to the Christian worldview than David Hume's. For if Kant's philosophy is right, then there is no way to know anything about the real world, even empirically verifiable things!"

4.) Gary D. Badcock (1997). Light of Truth and Fire of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 113. ISBN 9780802842886. "Kant has no interest in prayer or worship, and is in fact agnostic when it comes to such classical theological questions as the doctrine of God or of the Holy Spirit."

5.) Norman L. Geisler, Paul K. Hoffman, ed. (2006). "The Agnosticism of Immanuel Kant". Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe. Baker Books. p. 45. ISBN 9780801067129.

6.) Frank K. Flinn (2007). Encyclopedia of Catholicism. Infobase Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 9780816075652. "Following Locke, the classic agnostic claims not to accept more propositions than are warranted by empirical evidence. In this sense an agnostic appeals to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who claims in his Critique of Pure Reason that since God, freedom, immortality, and the soul can be both proved and disproved by theoretical reason, we ought to suspend judgement about them."

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