Parker Elton

Philosophy
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Immanuel Kant

"May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law." Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Known for his ethics, Immanuel
Kant inspired the world to think a whole new way. Talking about reason, and things we do know
and do not.
Kant makes a distinction of things. He says that there are Phenomena and Noumena.
Phenomena are things that derive from our senses. These are things we know, or what our mind
makes of it. Noumena are things brought up by our intellect. Immanuel calls these thing-initself. He says that our mind can only understand phenomena, and noumena will never know
one-hundred percent. The three transcendental ideas are God, the Universe, and the Self. They do
not give us knowledge, but a guess of noumena. Phenomena we are slaves to nature, Noumena
we are free. Kant was very optimistic when it came to this. He would say I hope there is
afterlife, yet would never state a fact without the full truth.
Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Konigsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Was
born to a Pietistic household which taught that religion belongs to the inner life expressed in
simplicity and obedience to moral law. At age eight, his pastor got him to go to a pietist school,
where he got an interest for Latin classes. He then went to the University of Konigsberg, first as
a student, next as an instructor of metaphysics and logic. Kant was very schedule oriented. Wake

up at the same time, go to sleep at the same time. So much so that people would set their clocks
when they saw Immanuel Kant walking down the street.
In 1781, Immanuel Kant published the Critique of Pure Reason, one of the most
important on Western philosophy. "I do not mean by this a critique of books and systems, but of
the faculty of reason in general, in respect of all knowledge after which it may strive
independently of all experience."(Immanuel Kant) He attempted to explain how reason and
experiences interact with thought and understanding.
David Hume was a very skeptical person. He jumped to the conclusions that we can
never know cause and effect, the self, or the external world. Also argued that moral judgment are
somehow like matters of taste, and reason is the slave of passions. (Archetypes of Wisdom
pg.319) Kant said that these ideas could have been good, but the right attention was not given to
it. Rene Descartes questioned his existence and put everything into two substances; minds and
bodies. They were denying the possible existence of external power, and cause and effect.
Immanuel called this the scandal in philosophy. Kant refused to let science take over. He
thought it was possible to mix science with good parts of rationalism and empiricism. Still hold
our morality and dignity.
As written before, noumena we are free. This means we are morally responsible for what
we do. We are smart enough to think what our actions may do, to decide what is morally right,
and the reason. Kant points out two functions of reason; theoretical, and practical reason.
Theoretical reason: a function of reason confined to the empirical, phenomenal world. Practical
reason: moral function of reason that produces religious feelings and intuitions based on
knowledge of moral conduct. He believed, morality is a function of reason. Human actions can
be divided into moral, immoral, and amoral. Moral: what people consider good or bad, right or

wrong; used descriptively as a contrast to amoral or nonmoral and prescriptively as a contrast to

immoral. Amoral: not pertaining to moral; a value-neutral descriptive claim or classification.
Immoral: morally wrong, bad, or not right; a moral value judgment or prescriptive claim.
Immanuel Kant claimed morality was a matter of reason and good will, not consequences
or action. Good will is where you willingly do a thing because it is your moral duty alone. This
moral duty is yours to make though. Our conscience should be great enough to figure out what is
good moral, while accounting the laws of nature and society. If you truly believe how you act is
good completely, then it is good.
We do not need science and philosophy to know what we should be to be honest and good, yea,
even wise and virtuous. (Immanuel Kant)
Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make
ourselves worthy of happiness. (Immanuel Kant)
Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to
make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when
its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction
from another. Sapere aude! 'Have courage to use your own reason!'- that is the motto of
enlightenment (Immanuel Kant)

I cannot help but to think of myself when talking about Immanuel Kant. The way I think
and process ideas and reason. Unlike Kant, I do not hope for a god but I do not rule it out. I was
raised in a religious home where the idea of god was forced on me. When I did leave the church I
did not resent it completely. They teach some excellent standards, but I could not devote my life
to something I did not know to be true.

I honestly feel like I have given my life to good will. My mind does not sit right if my
interpretation of good is not met. There is a quote on Immanuel Kants grave, Two things awe
me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me. You never really hear people
say that their morals awe themselves. Its hard to hold your morals so high, and not even have
many people care. If you truly following your good will, there will be rewards. You need to think
of our actions, and think how to live.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/immanuel_kant.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8463607_summary-karl-marxs-ideas.html
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Immanuel-Kant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/
http://www.the-philosophy.com/kant-ethics-summary
Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy, Douglas J. Soccio