Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is one of the most influential figures in modern philosophy due to the significant impact of his numerous works, which serve as the basis for the contemporary research in the fields of metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics and political theory. According to Kant himself, he effected the revolution in philosophy compared to Copernicus’ influence on the development of the science. Since the legacy of the German philosopher comprises significantly broader fields of study than could be covered in this paper, the primary goal is to understand the fundamentals of his theory, to overview the principal problems that he was attempting to solve and to touch upon the perception of his works by other philosophers.
In search of the answer to the given question, the primary reference point should be one of Kant’s most cited and acknowledged works – The Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1781. It shifted the rational paradigm of the XIX century, and, to this day, the book maintains its status of a highly relevant source for philosophical research. In this work, Kant questions the possibility of the rational and scientific cognition, as he was not content with his contemporaries’ philosophical theories. In The Critique of Pure Reason, the philosopher efficiently synthesized two different philosophical movements of his time – rationalism and empiricism – into his philosophy (Kant 19).
He argued that things themselves (“thing in itself” in Kant’s terminology) are absent from individual’s cognitive field, and thus one cognizes only the phenomena, which are things perceived by the human brain. In other words, the phenomenon is the product of the interaction of the thing-in-itself with our cognitive abilities, and this statement has the fundamental significance. The philosopher states that we are only experiencing the phenomenal world (the world of our sensations), without the access to the noumenal world, which consists of the things in themselves. Despite the fact that Kant was not the first of his contemporaries to declare the difference between the real world and the individual’s perception of it, he was the first to successfully dwell upon the connections between the human mind and its experience of the things in the world.
The philosopher develops his thesis about the cognition of the phenomena, observing that the human mind builds up the world of experience based upon the individual’s sensations of the things, which are existing independently. Primarily, those impressions are categorized by the inherent conceptions of space and time, which exist in the human’s intellect a priori (meaning that they do not require experience). Thus Kant concludes that space and time only exist in the individual’s cognition. Furthermore, the human mind has the system of categories and logical schemes a priori, and by that system, the world of experience is categorized. Kant emphasizes the fact that the sequencing and categorizing the experience do not happen arbitrarily, but they precede the conscious comprehension of the world.
The philosopher concludes that the rational cognition in the phenomenal world is possible only because this world is organized according to the cognitive laws of the human mind. Beyond the phenomenal world, the perception is impossible. Thus the next statement derives: the metaphysics (or philosophy as a whole, since they were contiguous notions in the XIX century) could not function as a science. The metaphysics study the things that are not the matter of experience (for example, the soul, the world as a whole, God), and thus the human intellect, attempting to argue them, fails to come to a conclusion and contradicts itself.
In the sphere of moral philosophy, Kant declares the principle of morality’s autonomy because the morality is not reduced to anything but itself and it could be understood only from the inside. The philosopher considers duty as the fundamental moral sensation, and the duty’s execution is the ethical and moral basis. According to Kant, the ethical law demands to “act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law” (Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 30). With that statement, the philosopher declares the universality of ethics, emphasizing the importance of not allowing any exceptions for anyone, thus formulating what is known as a categorical imperative. Besides, Kant perceives the duty as the ultimate motivation behind every individual’s actions, and he values the pure intention while performing the act more than the result of the action.
Touching upon the theme of morality, one can hardly deny the Kant’s evident and continuous influence on the ethical paradigm of the modern world, manifested through many aspects. In their research, Bowen and Prescott stress upon the importance of Kant’s works, since many contemporary ethical concepts originated from them (38). For example, the deontology primarily dwells upon the Kant’s notions of morality and the supremacy of duty over personal desires. Further, they analyze the Kantian impact on the sphere of contemporary communications. Their analysis is based on the study of the previously mentioned categorical imperative and the principle of autonomy. Stressing the importance of his theory, the researchers observe that “Kant was the first to maintain that rational beings could, with deliberative thought and purpose, understand and uphold moral principle” (Bowen and Prescott 39).
Although the point of view expressed by Kant was revolutionary for his time, nowadays this principle is applied to the numerous spheres of communication, such as business, management of organizations, mass media, public relations and marketing. Even the bare enumeration reveals the vast spectrum of the fields to study, and, of course, the application of the Kantian ethics to those spheres is not equal, since they all have their specific traits. In his review of the Frierson’s study, McQuillan observes that “Kant’s pragmatic anthropology provides practical advice one can use in interactions with others” (299). Therefore, it is evident that the modern day moral code is significantly impacted by the works of the German philosopher.
In this paper, the brief overlook of Kantian philosophy and its influence was given. The latitude of his research is immense, and to this day the study of his legacy continues to be prolific. However, it was possible only to describe the fundamentals of Kant’s beliefs in this paper, but even in that case, the importance of that study is undeniable, since the underlying notions of Kantian philosophy are the foundation of the modern-day ethics, morality, metaphysics, political theories, aesthetics, etc. The philosopher was able to describe the relations between the human brain, experiencing the world, and the world itself, which was the groundbreaking step in the direction of the contemporary philosophy. It was also shown that many aspects of the modern social life have their origins in the Kantian ethics. Taking everything into conclusion, one could say that Immanuel Kant is one of the most important and influential figures in modern philosophy, whose impact continues to prevail.
Works Cited
Bowen, Shannon A., and Paul Prescott. “Kant’s Contribution to the Ethics of Communication.” Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics, vol. 12, no. 2, 2015, pp. 38-44.
Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Hackett Publishing, 1996.
—. Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Read Books Ltd, 2013.
McQuillan, J. Colin. Review of Kant’s Empirical Psychology by Patrick R. Frierson. Philosophy in Review, vol. 35, no. 6, 2015, pp. 299-301.