by Robert Wicks
KANT
A Complete Introduction
Robert L. Wicks
To Valentina, my courageous daughter
Robert L. Wicks is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Kant On Judgement (2007), along with books on Schopenhauer, Hegel, Nietzsche, Modern French Philosophy and European Aesthetics.
Contents
Introduction
How to use this book
Section One: Background
1 Life and writings
2 Kant’s way of thinking and arguing
1 Aristotelian logic and the elementary judgement, S is P
2 Abstraction as a way of thinking
3 Searching for underlying presuppositions
Section Two: What can we know?
3 Kant’s theory of knowledge
1 British empiricism: questioning the foundations of science
2 Kant’s theory of judgement: questioning the foundations of empiricism
3 Intuitions and concepts
4 Space and time: the structure of the faculty of sensibility
1 Newton and Leibniz on space and time
2 Kant: space and time as a priori intuitions
3 How are (some) synthetic a priori judgements possible?
4 Some objections to Kant’s theory of space and time
5 Aristotelian logic: the structure of the faculty of understanding
1 Aristotelian logic
2 The pure concepts of the understanding
6 The transcendental deduction
1 The transcendental deduction: first edition, ‘A’ version
2 The transcendental deduction: second edition, ‘B’ version
7 Substance, causality and objectivity
8 Metaphysical knowledge of the human soul 111
1 The paralogisms of pure reason – the nature of the self
9 Metaphysical knowledge of the world and of God’s existence
1 The antinomy of pure reason – the nature of the world
2 The ideal of pure reason – the knowledge of God
Section Three: What should we do?
10 Freedom and moral awareness
11 The morality of self-respect
1 Duty and the moral law
2 The categorical imperative
12 God, virtue and evil
1 The ‘realm of ends’ and the highest good
2 Virtue
3 The problem of evil
Section Four: What is the meaning of beauty?
13 Beauty in its formal purity
14 Human beauty and fine art
1 Beauty mixed with sensory and conceptual content
2 Artistic genius as the expression of aesthetic ideas
15 Sublimity, beauty, biology and morality
1 Aesthetic ideas and morality
2 Sublimity and morality
3 Beauty as the symbol of morality
4 Living things and our moral destiny
Section Five: For what may we hope?
16 Perpetual peace as the next great step
17 Conclusion: Kant’s influence
Further reading
Introduction
Immanuel Kant’s philosophy is one of the most profound and influential ever to have been written. It is also among the more complicated philosophies, where each technical term compares to a part of a car’s engine, where all of the parts are intended to work in harmony to produce a smoothly running mechanism. As Kant composed it, a few of his philosophy’s ‘parts’ do not fit with each other perfectly, and it has become the business of contemporary Kant scholars to redesign these parts to produce a more thoroughly coherent and persuasive Kantian philosophy. In this book, our goal will be to describe the classical design of Kant’s philosophical ‘engine’ as he intended it, the kind of historical terrain upon which it was supposed to run, and the spiritual destination towards which it was meant to take us.
Kant was writing during the late 1700s, and at the forefront of his theorizing were problems generated by religion, science and morality. These themes define the intellectual atmosphere of his thought. At the most basic level is the problem of how we can be free, if scientific thought can predict everything that happens. We have all wondered about, and perhaps dreamed or even feared, what it would be like, if science were perfect and we could predict all that will happen. Kant considered this, and then became puzzled about what would become of God and our sense of morality. How can one blame or praise someone, if their actions at age 80 were already knowable when they were only three years old? The problem of freedom versus determinism is at the centre of Kant’s philosophy.
Perhaps you have heard of Kant only in passing and were curious about what his philosophy actually says. Perhaps you are a student studying Kant who would like to read a book that explains his views briefly, but also accurately, reliably, memorably and easily. Perhaps you are a specialist in a field other than philosophy who has encountered some interesting references to Kant’s philosophy. Perhaps you studied Kant once, long ago, and would like to refresh your memory of his central ideas. This book is written for you. It aims to be self-contained and self-explanatory, such that no background in philosophy will be necessary to understand it. The relevant background ideas will be provided as we go along.
Kant is known mainly from three main books that he wrote, each of whose titles begins with the word ‘critique’. These books are frequently referred to as Kant’s three ‘critiques’ and his philosophy is often called, appropriately, the ‘critical philosophy’. This book will thus have a part devoted to each of Kant’s Critiques. The first Critique is concerned with the question of truth. The second, with the question of goodness. The third is concerned with beauty. Residing accordingly at the core of Kant’s philosophy and guiding our study of it will be truth, goodness and beauty – the most famous triad in the history of Western philosophy.
We will focus upon Kant’s three Critiques in light of Kant’s own statement at the end of the first Critique, of three questions that cover all of our interests insofar as we are rational beings. These are:
1 What can I know?
2 What ought I to do?
3 What may I hope?
We will consequently look at Kant’s theory of knowledge, his moral theory, and his aesthetic and political theory, especially insofar as they bear on our moral destination. Kant’s third question is about what we may hope, if we do our duty and consequently deserve happiness. It concerns the ideal, peaceful world that awaits, if everyone were to realize their potential as rational beings.
Our book’s title is Kant – A Complete Introduction. It aims at completeness in the modest sense of trying to cover the key aspects of Kant’s philosophy. Thousands of books have been written on Kant’s philosophy, many of which have stimulated further books on Kant in their wake. In this respect, his thought continues to live and grow, expanding our horizons to defy any sense of completeness.
It will help to mention here at the outset, that the quotations from Kant have been taken from editions in the public domain and/or have been translated by the present author. In the field of Kant scholarship, the standard way to refer to quotes from the Critique of Pure Reason, is to cite the edition and page number after the quote. The first edition (1781) is signified by the letter ‘A’; the second edition (1787), by the letter ‘B’. A reference that reads ‘A51/B75’, for example, signifies that the original German passage is located in the first edition on page 51, and in the second edition on page 75. We will follow this standard format in our text, as we investigate how powerful the human mind really is.
How to use this book
This Complete Introduction from Teach Yourself ® includes a number of special boxed features, which have been developed to he
lp you understand the subject more quickly and remember it more effectively. Throughout the book you will find these indicated by the following icons:
The book includes concise quotes from the philosopher under discussion in each chapter. They are referenced so that you can include them in essays if you are unable to get your hands on the source.
The key ideas are highlighted throughout the chapters, and distil the most important points and thoughts. If you have only half an hour to go before an exam, scanning through these would be a very good way of spending your time.
The study questions at the end of each chapter are designed to help you ensure that you have taken in the most important concepts from the chapter. Answers are not supplied, as the questions are intended to be starting points for further study.
The spotlight boxes offer interesting or amusing anecdotes to help bring the philosophers and their ideas to life.
The dig deeper boxes give you ways to explore topics in greater depth than is possible in this introductory level book.
Section One:
Background
1
Life and writings
Philosophies may aim for universality, but none are written in a vacuum. Philosophers are flesh-and-blood people – eating, drinking, laughing, reflecting, and slowly aging – living at a particular historical time and inevitably absorbing the values, concerns and overall atmosphere of their surrounding culture.
In this chapter, we will survey Kant’s life (1724–1804), the bulk of which extended across the 1700s into the dawn of the industrial age. As was true for René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, the conflicting forces of science and religion shaped Kant’s outlook. The impressive exactitude and predictive power of Newtonian physics, as it stood in perplexing contrast to our sense of moral value and freedom, created a tension that Kant took a lifetime to resolve.
Kant did not grow up at the centre of an empire, with the excitement and cultural opportunities that one might enjoy in Rome, Paris or London; however, as a seaport on the Baltic and the capital city of East Prussia, neither was Konigsberg completely isolated. Today, his hometown remains on a strategically important coastal area, set within a small segment of Russian land tucked between Lithuania and Poland. The city was named Kaliningrad in 1946 upon its absorption into the Soviet Union after World War II, but for most of its existence it was known as Königsberg. During Kant’s time, its population was approximately 50,000.
For most of Kant’s life, the Kingdom of Prussia, of which East Prussia was a part, was ruled by Frederick II, who reigned from 1740–1786, when Kant was ages 16 to 62. Frederick the Great, as he was known, in addition to being an extraordinary military tactician, was an intellectually and artistically sophisticated sovereign whose advocacy of religious tolerance sustained a productive environment for intellectuals. Most of the kingdom’s inhabitants were favourably disposed to Frederick, and Kant was no exception. He dedicated to the king his 1755 work, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, and later spoke well of him in his 1784 essay, ‘Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?’ During the years of his early philosophical development and into the middle of the later period of his writings for which he is most famous, Kant’s interest in philosophy was not significantly threatened by the political conditions at large. The situation became less reliable in 1786, when Frederick’s successor, Frederick William II, assumed control.
By the time Kant was born in 1724, Lutheranism had been prevailing in the German-speaking world for a couple of centuries, ever since the days of Martin Luther (1483–1546). Kant himself was exposed to Pietism, a specific version of Lutheranism, which was then dominating in social institutions, well into his adult years. Kant’s family was devoutly Pietist, the clergyman who supported and supervised his early education was Pietist, and the schools that he attended were committed to conveying Pietist values. Pietism itself advocated a devotional, emotion-centred approach to God, forgiveness towards others, and a practical community awareness. In its more extreme forms, it was fanatical and anti-scientific, two qualities for which Kant later expressed abhorrence.
Kant’s relationship to Pietism was consequently mixed. He loved his mother, who was steeped in the religion, and who, given her intelligence and good character, displayed to him the best of what Pietism had to offer. On the other hand, Pietism does not loom large in Kant’s philosophy. He instead had an unwavering respect for rules, laws, regulations, mathematics and reason that kept him at a distance from emotional, subjectively oriented solutions to metaphysical and moral issues. He nonetheless retained a place for faith in his philosophy, admitting that understanding and reason have no power to reveal ultimate truth. In this respect Pietistic sentiments towards metaphysical matters are not excluded.
The severe conditions of Kant’s early Pietist education alone, though, were sufficient to dampen any reasonable child’s enthusiasm towards the religion. Although the initial grammar school which he attended from ages six to seven was staffed by a Pietist instructor, the Collegium Fridericianum, which he attended from ages eight to fifteen, worked Kant particularly hard, requiring him to attend school six days a week with a heavy study load.
With an emphasis upon religion and languages, scientific subjects took a back seat, but Kant nonetheless received an outstanding education in Latin, as well as in Greek, Hebrew and French, which served him well in later years. Scholarly treatises were still being written in Latin as a rule, so a thorough knowledge of this language was still essential for success in the academic world. It is revealing that Kant declined to attend religious ceremonies of any kind throughout his adult life, even when he was presiding over the university, when as a formality, he was sometimes expected to attend.
Key idea: Pietism
Kant was raised in a Pietist family and educated in Pietist schools. As an adult, he did not identify with organized religion, but his unwavering faith in morality remained at the foundation of his philosophy.
Kant came from a family of socially respectable artisans associated with the harness-maker and saddle-maker guilds, where his father often made a healthy living, notwithstanding some periods of struggle, bordering on poverty. The death of Kant’s mother at age 40, when Kant was 13 years old, precipitated some hardship. Her death left his father with an 18-year-old daughter, Regina Dorothea (1719–1792), 13-year-old Kant, three younger daughters, Maria Elisabeth (1727–1796), age ten, Anna Luise (1730–1774), age seven, Katharina Barbara (1731–1807), age six, and a two-year-old son, Johann Heinrich (1735–1800). Most of Kant’s siblings lived into old age, aside from Anna Luise, who died at age 34. Kant’s mother gave birth to at least nine children in all, losing at least three in their infancy, two prior to Kant’s own birth. This made him the first son to survive and the head of the family after his parents died.
At age 16, Kant entered the University of Königsberg, where one of his lecturers, Martin Knutzen (1713–1751), introduced him to Newtonian physics as well as to the then-prevalent Leibnizian philosophy of Christian Wolff (1679–1754), which was inspired by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). Both influenced Kant. Knutzen was also interested in the British empiricist philosophers such as John Locke, whose work he was translating into German at the end of his short life.
During Kant’s university studies and in the years of his early career, the influence of Newtonian physics was strong. His initial publications were straightforwardly scientific, and focused on issues related to physics, terrestrial forces and astronomy in genuine scientific detail. The Wolffian influence also remained: as a professor at the University of Königsberg years later, Kant taught from textbooks written by Wolffians such as Alexander Baumgarten (1714–1762), whose work influenced Kant’s aesthetic theory, and Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777), whose logic textbook he used.
It is perhaps surprising to hear that Kant did not graduate from the university, where he studied for eight years from 1740–1748. The reasons are unclear. We
do know that his family was struggling economically when he began his studies, that his father suffered a stroke four years later, and died within two years in March, 1746, when Kant was about to turn 22. As head of the family, Kant arranged for his siblings’ new lodgings, and by 1748, he had withdrawn from the university without a degree.
Kant might also have had academic reasons to withdraw. Although his 1746 manuscript, ‘Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces’, was supervised by a professor of physics named Teske – and later dedicated to a professor of medicine when it was published as Kant’s first book three years later – Kant’s influential philosophy teacher, Martin Knutzen, might have had some misgivings about the manuscript or tensions with Kant himself. Knutzen does not mention Kant as one of his students. We also know that Knutzen favoured students other than Kant. Nor does Kant mention Knutzen in his writings, although he attended all of his classes.
After leaving the university, Kant worked as a tutor to the children in families in the countryside surrounding Königsberg. For six years, 1748–1754, between the ages of 24 and 30, he tutored in two, and possibly three, different families whose heads were, respectively, a pastor, a landowner and an aristocrat. Continuing his preparations to receive his degree, Kant appears to have devoted himself exactingly to the study of Newton’s physics while he was away from the university for these several years. We can infer this from the contents of the book he published in 1755, upon his return to the university, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, which, as the title suggests, is a scientific work about the nature of the cosmos. The book’s subtitle is even more revealing: ‘An Essay on the Constitution and Mechanical Origin of the Entire Structure of the Universe Based on Newtonian Principles’.
